Ivan
Sweeping around the dance floor with Tori, watching her infectious laughter fill the room, and her intellect challenge others made me fall even harder for her. I’m head over heels, and I cannot deny it anymore.
It’s as though I can feel love again, like a piece of me that died with Mila has been resurrected. I feel as though Mila has given her blessing for me to move on, to start again, to love again, and feel warmth and happiness.
Tori is so much more than her shyness. Behind her shy smile and demeanor is a brilliant young woman who has ambition and can go far in life. She is not only intelligent but strong, and I know she is the perfect queen to rule by my side for the rest of our lives.
While I’m sitting outside sipping on my afternoon coffee, I toy with the idea of having more children. Am I too old? I imagine any children Tori and I make would be absolutely gorgeous, like Anastasia. I seem to pick women with good genes. I think about what I would do if I had a son, someone to inherit the family. Someone who would take over when I’m done. Someone who will be brilliant, well-read, and fun.
I hear footsteps and glance to my left. I see Leonid approaching and set my coffee down.
“Why are you so happy?” he asks curiously as he sits to my left.
I shake my head. “Just planning the future, and it looks good, my brother.”
“I wouldn’t get too excited about the future just yet,” Leonid says with a sigh. “You were right. There is a faction of men within the family that want to overthrow you.”
“Evgeni has planned to overthrow me?” I ask, feeling a heavy disappointment settle in my stomach. “My own cousin?”
“The only one I can think of at this point.” Leonid looks at me sadly.
“But I can handle it. I will make our little problem go away.”
I shake my head. “No, I want to deal with this directly myself.”
“Ivan, you are the head of the family, you delegate. Don’t get your hands dirty over a traitor,” Leonid insists, but I shake my head again.
“I’ll ask Evgeni to come to speak to me. I’ll get to the bottom of this.”
Leonid sighs again, so I ask, “What?”
“He’s gone to arrange another trade with a family and will be out of state for two weeks,” he shrugs. “That’s why I say I could just send someone to handle him, and poof, our problem is gone.”
“No, I want him to admit it to me before I put a bullet between his eyes for betraying me.” I stand up. “Thanks, Leonid. Just keep this between the two of us for now. I don’t want Evgeni to get wind and make a run for it.”
“Of course. Is there anything else I can help with?” he offers.
“No, nothing for now. Go to your family and enjoy your day,” I say, turning to go inside. I wander around for a moment, musing over the betrayal. I find Tori in the office, and I sit down heavily. She turns to face me.
“What’s wrong?” she asks gently, scooting over to me.
I take her hand in mine. “Evgeni is the one who tried to have me killed. He’s betrayed the family.”
Tori looks distressed, and I give her hand a squeeze. “It’s always harder when it’s someone we’re close to.”
“I’m so sorry, Ivan,” she pulls my hand to her lips and kisses my fingers the way I do to hers.
“I always try to do right by my family. I always try to make sure everyone is taken care of, but there’s always one ungrateful miscreant that has to betray me,” I say with a heavy sigh.
“You’ll figure this out. Speak to him and ask him for reasons,” she says. “There must be a reason. He seems to adore you so much.”
She swings around, pulls papers from her desk, and hands them to me. “I’m finished with the contracts,” she says. “You’re getting an excellent deal out of my family.”
I take the paper from her and start to rifle through them, reading her notes. “Your family isn’t getting anything too bad from me either,” I point out. “In fact, a few of these assets are really nice.” “A mutual exchange,” she says quietly.
“Seems good to me,” I say, setting the paperwork down on the desk and pulling her off her chair and into my lap. “Now that you’re finished working like a slave, why don’t we curl up on the sofa and read.”
She smiles down at me and kisses my mouth softly. “That sounds like an amazing idea.”
I kiss her back, and for a moment, we simply sit there, kissing each other over and over again. I touch her breast, and she moans loudly, and I raise an eyebrow. “Horny much?” I tease.
She blushes and climbs off my lap. “Let’s go read before you get other ideas of what we should be doing.”
“But those ideas could be fun,” I point out as I let her drag me to the library. We both have books we’re busy with, and there’s a large sofa in here we both curl up on. She leans against me slightly as she reads. I love watching her read. She concentrates so hard as though she could telepathically transfer the information into her brain forever.
I’m reading a horror novel at the moment, but my heart isn’t into it after learning about Evgeni. I keep thinking that he, or whoever decided to go rogue, also was behind the missing money from my account and the situation with the contracts.
I decide to put an arm around Tori and lean back, closing my eyes and relaxing. “Read to me.”
“It’s psychological stuff. It’s boring,” she murmurs.
“Read to me anyway,” I comment.
She shifts around and starts to read. Her voice is so pleasant to listen to, and it turns out that the stuff she’s reading about actually isn’t that
boring. I listen intently at first, then a little less so. I’m tired, so I shift and lie down with her lying between my legs, her head on my chest. I get comfy and close my eyes. She stops reading after a moment, and I nudge her. “Carry on, or I won’t fall asleep.”
She giggles and carries on reading, and I slowly close my eyes.
Vittoria
With each day that passes, I feel worse and worse. At first, I blamed the morning sickness, which seemed to have hit me very hard. Pregnancy. Zero out of ten. Do not recommend it if you hate puking.
It’s not just the morning sickness, though. I love Ivan, and I feel so bad for betraying him. The contracts have been handed to the family lawyer, and I know they are going over them. I’m stressed they’ll pick up that something is wrong or point out that the Volkov family is being screwed. I don’t know who the lawyer is or how good they are. I can only hope they don’t pick up on what I’ve done.
I can’t ask any questions as that will only rouse suspicion, and I don’t want to do that. It could put my and my baby’s life in danger. I can’t just sit here doing nothing, though, as the wait is killing me, and I feel so useless.
It’s after the tenth day that I’ve finally had enough. I go from the library to Ivan’s office and knock softly on the door to get his attention.
He looks up and smiles, happy to see me. That’s the worst part. He’s always so excited to be with me.
“What can I do for the most beautiful woman in my life?” he asks, holding out his hand. “A massage? A date night? A holiday somewhere exotic?”
I take his hand, and he pulls me onto his lap. He kisses me deeply, tangling his fingers in my hair. I don’t hold back. I kiss him hungrily before
I start to giggle into his mouth. “You’re insatiable.”
“For you, every day,” he growls, kissing my neck softly and giving me shivers.
“I came looking for something to do,” I sigh, closing my eyes until he’s done trailing kisses on my skin. Then I look into his eyes. “I feel absolutely useless now that I have nothing to keep me preoccupied. I wasn’t made to play housewife.”
“While there’s nothing wrong with being a housewife, I know you need a challenge. So tell me, what is it you want most in life?” he asks.
I go quiet and think about it for a moment before saying, “Well, I want to practice law. I didn’t work this hard at my studies to be top of my class, not to practice law.”
“What kind of law do you want to practice?” he asks curiously, stroking my back gently. I love when he does that.
“I want to focus on corporate law, maybe some criminal law if the family needs it, but mostly, I want to be an active part of the family business, yours or mine. Even more than that, I want to build a successful business.”
I sigh and pout at him, and he chuckles before he runs his thumb over my bottom lip that’s jutting out.
“Why don’t we start by getting you some offices for your new firm? You better think of a name so we can set it all up.”
I balk at the idea and shake my head. “No, no, that’s too much, Ivan.
You can’t just give me a law firm.”
“You’re brilliant, Tori, you’re absolutely amazing, and I have no doubt that it would be a raging success under your guidance,” he says, inclining his head to the side. “It would be an investment, really.”
I sigh and shake my head. “You’re too kind and too generous. I don’t want to take advantage of that.”
Especially because I’m betraying you, I think but do not say out loud.
He kisses my nose. “You will have everything your heart desires, and you can’t stop me from giving it to you. However, I need to finish this work, so can we discuss this later?”
“Yeah, it’s fine. I’ll visit Kira to distract myself,” I say, kissing him softly.
Aleks drives me to Kira, and from there, he hangs out with other guards outside the villa while we talk inside the library.
“Tori, this isn’t good. You need prenatal care and scans, and you need to make sure the baby is healthy. You can’t just ignore the situation,” she says in a hushed, worried tone.
“I know, Kira. I’m not stupid. I’m just figuring it out,” I say. “You don’t understand how complicated the situation is!”
“Oh, don’t I?” she says with a raised eyebrow. “As though I didn’t sleep with Uncle Romero’s rival’s son and have his son, now with a second on the way.”
“Miguel didn’t try to kill Uncle Romero and Papa,” I point out. “I just don’t know what to do at this point.”
“Are you planning on keeping it?” she asks suddenly. “Because you have to decide soon. After you reach a certain number of weeks, they won’t do it anymore.”
“I’m catholic. I would never have an abortion,” I hiss at her, shocked and hurt. “You can’t suggest things like that, surely? Papa didn’t make you have one.”
Kira reaches for my hand. “I didn’t mean you should. I’m just presenting you with your options, judgment-free.”
I squeeze her hand and sigh. “I know I have to deal with this soon, but I don’t know what to do.”
“You should tell Alessandro to get you out of there first of all,” Kira suggests. “And tell him you’re pregnant. He will protect you from Ivan. I swear Alessandro has more power at this point. Ivan wouldn’t dare hurt you.”
“Ivan wouldn’t hurt me at all,” I say confidently. “You don’t know him. You don’t understand him.”
“Are you defending him?” Kira asks, raising an eyebrow
I shake my head quickly. “Not at all. I know what I have to do for my family.” I stand up. “I shouldn’t stay too long. Ivan likes to have dinner with Anastasia and me at six sharp.”
Kira struggles to her feet and reaches for me. I allow her to hug me and awkwardly put my arms around her. She says, “I love you too.” She says it quietly, and I doubt what I heard for a moment.
I look into her eyes, and I can see the love she has for me. I’ve always felt ignored and unloved, but now, I can tell my sister would kill for me.
I kiss both her cheeks. “I love you too.”
We hug again, and then she escorts me to where Aleks is waiting. “I’m ready to go, Aleks,” I say, smiling.
Aleks throws his cards down. “Full house,” he says, taking the three cigars in the middle while Kira’s men complain. Kira clicks her tongue. “He won fair and square, so stop moaning.”
Aleks escorts me to the car, and when I get in, I snort. “How do you know to play poker so well?”
“My mother was a blackjack dealer at a casino. I’d sit at the poker tables when they weren’t busy, and the guys would teach me.”
I think it’s the most I’ve ever heard him say. I smile and sit back, a hand absentmindedly stroking my belly. Should I tell Alessandro? I need to decide soon because Kira is right. I’m going to start showing soon, and then I have no option.”