Chapter Twenty-Seven
MILA
I was in Axel’s bedroom, doing homework on the bed and basically holing up until Axel came home.
I turned off my music and listened. I could hear shouting.
It was my aunt, and she was absolutely berating someone.
Bandit was perched on the bed, his head cocked as he listened.
“It’s okay, boy,” I told him, as I stood up and cracked open the door.
Her voice came loud and clear. “I don’t understand what is so difficult about following a specific recipe.”
I strained to hear Jordan’s response. “I tried my best, but some of those ingredients I can’t find in Canada.”
“Why do you always have excuses after excuses? I’m so tired of you giving me words instead of real food that I can actually eat.”
Rage washed over me like liquid fire. I could feel my face heat up as I skipped down the stairs toward the kitchen. I stood in the doorway and observed.
Lena was blocking Jordan in the corner and getting in his face. He looked both sad and scared, and when he saw me standing there, he dropped his gaze in shame.
“What is going on?” My voice came out sharp.
My aunt spun on her heels and stared at me boldly, as if she couldn’t believe her luck that I would show up and join the fight. “I don’t understand why this dishwasher still has a job. He’s one of the worst cooks I’ve ever met in my life. He simply can’t cook.”
“We love Jordan and his cooking,” I started, but she cut me off.
“I don’t care what you like and don’t like. He’s not flexible, he doesn’t even know how to make borscht, and he can’t follow simple recipes.”
“We love him,” I repeated, willing my own voice not to shake.
She raised one eyebrow at me. “We’ll see.”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I stood my ground until she walked out of the kitchen and moved back upstairs.
Jordan turned away from me.
I walked over and put my arm around his shoulder. “Are you okay?”
He gave me a short nod, too choked up to speak.
“She’s a fucking battle axe,” I told him. “No one likes her.”
He gave a wet snicker. “I really liked this job.”
My heart skipped a beat.
“Please don’t quit,” I breathed.
He gave me an apologetic look. “I’m pretty sure she’s going to fire me.”
“I won’t let her,” I promised, but I think we both knew I didn’t have that kind of power. Lena had been ruining both our lives since she’d arrived.
He gave a sad nod. “I just want to own my own restaurant. I honestly feel like I couldn’t be further from my dreams.”
“Jordan.” My voice held a level of anguish I couldn’t hide.
“Maybe it’s time I moved on.”
My heart cracked a bit. “I’m going to talk to Axel, okay?”
His voice dropped. “She’s really hard to work for.”
I didn’t want another friendly face to disappear from my world, but I understood why he wanted to leave. “No matter what happens, I think of you as a friend. I don’t want to lose you.”
He leaned over and gave me a quick hug. “No matter what happens, we’ll keep in touch.”
I could smell the cabbage and onions the second I opened the door. My home no longer smelled like my own. It smelled exactly like my uncle and aunt’s house back in Russia. Bandit was no longer waiting for me by the front door, and I knew he was probably hiding in Axel’s room upstairs.
I put my bag down and walked into the kitchen. Two burly men with matching dirty aprons were cooking up a storm. I could see the smoked sausage lying across the island and a fresh loaf of rye bread cooling on the counter.
My stomach rolled with nausea at the smell of my old prison.
“Who are you?” I deliberately spoke in English.
They looked at each other and spoke in Russian between themselves.
“Do you understand her?”
“Not a clue.”
One of them shrugged at me and then proceeded to ignore me. He looked at his counterpart. “I’m about to cook the smoked fish. Are you done with the oven?”
I marched over to the fridge to grab a yogurt, but instead of the yogurt and fruit that Jordan usually stocked for me, I saw only jars of beetroot in vinegar, pickles, sauerkraut and baskets of dough. Even my cans of soda water were missing and replaced with short bottles of stout beer.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Aunt Lena’s voice sounded sharply in Russian.
I looked over to see her glaring at me. “I’m looking for something to eat. Do you know where they put the fruit?”
“This room is restricted. You will not get in their way or crowd their workspace with your little food quirks. Going forward, dinner will be served at 8 p.m. It’s formal dress, so be ready.”
I was so shocked that she was speaking to me about my own home in that way that I didn’t even know how to respond. I simply shut the fridge, avoided her gaze and walked around the island to move upstairs, pausing only to pick up my bag.
Tears burned my eyes by the time I reached my bedroom. I found a grateful Bandit wagging his tail like crazy on the bed. I lay and cuddled with him for a moment.
“Want to go for a walk?”
He nuzzled against me and tried to lick my face.
“I’m sorry you have to be here without Jordan all day,” I murmured into his thick neck fur. “But I promise you this is only temporary.”
I wore my most demure dress and endured dinner with my uncle and aunt, miserable over both the food and the company.
We started with a thick, smoky soup that was too sour, too salty and too hot for my liking.
The main course was cabbage leaves stuffed with rice and minced beef, smothered in a tomato and sour cream sauce.
The texture was both limp and heavy, and the boiled sweetness was suffocating.
There wasn’t a fresh vegetable in sight.
Dessert was my uncle’s favorite. Fried quark pancakes that were heavy, sweet and still somehow sour. The whole meal made me feel trapped.
It felt like I was being dragged back to a life I had thought I had escaped, and I was both terrified and resolute. I would never go back.
Even though it was a school night, I waited up until after one in the morning for Axel to come home from work. He opened the door quietly and seemed surprised to see me sitting sleepily in bed, with the bedside lamp on.
“You’re still awake?”
“I need to talk to you,” I told him.
He nodded as he tossed his expensive suit jacket over the back of a chair and started to unbutton his dress shirt. “Sounds important.”
“My aunt fired Jordan.”
His jaw tightened. “I got a text from him. I meant to call you before you got home from school, but work got away from me.”
I was shocked that no one bothered to tell me. “Jordan was my friend, and he was great at his job, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”
He moved to the bed and sat down on the edge beside me. “I’m sorry.”
My eyes filled with tears. “She was so horrible to him.”
“And Jordan was miserable trying to make her happy.”
I blinked at that. “Why was he even supposed to make her happy? This is our home and our life.”
He gave me a regretful look. “I’m trying to find a balance. I work for your family.”
Since we arrived in Canada, Axel had been in charge. I’d all but forgotten that he answered to my uncle. Which meant they still had control over me. I shook my head. “No.”
He picked up my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “It’s not always going to be like this, okay? But right now I’m trying to put out fires, not start them. Does that make sense?”
My voice came out hoarse. “How long are they going to be here?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Is there any way you can let this go? This isn’t a good time to butt heads.”
I wanted to rant and scream that I was being asked to cater to my aunt’s cruel whims again, but Axel was reminding me that these people had control over both of us. Not just me.
He was also trying to guide me not to make things worse. I hated that he was right. “I really hate Russian food.”
He squeezed my hand. “Which is why food delivery apps were invented.”
“She’d be outraged.”
He shrugged. “She doesn’t have to know, does she?”
I paused as I looked up at his beautiful features. “Is Jordan going to be okay?”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
“Thank you.”
He stood up and shrugged out of his shirt, showing me his broad muscular back as he walked toward the shower. I heard the water turn on.
I snuggled back into my pillow and willed myself to stay awake until my husband got into bed. There had to be some kind of reward for staying up so late, right?
My eyes drifted shut as I listened to the sound of water running. I’d stay awake but would just rest my eyes for a moment.
Two days later
I took Bandit to the park before getting ready for school. I hustled because I had a math exam at ten o’clock and I wanted to grab some breakfast ahead of time.
I was heading out the door with Oleg when my aunt stopped me. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“To school.”
She gave a slow hum. “Well, that’s fine, but I need Oleg to take me shopping this morning.”
Oleg did a double take. “I’ll call Anton and get him to take Mila to school.”
She frowned. “I don’t like to waste resources. We’ll drop Mila off on our way to the shops, but first I need to spend some time with the chefs to go over the menu. Give me about half an hour.”
Oleg gave me a pained look. Even he knew the pecking order. “Of course, ma’am.”
I found my voice, working to hide my anger. “I’ll take an Uber.”
She turned sharply. “Such a waste of money, Mila. Honestly, I’m ashamed of you.”
I was going to be late for my exam, something that wasn’t allowed in my program.
I shrugged and walked out of the house.
I caught an Uber at the bottom of the hill, but I missed the beginning of my exam by five minutes, and the doors were locked. This exam was worth nearly thirty percent of my overall mark for the year, and I didn’t have the grades to miss it.
Selena and Tanya sat across from me at lunchtime and listened to me vent about the morning.
They listened with wide eyes while I explained that my aunt and uncle had taken over my house and wouldn’t let me get my usual ride to work.
I even told them that they had fired Jordan, which horrified them both.
“I’m so upset about everything, and missing my exam was the last straw.”
Selena pushed her tray back and stood up. “I’m going to talk to our math teacher.”
“You can do that?” Tanya asked, startled.
“Watch me!” Selena marched across the cafeteria floor.
In shock, I watched her leave. “Should I go with her?”
Tanya thought about it. “If someone pleads your case, it’s best if you’re not there.”
“I don’t think my teacher will even care.”
“So does this mean we won’t see Oleg and Anton anymore?”
“My aunt needs them to drive her around.”
She squinted at me. “Weren’t they worried about some threat?”
“Axel always insisted on that, but he works for my uncle, so it’s not up to him anymore.”
She leaned forward. “Are you in danger?”
I thought back to when someone had broken into my house in the middle of the night. “My aunt doesn’t think so.”
My phone pinged. Hoping it was Jordan, I looked at my phone.
Unknown number: You really shouldn’t be walking around without security
I looked around nervously, but I couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary.
Tanya noticed. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit off today.”
Selena strode back toward us with a huge smile on her face. “Mr. Harvey said you can rewrite your math exam after classes today. He’s not even going to deduct any marks off for missing the first exam.”
“What?” I cried in disbelief, before standing up and pulling her into a hard hug. “How did you manage that?”
She laughed as she hugged me back. “Sometimes the truth really does work.”
The halls were empty when I got out of my exam, and for a moment I felt deep fear, knowing I was alone. But then, at the end of the hall, I saw Selena, sitting and reading her textbook. She stood up when she saw me.
“How did it go?”
“I think it went great.” I stared at her in amazement. “Did you wait here for me?”
She put her book into her bag. “I went home, and my sister lent me her car to come get you. Tanya and her mom are making pizza, so that’s where we’re heading for dinner.”
“Are you serious?” My heart sang at this news.
“I know what you’re going to say, and don’t worry because, yes, we’re going to swing by and kidnap Bandit on our way.”
No one even noticed when I dropped off my book bag, got changed and left the house with Bandit and a bag of his food. Besides the burly men in the kitchen, I wasn’t even sure anyone was home.
We played pass the baby while Tanya’s mom made pizza and Tanya made a salad. Selena told us what she’d told my math teacher and Jordan finally responded to my worried texts.
Jordan: Sorry I was MIA . Axel got me a job. I start tomorrow, will text more after first shift. xo
I stared at my phone, wondering how Axel had managed to help Jordan so quickly. If I didn’t see him tonight, I would phone him tomorrow for the details.
The night really got crazy when Tanya’s mom made two huge bowls of popcorn and Tanya got out the board games. It took a while for them to explain all the rules to me, but once I got going, no one could believe how competitive I was.
“Oh, she’s got the bug now,” Tanya’s mom laughed as I wildly shook the dice, my eyes looking over the board.
“I need a seven or higher,” I told them.
Someone knocked on the door, and Bandit gave a sharp bark, but other than staring at the door, he didn’t move from his position at my feet.
“If you get snake eyes, you can also use that to buy a second turn,” Tanya told me as she walked to the door.
Selena shoved popcorn into her mouth. “If you land on my bridge, I’ll finally get to charge my toll.”
We all screamed when I rolled a double seven, which sent Tanya to jail and gave me three more free rolls.
“Who taught this kid how to play?” Tanya’s mom laughed. “She’s kicking our asses.”
“Mila,” Tanya said from the door, her voice sounding weird. “It’s for you.”