Page 10 of Mafia King’s Dangerous Vow

“Have you promised yourself to another?”

“I have not.”

Then the priest turns to me.

“Do you, Tamara Davidovna Kalinina, have a good, free, and unconstrained will and a firm intention to take this man, Aleksander Dimitrovich Sokolov, as your husband?”

The cathedral goes impossibly still.

Free and unconstrained.

Mark.

My son. Alive somewhere, raised by strangers, waiting without knowing he’s waiting.

“Marry Aleksander Sokolov, and you’ll find out.”

I look into ice-blue eyes that should feel like a threat. Somehow they don’t. I hate that too.

“I have, Reverend Father.”

The lie leaves my mouth cleanly. Two words, and the door locks behind me.

“Have you promised yourself to another?”

No. Only to a dead child. To a life I buried because my father stole him from me. To a version of myself that would never have walked into this church willingly.

“I have not.”

The crowns are lifted. Heavy gold. The choir rises around us in haunting Russian harmony. Aleksander’s hand remains closed around mine as the priest leads us around the small table before the iconostasis.

Three circles. Eternal union.

I count my steps. One foot in front of the other. This is not eternity—this is a transaction with a timeline. Find Mark. Get him safe. Find the exit.

I just have to stay long enough to work out the details.

Aleksander never tightens his grip when I tense. Never pulls. Never forces me forward. He simply stays beside me, steady and present. When the final prayer ends, applause breaks through the cathedral.

His hand shifts from mine to my waist as we turn toward the crowd.

The touch should feel possessive. Instead it feels stabilizing.

“Look at me,” he murmurs quietly.

I do, and the intensity in his gaze nearly steals the air from my lungs.

“You’re safe,” he says softly. “I won’t be another man you have to fear.”

The promise lands somewhere I wasn’t guarding.

I don’t trust it.

I absolutely do not trust him.

But a part of me desperately wants to.

The cathedral doors swing open ahead of us, flooding the aisle with cold winter light. Camera flashes erupt instantly. Congratulations echo from every direction.