Epilogue
EPILOGUE
KATYA
Two years later
Tiny feet kick me from the inside of my stomach, and I absently run a hand across my skin to try to calm her down. My daughter is an active little one, but I’m the only one who knows she’s a girl.
The house Fyodor and I picked is beautiful, wooden, to his tastes, and even though I wouldn’t have known what to ask for, I love it too. As a ballerina and someone without much family, I never had a lot of reason to cook, but since I have this big gorgeous kitchen, I spend a lot of my time cooking and making special things for Fyodor.
The timer on the oven rings, letting me know his birthday cake is fully baked. He’s been complaining nonstop since I found out he’s fifty-nine today. He says he doesn’t need stuff like this. Big tough Bratva men don’t need love and cakes. Well, I think that’s crap. They need them most of all since they’re so poorly adjusted.
Things are still tenuous with his sons, but each of them called him early this morning to wish him a happy birthday and update him on how things are going with the syndicate. Without their father to fix their problems, they’re actually rising to the occasion far more often.
They still don’t speak to me , but given what happened with Fyodor’s last wife, I really don’t blame them, though part of me hopes they come around when their little sister is born.
Walking across the room, it takes me a minute to find my balance, but I only limp the slightest bit, and that’s mostly from the pregnancy weight. As far as I’ve come and as well as I’m doing, it doesn’t seem like I’ll ever dance. From the way she moves, maybe my daughter will one day.
I don’t want to die anymore, though it’s hard to want to live every day, if that makes sense. Sometimes I still think the weight of everything that has happened may crush me, and I just want to lie in bed until time ends. Luckily, I have Fyodor.
“Why didn’t you ask me to get it for you?” my much older husband asks from the bottom of the stairs, surprising me.
“I didn’t realize you were here. I thought you were still dealing with business.”
“I still am. It’s never-ending. There’s a good reason I wanted to retire.”
“We make plans, and God laughs.”
Fyodor laughs too.
“No sympathy for an old man on his birthday?” he asks, with a naughty lift to his brow.
“I have something for an old man on his birthday.” I can’t help but match his energy. He’s too addictive.
“Tell me it’s my young wife’s cunt.”
“Her mouth and ass too, if you like.”
I press my body up against him as best I can, but the belly gets in the way.
“Maybe I’ll rub your feet and then fuck you from behind so you can snooze while I’m inside you.”
That sounds so nice that my body relaxes into him immediately.
“Yeah. Okay.” That’s probably a much more reasonable expectation to place on me while I’m so far along.
He lifts me into his arms with my legs wrapped around his back and my arms at his neck. The house passes by us, and he places kisses on my shoulder.
“You know, Katya. I consider you the best thing to ever happen to me.” The words and his love vibrate against my skin, positioning everything in my life so it’s perfect. “You’re completing our family.”
I laugh because our lives are so absurd. “You bought me at a sex slave auction, and I feel the same way.”
“That was fate, Kotyonok.”
Well, fate is fucked up, but I guess I am too.