Chapter Nine
In which we learn that there is actually such a thing as a fish turducken.
Alexsey…
What the fuck? Is this some cruel cosmic joke? Because I've had enough of those in this last fucking month.
Sweet Liria… I can still recall moans and sighs she made, and how every square inch of her body looks and feels. And tastes.
She's that svin'ya, that pig's daughter? This is my bride?
Her silver-gray eyes are huge and she can't mask the look of shock before she tries to school her expression again.
"Liria Krasniqi," I say, "are you prepared to fulfill the last requirements of reparation from the Krasniqi Fare?
" Now those pretty, full lips press in a tight line.
Does she think I'd sweep her up in my arms with a kiss?
"Alexsey Morozov, of course I am." There's an acid tinge to her tone that she barely manages to mask as everyone watches our exchange.
"Good, good," Krasniqi says, rubbing his hands together briskly.
He looks like an arthritic vulture in his black suit.
"Shall we get this underway?" Dmitri and Father nod stiffly, and we move to the conference table, where there is a series of forms neatly laid out for our signatures.
Liria watches this with a confused frown until my mother comes over, followed by Ava and Violet.
"Apparently, the men won't introduce us since they're deep in their gravitas," she says, trying to conceal a smile, "I will. I'm Ella Morozova, Maksim's wife."
I turn to the table, leaving Mother to smooth things over with Liria.
Liria…
"This is Ava." Ella gestures to a pretty blonde who gives me another smile and lightly touches my arm.
"It's so nice to meet you," she says, and her sincerity in a room full of artifice and chilly manners is so refreshing. I almost want to hug her. "As strange as this situation is," she says, "it's lovely to have another sister-in-law."
Ella puts her arm around the shoulders of the other girl, she's curvy with beautiful amber eyes. "And this is Violet, Roman's wife."
"Ditto on everything that Ava just said," Violet says with an easy smile. "Once all the boring stuff is out of the way, the three of us would love to take you to lunch."
Ella turns to Mom, introducing herself and I have to blink the moisture away from my eyes. Ava gives me a sympathetic smile and a tissue.
"I'm sorry," I say, humiliated. "I guess I wasn't expecting a warm welcome."
"Well, you certainly didn't get one from the men," Violet says, flicking her eyes disapprovingly over to where the Morozov men - Dmitri, Maksim, and Alexsey - are going over the paperwork with my father.
He's signing his documents with angry, jagged strokes, pushing the papers on to the next man, refusing to look at them.
"Is this where my father is signing away his kingdom?" I murmur to Ella.
She nods. "This part is cold and grim, I'm afraid. But we are all very clear that what happened had nothing to do with you." She eyes me, her head cocked. "You've lived in the United States most of your life, haven't you?"
"Yes," I say, slipping my arm through Mom's again. She looks like she needs it. "After my mother and father divorced we were able to come back here. I've never been involved in the Krasniqi Fare. I don't know much about the inner workings."
"It's not anywhere as dramatic as I'd expected," Ada says. "Dmitri was Pakhan for maybe thirty seconds before the paperwork piled up!" She chuckles a little. "Oh, the excitement."
"Bije, come here." My father gestures imperiously at me and reluctantly, I slip my arm free from my mother's and walk over, sitting next to him.
"Yes, Baba?" God, that word tastes bitter on my tongue. Beauford - I mean, Alexsey - is sitting on the other side of me and I choose not to look at him, but I can feel the heat of his gaze nearly burning the side of my face. "What is this?" I ask, looking at the little stack of papers before me.
A silver-haired man sitting across the table from me, smiles kindly. "Miss Krasniqi, I'm Morgan Collins, Mayor Cavenaugh’s personal aide. This is the marriage certificate," he says. "The mayor requested that I bring over the forms personally to oversee a smooth transition."
I'm staring at him, my pin poised over the papers in a suddenly numb hand. "This is what?"
"We're married, darling." Beauford - I mean, Alexsey's - acid tone makes me stiffen.
"With your father so ill…" There's a cruel little smile on his lips; I want to smack it right off his face.
"We decided that a large wedding would be inappropriate.
Sign the papers, and we're husband and wife.
Then, the Krasniqi Fare becomes part of the Morozov Bratva holdings.
" He leans forward just slightly, and I can feel the heat radiate off him.
There's a vicious glitter in his blue eyes.
They were so warm last time I saw him. He's lost some weight in the last three months, too.
"You are the last 'asset' to be transferred. "
My grip on the pen is so tight, I'm surprised it doesn't snap.
"Sign it, Liria." Father taps the paper impatiently with one gnarled finger. "This needs to be finished."
I stare at him for a moment, trying to make my brain catch up.
"This is the wedding ceremony?" I ask, shaking my head slightly.
I know I'm pushing my luck with him by seeming impertinent, but even given the bloodless, grim business affair that this is, I guess I thought I would get a bouquet of flowers and maybe a trip to City Hall.
Not this chilly corporate transaction in the Morozov office building.
I guess that's really what this is, though, I think. So why bother to dress it up?
Gazing at the certificate, I see that Alexsey already signed it, a complex signature that's less letters and more angry slashes and strokes of the pen.
I add mine underneath, and sign a couple of other pieces of paperwork that I'm not allowed to read through carefully.
Morgan across the table stands up with relief.
"It is all legal and documented now," he says with an uncertain smile.
I'm certain this is the grimmest wedding ceremony he's ever had to preside over.
"I wish you both well." He says it in a tone that tells me he doesn't think this is going to end well at all.
But he shakes hands all around and leaves quickly.
Mom is standing there at the end of the table, shocked, with a sheen of tears in her eyes. I rise quickly, ignoring my father and Alexsey and go to her.
"I didn't – I didn't know this is what they had planned," she says, almost whispering. "I thought there would be…"
"It's fine," I whisper, giving her a hug.
"But you didn't have a wedding gown, or flowers…" she says, looking at my black dress, which was more appropriate for a long day at the office.
Or a funeral.
"I think lowering our expectations at this point is the best thing we can do, Mom." She nods at me sadly and it's sending a spike of pain through my heart.
Ava lightly squeezes my arm. "I shouldn't be surprised that you didn't know anything about the plan," she says, trying to hide the irritability in her tone and failing.
"These men can be so damned autocratic sometimes.
I suspect they staged this unpleasant stunt to enrage your father.
I'm sorry you got caught in the crossfire.
Let us make it up to you. We'll go out to dinner, have some wonderful food, and make a few toasts.
This whole night is so awkward that you might not be feeling it right now, but there's nothing half a dozen espresso martinis can't fix. "
I don't want to go to dinner. I don't want to sit next to Beauford - Alexsey, goddammit, Liria, get it right! I feel like a fool. Did he know who I was back then? Is this some kind of a sick joke to him?
Everyone rises from the conference table and joins us, Father assisted subtly by his guard.
"To a prosperous union," Dmitri says, raising a glass of vodka. Everyone taps their glass and takes a grim sip. As wedding toasts go, that was the most depressing one I've ever witnessed.
Ella tries to break up the uncomfortable moment. "I think sharing a meal is a good way to begin," she says with a warm smile. "Ava says we have a table waiting for us at one of our newer restaurants. Roman and his team opened it just last month."
"Shall we?" Maksim says, breaking the awkwardness of the moment and we follow him to the elevators.
Alexsey stops. "Ah." He pulls a ring box from his jacket and opens it.
"Your ring." He takes my hand and for one moment, there's that spark again, that surge of heat I felt when he kissed me in the Boston Museum, standing in front of Starry Night.
And then it's gone as he orders, "Hold your hand up.
" He carelessly shoves the plain silver ring on my finger.
"There," he says with a bitter smile. "It's official. "
"Yeah, that's a true love match right there," Roman rumbles. Violet smacks his arm. Alexsey is standing in one corner of the elevator, and I'm pressed against the other. We take separate, heavily armored SUVs to the restaurant.
Ava glares at Alexsey as he gets into the one behind us. "Here, Liria, will you and your mom ride with us?" She hurries us into her car before it can get even more awkward. She's going to make a great Pakhan's wife.
Forage Restaurant is epically pretentious.
Waiters hover by the tables, waving their hands over steaming dishes, urging diners to, "Gather ze' fragrance in your lungs for ze' essence of ze' dish.
" Plates are garnished with tiny dollops of pretty-looking food.
So tiny that we'll have to stop by In-N-Out Burger afterward so Mom doesn't pass out from low blood sugar.