Page 34 of Secret Bratva Baby
She shoves it into her mouth and chews, nodding—her face scrunches up. She’s still chewing, but her cheeks are growing red.
“It’s too hot, you can spit it out and drink some of your milk,” I say, holding my hand out with a tissue for her to spit the pizza into.
She shakes her head, and Rose laughs.
I look at Rose.
“She won’t back down. She’s like her father in that sense. Stubborn and strong-willed.”
“Yeah,Dad,leave her to eat her spicy pizza in peace,” Arkady laughs, waving me away.
“So, do you want a piece of that one, or a piece of the cheesy one over there?” Ark says, trying to redirect Lily.
Lily shakes her head. “That one.” She points to the chili one.
“Just cut her a very tiny piece, at least she’ll think she had some. Then put another slice of the other one on her plate,” Rose says, standing up.
“I’ve got it. I’ll cut it for her,” Ark says, pulling the pizza box closer.
I sit down next to Rose. Even though she’s been avoiding me, I want to spend some time near her. I wish she would give me a chance to speak to her again.
She giggles as Ark pulls Lily onto his lap and dabs her watery eyes with the corner of a napkin. “She really is asstubborn as her father,” he laughs. “She’s taken another bite of it without even hesitating.”
Yilian laughs too, watching them.
After a moment, he turns to Rose.
“So, my brother had a daughter all this time, and you didn’t tell him.” His voice is touched with accusation, and my stomach knots.
“Yilian, that’s not exactly fair—"
“It’s okay. I can answer for myself,” Rose says, interrupting me. She turns to Yilian. “If I had a way to contact Luka after I found out I was pregnant, then I might have done so. At least it would have been an option.”
“Oh,” Yilian says, looking down at his plate. “And now, you’ve been with him for a few days, and you only told him last night?”
She smiles, tight, not reaching her eyes.
“He kidnapped Lily and me. It hardly seemed like the right time to be sharing things as intimate as that.”
Ark chuckles, then realizes is not exactly a laughing matter and pretends he’s interacting with Lily and not listening to our conversation.
Yilian picks up a plate and tilts his chin towards Rose. “Which can I dish up for you?”
“The mushroom one, please,” she smiles.
He hands her two slices and then sorts himself out. I select the chili, musing over how my daughter refused to back down from it. She’s strong. And determined. It makes me proud.
Lily and Ark are busy having a messy and difficult-to-follow conversation about bananas, castles, and, of course, dragons.
“She’s obsessed with dragons,” Rose laughs, smiling at Ark. Her entire face lights up as she watches them.
It seems that the quickest way to her heart is through her daughter. But that’s only possible if she ever lets me near Lily again.
“What kind of dragons do you like?” Ark asks Lily.
“Pink ones,” she says seriously. “With sparkles.”
“Of course, we have to have the sparkles,” Ark agrees, just as serious. “You know, Niko got his kid a pretty cool dragon the other day. I must ask him where he found it. Maybe they make them in pink, too.”
