Page 77 of The Bratva's Arranged Virgin Bride
“It’s still half Fokin,” I said, tearing up again.
She laughed, telling me she was the one who was supposed to be emotional. We dug into our meals with light hearts, making a pact to stick together no matter what happened with our husbands.
Then they arrived. Arkadi came in first, barely in his chair next to Mila, when Kolya arrived.
“Late, as usual,” he muttered.
I kept silent, but Mila swatted him, hissing for him to chill out. I liked her husband and wanted to keep liking him, but hewas making it difficult. As soon as Kolya sat down, the waitress reappeared to take their drink order.
“Vodka,” they said in unison, and with such force, the perky girl jumped back a step.
Nat and I rolled our eyes at each other, but the shots arrived, with Arkadi saying the waitress better bring the bottle next time she walked past. After a stiff and awkward toast, the two men, who looked so much alike but couldn’t have been more different, squared off.
“No more secret plots,” Arkadi snapped at once.
“Agreed, and done,” Kolya said. I couldn’t help but beam at him proudly. But then Kolya had to say something snide about Arkadi and their father, and within three minutes, they were about to come to blows.
Mila leaned over and grabbed her midsection, where there was soon to be a baby bump. Arkadi clamped his mouth shut on whatever insult he was about to hurl at Kolya and turned to her.
“Are you all right?” he asked, concern radiating from every pore.
“I think we’re stressing her out,” Kolya said.
“Then stop it,” he answered.
“He said ‘we,’” Mila said, straightening up with effort. “You’re both upsetting me, acting like children.”
“We haven’t really talked since we were children,” Kolya said.
“Not since you left with your mother.”
Kolya flapped his hands. “Our mother. And we’ve been over this. I was ten. She won me in the divorce. I never wantedto tell you this, but Papa only wanted me to hold the monetary settlement over her head. She agreed to leave with nothing so I wouldn’t be raised by that tyrant.”
“But it was fine for me,” Arkadi said bitterly.
“She offered to let you stay every time you visited, but then you just stopped—” Kolya stopped midsentence. “Papa wouldn’t let you come anymore.”
“He was a tyrant,” Arkadi agreed. “But the only parent I had. And you had…”
To my shock, and Mila’s too, by the look of it, they both started laughing, sharing stories about their mother. Arkadi didn’t seem impressed with some of the ones Kolya told, and Kolya seemed offended by some of Arkadi’s interpretations of his memories.
It sounded to me like their mother was a hoot. Free-spirited, maybe a bit flighty, and it seemed like she was also somewhat greedy and vain, but if Kolya was right, she loved them. She sounded like the kind of woman who’d take you to the best nightclub in town rather than cooking you a hot meal, but had done what she could for the son she could save. And still wanted to be in the other son’s life, if Kolya was to be believed.
Arkadi clearly didn’t believe it.
“It sounds like you were both being used as pawns,” Mila said when there was a long silence between remembering and bickering.
“I can see that,” he agreed. “But—”
“No more excuses, Arkadi,” Kolya broke in. “Despite all her faults, Mama loves you. She has a whole network of gossipy spies to make sure you’re all right and happy. She was thrilledand broken-hearted when you got married, and she never got to meet Mila.”
“I want to meet her,” Mila said stubbornly.
That was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Arkadi begrudgingly agreed. Kolya gave him a long look, but left it at that. Instead of the torture of trying to make awkward small talk now that there was a tentative peace between them, Mila and I both insisted we were too full for dessert and that coffee was off limits for my newly health-conscious aunt.
On the way back, Kolya turned to me and told me not to get my hopes up too high. “He won’t end up meeting with our mother. He’s too bitter. But at least he’s talking to me.”
“You’re wrong,” I said with certainty. “Once that baby’s born, there’s no way Mila will let him keep her from her only grandchild. And he’ll finally cave.”
