Chapter 4 #2
It was final. They were going to force me to marry Gregor Ivanov the day after I graduated.
* * *
“Nadia, are you up there?” I whispered.
“I’m here!” she whispered back.
Glancing around and seeing no one, although I knew we were probably under surveillance by the guards on her property, I grasped the first wooden slat nailed into the wide tree trunk and slowly climbed the makeshift ladder up to her treehouse. Then lowering my head, I stepped inside.
Unlike most treehouses, her father had this one professionally built, so it was rather beautiful inside.
Kind of like a one-room cottage nestled in a tree.
As we got older, we moved all the toys and tea sets out and replaced them with thick rugs and lots of large cushions and glass-enclosed candles.
We had lined the walls with shelves for Nadia’s favorite books, and there were cabinets for my painting supplies.
The place now had an exotic yet cozy feel.
Like me, Nadia had changed into yoga pants and a hoodie.
Nadia was the baby of the family. She had two older brothers, Gregor and Damien.
She looked nothing like either of them. Where they were tall, she was petite.
Where they had dark hair and eyes, she had strawberry blonde hair and light blue eyes.
They often teased her about being adopted.
Both of her brothers were a lot older than her by at least eight years.
She was kind of an oops baby. So the poor thing always felt a bit awkward and out of place among her own family.
They were all so sophisticated and social where she was shy and preferred books to people.
It killed her mother that Nadia would rather wear Doc Martens and a baby doll dress than Chanel.
Nadia slumped back onto a pile of pillows. “This was the worst birthday ever!”
I bit my lip. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind she had no idea about our families’ plans for Gregor and me. They never told her anything. And I had absolutely no idea how I was going to tell her.
“I finally worked up the courage to talk to Mikhail,” she said as she stared at the ceiling of the playhouse, which was still plastered with little plastic glow-in-the-dark stars from when we were younger.
“What did he say?”
Nadia shrugged. “He told me I was a silly little girl and that I should go back to my big party before I was missed.”
“Oh, Nadia. I’m sorry, but you knew it was a long shot. He’s your family’s head of security. Your father and brothers would kill him if he was caught with you.”
Before she could respond we heard rustling below us.
“Nadia? Samara?”
Crawling over to the open doorway, I poked my head out. Yelena was below. I waved her up.
Once inside, Yelena pushed her long blonde hair away from her face and settled down on one pillow. Of course, she was still in her cute party outfit. Leave it to Yelena to climb a tree in a dress. She was the true fashionista out of our little group.
“No offense, Nadia, but that party sucked,” she huffed. Then turning to me, she raised a suggestive eyebrow and asked, “And what were you and Peter up to for so long?”
Peter was the least of my problems right now. “We broke up.”
Nadia patted my shoulder as she made a sympathetic sound.
Yelena shrugged. “Never liked him. Never trust a Gemini.”
To Yelena, the Zodiac could make all of life’s decisions.
I played with the strings on my hoodie. “Listen, I don’t even know how to say this, so I’m just going to blurt it out.”
Both girls sat up, alerted by my tone that something was wrong.
My eyes filled with tears.
“Oh my God, Samara, what’s wrong? Is it Peter?” Nadia asked.
I shook my head.
Yelena stroked my upper arm. “We’ve been besties since we could walk. You can tell us anything.”
Picking at the pillow beneath me, I avoided their gazes. “Nadia, I don’t want you to get mad at me.”
Her brow furrowed. “Samara, I could never be mad at you. Tell me, what’s wrong.”
I took a deep breath and blurted it all out. How her brother caught Peter and me. What Gregor said about us marrying and how my parents confirmed it. The only part I left out was Gregor checking to see if I was still a virgin.
That part was too humiliating to share, even with my closest friends.
Pulling my hoodie sleeve down over my hand, I wiped my cheeks. “I’m sorry, Nadia, but I don’t want to marry your brother.”
Nadia leaned over and gave me a hug. “I don’t want you to marry my brother either!”
I pulled back. “What?”
She shrugged. “I know you had this big crush on him when we were younger, and I know girls think he’s cute and stuff….”
Yelena interrupted. “Uh… Nadia. Your brothers aren’t cute. They’re hot as fuck. Even though they’re both a pain in the ass, especially Damien.”
She said Damien’s name with such animosity that Nadia and I exchanged a look.
Yelena brushed us off. “We had words earlier. I… might be in a little trouble.”
“Wait. What? Why?” I asked.
“It’s nothing. We’re talking about your problem right now.”
“Yelena….”
“I’ll tell you both later.”
Nadia twisted the gold fringe of the pillow she was sitting on. “I love Gregor, but he can be really old-fashioned. I know what he wants in a wife, and Samara is not it. No offense!”
“None taken!” I quickly assured her.
“It’s just. Look. It’s not like I wouldn’t love it if you were truly my sister and all that, but…
you’re not the only one he scares. He terrifies me sometimes too, and he’s my brother!
The guy’s intense! I still don’t know why they sent him back to Russia.
It’s a big family secret, but I know it was something bad…
really bad.” Nadia had twisted the fringe around her finger so tightly the tip was turning purple.
We all fell silent for a moment.
Finally, I slumped against the wall with a groan, then said, “I’m in real trouble, aren’t I?”
The shock of the situation was wearing off, and the reality was setting in.
If I didn’t do something drastic, then I would find myself married…
married … in less than a month. All my dreams would be over.
Never mind the fact that my husband would be a man who both terrified and enthralled me.
With every kiss, I would lose a piece of myself until there was nothing left.
Yelena pointed at me with a long red fingernail. “You have to run.”
Nadia and I both looked at her.
“What?” I asked, not sure I heard her correctly.
“You have to leave. It’s your only option. If you stay, your parents will force you to marry him.”
“I don’t know anyone. I don’t have any money. Where would I go?” I argued, even as the idea took root. She was right. It was my only option.
Yelena sat up straighter, and her bright blue eyes lit with excitement. “I have money, and I’m coming with you.”
We knew Yelena’s home life was shit. Her mother was dead, and her father was a drunk who occasionally hit her. Even in the low light of our treehouse, I could see the shadow of a bruise on her cheek.
We never talked about it.
There were a lot of things we never talked about.
It was just how things were with our families.
Nadia and I always suspected it was one of the reasons Yelena claimed to love makeup and would never be seen without lipstick and foundation on. The real reason was she needed it to cover the bruises.
Nadia raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean you have money? How much money?”
The corner of Yelena’s mouth quirked up. “Over a hundred grand.”
My mouth fell open. “Yelena! How?”
“Seriously?” Nadia exclaimed.
“That racetrack scheme my piece of shit father was working on. I reworked the algorithm and hit big. Really big.” She turned to Nadia.
“By the way, it’s why your brother Damien is pissed at me.
” She waved her hand in the air dismissively.
“Something about bringing on the attention of the feds to some mob scheme.”
I took a deep breath. “So we’re really doing this? We’re running?”
Yelena’s smile vanished. “All kidding aside, if Damien is right, I could be in some real trouble with some pretty nasty people because of what I did. I need to get out of town. Now.”
We both turned to Nadia.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. She shook her head and whispered, “I can’t go.”
We didn’t bother arguing. She was right. Her brothers would never stop looking for her if she left with us.
We huddled together and hugged.
I whispered against Nadia’s hair, wanting to believe what I said was true. “We won’t be separated forever. All this will blow over. Gregor will marry someone else, and whatever Yelena did will be forgotten. And then we’ll come back, okay, Nadia?”
We stayed in the treehouse planning our escape till the early morning hours.
As I crept across the damp lawn back to my house, I looked up at the gloomy windows of Nadia’s home. I could have sworn Gregor was watching me.
I shivered.
Everything would be fine.
He would be mad for a week or two and then forget all about me.