Epilogue - Mira
“I never knew it could be so much fun shopping for baby stuff,” Mira declared.
“I know, right? They’re so cute,” the store attendant chirped happily.
Mira threw the girl an exasperated look. Of course she would say so; she wanted to sell her wares, didn’t she?
The girl giggled at Mira’s glance and Mira couldn’t hold back giggles of her own, feeling like a schoolgirl all of a sudden.
Mira was having the time of her life with her pregnancy. She finally met Mikhail’s brothers—Lev, Adrian and Ivan. They were all away taking care of the Bratva business while Mira and Mikhail jumped through hoops of her father’s vileness. Now that they are back, she had a chance to get to know them properly and is truly happy to be part of this family. A family she never had before.
Mira was nine months gone now, due to deliver her baby any day, and her pregnancy had given her a delightful glow. Mikhail had been expressing his love at every turn and showering her with gifts, as had her father. She should be at peace with the world, but try as she might she couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that something was about to go wrong.
“Mira, are you even listening?” Sarah demanded.
Mira smiled at Sarah. Every time she saw Sarah’s face, she couldn’t forget Alena’s lies that Sarah was dead. Thankfully, the woman had only been saying that to hurt Mira. Her heart still skipped a beat when she looked into the happy face of her maid and friend.
“I got lost for a minute there. Sorry,” Mira said.
Sarah sighed. “These onesies are cute and special. What do you think?”
“I think this baby is due any day now, so pretty much anything works for me,” Mira said with a grin.
“I have an idea,” Sarah whooped when she saw a floral print maternity gown in a corner of the store. “You would look absolutely delightful in that beautiful material, Mira. Go try it on in the dressing room. It would be amazing with your red hair.”
“Go and try it,” Madame Pruitt ordered, turning back to her conversation with Mrs. Nikolai.
Mira barely refrained from rolling her eyes. Sometimes she felt both women had eyes in the back of their heads. They were engrossed in their conversation and yet somehow they’d known what she and Sarah had been discussing.
Grumbling under her breath, she headed for the dressing room. An attendant pointed her toward the back of the store. She went there and found the door. When she opened it, it was empty. Gratefully she shed her clothes and tugged on the maternity dress. It slipped over her head and shoulders, and settled easily over her protruding tummy.
Mira was still turning this way and that, admiring her new dress when she felt a burst of water pour out from between her legs. Madame Pruitt gasped along with Sarah, “The baby is coming.”
“Mikhail isn’t here,” Mira wailed, nearing panic.“Just focus on getting to the hospital,” Madame Pruitt chided as she guided Mira towards their waiting vehicle. Hours later, as she awoke from the Caesarean section that left her groggy and weak, Mira noticed that it was night. She looked around. Mikhail was sitting in a chair and sleeping with his head on her bedside.
Mira touched his arm and he jerked awake at once. When he saw that she was up, he bent his head and dropped a kiss onto her forehead.
“Hi,” he whispered.
“Hi,” she said back. She looked around. “My baby?”
He smiled. “You mean babies.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “My obstetrician—”
“Never told you that you were pregnant with twins because evidently it didn’t show up on the scans before. Not sure why.” he told her.
“Hmm. Well, where are they?”
“ Sarah and Madame Pruitt are with them. The doctors are examining them to make sure we have nothing to worry about.”
The door opened just then and Madame Pruitt and Sarah bustled in, both cooing over the precious bundles in their arms and talking excitedly.
Mira’s heart turned over in her chest as she immediately held out her hands for her babies. “Give them to me,” she cried, so excited she could hardly stay still. They were the most beautiful and delightful creatures ever created, she thought as Madam Pruitt handed over her own bundle to Mira.
***
Summer and Dean Nikolai were the most precocious set of twins on earth, Mira decided a few months later as she rolled on the rug in the living room with her twins. They had now started to crawl and they had an uncanny habit of getting into everything. When they weren’t sleeping, she could have sworn they were moving at ninety miles per hour.
“Dean, no,” she called as he headed on all fours for the three-tiered wedding anniversary cake Momma had baked especially for Mira and Mikhail. They had invited friends over, and if anything happened to the cake right now, they would be hard-pressed to find an alternative at such short notice.
Dean looked over his shoulder at the sound of her voice and chortled mischievously. His twin sister took advantage of Mira’s distraction to head for the door connecting the living room and the corridors.
Vlad scooped her up in his powerful hands, laughing as he returned to the living room with the wriggling bundle in his arms. Mira caught Dean and redirected him toward the center rug in the living room. He always seemed to enjoy attacking it like a little tiger. As soon as she deposited him on the soft, down rug, he promptly began to attack the rug.
Mira grinned, watching her son’s antics and feeling her heart swell with love and wonder inside of her.
“I think these two have a modus operandi ,” Vlad told Mira laughingly. “Dean handles the job of distracting anyone in the vicinity while Summer makes a run for it. At this rate, we know who will be driving the getaway car when they become rebellious teens.”
Mikhail rolled his eyes, looking up from the gifts he was wrapping. “Their doting father would never let any of them so much as put one toe out of line. The irony.”
It was true. Mikhail had undergone such a tremendous change since becoming a father. As a matter of fact, he had changed so much that if Mira hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she was positive she wouldn’t have believed it.
He positively doted on her and catered to her every whim like a starstruck lover. His mafia family was still one of the most feared in all of Chicago, but he was the most carefree and happy individual when he was with her and the kids. Plus, Mira had heard a few murmurings that he was a lot more forgiving of offenses than he used to be in the past.
It was a good thing all around, she thought, but somewhat dangerous for a mafia lord. Mira looked at Mikhail. “Madame Pruitt has insisted that we have to renew our wedding vows to mark today’s anniversary. That means we have to get this show on the road fast; the guests are already waiting for us.”
He looked as delightfully confused as most men tended to be when matters like parties and events were being discussed.
“Where do you want me?” he asked innocently.
Mira’s eyes gleamed with mischievous delight as she sidled up to him and whispered naughtily, “If it were up to me, on top of me.”
His eyes kindled immediately with raw fire and he wrapped one hand about her waist as he dragged her against his tall frame and stared into her eyes with one of those soulful, drowning looks he did so well.
“Well, now you mention it, I think I can help with that,” he said in a smoky, husky voice that made her nipples erect beneath the soft material of her dress.
“The twins—” she protested.
“Will be very happy to run circles around Uncle Vlad for a while,” he assured her.
Their eyes went to where Vlad, still clutching Summer in his hands, was chasing down Dean’s wiggling, diaper-clad butt as it disappeared around a door.
“My children understood the assignment,” Mikhail laughed proudly as he took her lips in a slow, drugging kiss that tantalized her senses and made her want to tear off his shirt.
Mikhail gave her temple one last kiss and whispered against her skin for her ears only, “I love you, Mira.”
All is right with my world , Mira thought as she sent a mental thank-you to the fates for coming through for them all.
*****
THE END