Chapter 29
CARA
“Where are we going?” I ask, as he leads me out of the car, still insisting that I keep my eyes shut.
“I told you, you’ll see when we get there,” he tells me, for what has to be the dozenth time since we left the house.
“But aren’t we there yet?” I ask. I have no idea what is going on, only that he led me out of the mansion and told me that there was something he wanted to show me. Marsha is looking after the kids, and I have a doctor’s appointment later today, so I know it won’t take long.
But still, I can’t help but wonder what has got him acting so secretive.
I hear the jingle of keys, and then, finally, he squeezes my hand, steering me a few more steps forward.
“Okay,” he tells me. “You can look.”
I open my eyes—and, as I take in my surroundings, my lips part in surprise.
“Where are we?”
We are standing in what looks to be a beautiful townhouse, on the front porch of this old white-stone building with the door standing open before me. I glance to him, and he raises his eyebrows, nodding at me to go inside.
“Your new home.”
My heart skips a beat in my chest as I try to make sense of what he just said to me. Because there’s no way—there’s no way I could have heard him right, is there? I stare at him for a second, my heart pounding in my chest, and wait for him to crack up and admit it was just a joke.
But he doesn’t.
“What do you mean, my new home?” I gasp, as I hurry over the threshold, drinking in the shock of this place for the first time.
It is huge, with an open plan living and dining area, and an entry hall that leads to a large set of spiral stairs that take you up to the next floor.
I practically take them two at a time as I head upstairs to check the place out, and he follows close behind.
“I wanted you to have a place of your own,” he explains. “Well, a place of our own, for the whole family, actually.”
“But we already have the mansion?”
“And that’s belonged to Max and I for so long, I knew it wasn’t the same as having a place that we could make from scratch as ours,” he explains.
“After I met your sister, I realized you deserved to have a home all of your own. One you could make exactly how you wanted it. For the kids and for the baby, too.”
A lump springs into my throat as I stand there on the landing, hardly able to wrap my head around what he has done for me. I gaze up at him, and he is grinning, waiting for my response.
“I... I don’t know what to say, Alexei...”
“You don’t have to say anything.”
“Can I start with thanking you, at least?” I wonder aloud, and he grins, reaching out to wrap his arms around me.
“Yeah,” he agrees. “Yeah, I think I could handle that.”
“Well, thank you,” I murmur, though the words feel far too small for me to express the depth of everything I’m feeling towards him right now.
I can’t believe he has done this for me.
I can’t believe that he has actually offered me the chance to start over, start fresh, in a way I would never have imagined possible before.
I squeeze him tight, pressing my head into his shoulder for a moment as I bring myself back down to earth.
“You… I thought that you would want to raise Max in the mansion,” I mumble against his chest, and he pulls me back so he can talk to me properly.
“What do you mean?”
“That’s where you grew up, right?” I ask, furrowing my brow. “Your parents?”
He stiffens as soon as I mention them, not exactly unusual, or so I’ve learned. He doesn’t talk about them much, and it’s clear that there is something there he does not want to delve into, or, at least, wasn’t willing to before.
“Sorry,” I murmur, shaking my head. “I know you don’t like talking about them...”
“It’s not that,” he replies, his voice slightly gruff as he tightens his grip on me. “It’s just.. .there are memories of them I have there I’d rather forget.”
“Memories like what?”
He pauses for a moment before he replies, clearly deciding whether or not I’m ready to hear this from him. And then, finally, he comes out with it. “Memories like the day my mother died.”
I press my hand against his chest, trying to assure him to keep going. “What happened to her?” I whisper.
His jaw tightens, but he does not brush me off, for the first time allowing me to delve into what must have once been unthinkable to him.
“My father, he was reckless,” he admits.
“He... he thought that he had the run of that place, that city. And he would take her out, let the world see her. Told me that he loved her, and he wanted the world to know about it.”
He sighs.
“But it didn’t take long till someone made him pay for that,” he goes on.
“Someone... someone killed her. Right there at the dinner table. Took her out on the spot, shot her dead. Security took them out right afterwards, so we never had to go looking for them, but she was still gone because he had been stupid enough to think that he called the shots.”
His voice held no bitterness now, just sadness, and I could almost feel the ache coming off him in waves—the weight of it all almost more than he could take.
“It killed my father, the guilt,” he explains. “He hardly ate or slept in the months afterwards. Took him a few years, but it eventually took him too.”
“I’m so sorry…”
“No, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” he replies, shaking his head. “I should have come clean with this to you months ago. But I just didn’t know how to tell you.” He chuckles slightly. “Not exactly good about talking about my feelings, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
I manage a laugh myself, though it’s still pretty shaky.
“No, I think I understand,” I assure him, and it’s the truth.
Because the way he puts it, it slots the last few pieces into place.
Why he has been so protective of the kids and I for so long, why he has gone out of his way to do whatever he can to keep the outside world from reaching us.
He has seen what happens when someone fails to take those kinds of precautions, and it’s clear that he was never going to let the same happen to his family.
As I gaze into his eyes, I see him fully, for what feels like the first time.
And, before I can think twice, the words spill from my lips.
“I... I love you, Alexei.”
It’s the first time I’ve said them out loud, though far from the first time I’ve thought them.
It’s been hard not to fall in love with him, despite all the craziness, despite all the chaos, despite all the years that we spent apart, because I feel like he has shown me a part of himself that he does not let anyone else lay eyes on.
“I love you too, Cara.”
With that, he kisses me, right there, in the middle of our new home, the home that he has chosen for me and the children and the baby who is yet to come into our world.
I smile into his embrace, because everything that has brought us to this moment feels worth it.
It might have taken us years to find one another again, but now that we have, I know we will never be apart .
Deepening the kiss, I feel his grip on me tighten, clearly ready to christen the house already.
“Want to have our first time in the new place?” he murmurs against my lips, and I giggle, a flutter of warmth rising within me. Call it pregnancy hormones, but I haven’t been able to get enough of him these last few weeks, and I doubt that is going to change anytime soon.
At least, not as long as his kiss makes me feel the way this one does...