Chapter 35
DARIUS
Three months later.
“You can’t avoid it any longer. It’s time.” Anna tugged me across the parking lot of the assisted living center, her hand firmly in mine.
“God, woman, how do I keep underestimating how stubborn you can be?” I mumbled under my breath.
She turned to look at me. Her radiant smile never failed to make my heart stop as she just shrugged.
“Look, I know you aren’t thrilled about doing this.
But we’ve been together for three months.
I can’t keep lying to her. Edith is important to me, and so are you.
I want the two most important people in my life to know each other, and I can’t keep lying to her. ”
“I never asked you to lie to her, maya soloveyka.”
She gave me a flat look. It was true that I had never expressly asked her to lie for me. But every time she brought up wanting me to meet Edith, I conveniently had business meetings that couldn’t be rescheduled.
Anna had mentioned me to Edith, calling me an investor who was helping the store, which wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the whole truth. She had never told Edith who I was to her.
The truth was, I wanted to meet Edith. I wanted to thank the woman who had been there for Anna when her mother never was. But every time she brought it up, a weird, bubbling sensation would happen in my stomach, and I didn’t know what it was or why it kept happening.
Nadia was the one who laughed at me and told me I was nervous. I had opened my mouth to argue with her, but she was right. I was terrified of this tiny little old woman.
I could face down powerful politicians and hardened criminals without breaking a sweat, but meeting this little old lady had me shaking in my Italian leather loafers. I was so nervous about this meeting I had Yelena pick out my suit.
Edith’s opinion meant so much to Anna, and if she didn’t like me, I didn’t know what that would mean for us. She valued Edith’s opinion above all else. And I didn’t want to have to be the asshole that forced her to choose me or the woman who practically raised her.
I’d like to say that if she didn’t like me, I would step back gracefully, but that was a damn lie. I would bribe that woman to within an inch of declaring bankruptcy if that was what it took.
“Come on, she is waiting for us.” Anna pulled my arm harder, and I reluctantly followed her.
“She isn’t going to take this well,” I said. Anna had told me over and over how much Edith hated change, and I had been the instrument of many changes, both in Anna’s life and hers.
“You let me worry about that,” Anna said as she pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed me on the cheek. Her confidence gave me a little hope, but not enough.
With a resigned sigh, I followed her inside to finally meet the woman who held my fate in her hands.
Inside the building, the atmosphere was quiet, homey. I had helped Anna move Edith into a better assisted living home, one Pavel had actually recommended.
He’d had Alina’s grandmother moved here some months ago.
Alina said her grandmother had actually been improving significantly and raved about how much she loved her knitting club, as well as how the residents enjoyed gossiping about the nurses.
Edith, however, apparently fought tooth and nail. Worried that the cost of such an extravagant facility was going to drain Anna’s inheritance.
Anna didn’t need an inheritance. If I had anything to say about it, she would never want for anything in her life. But even without my financial contribution, Anna was financially comfortable.
She and I had sat down, at my insistence, and gone over the books for the shop. I had helped her make several changes, none of which Edith was a fan of, but we updated the signage, ran ads on social media, and she now had a digital inventory system that backed up to her new website.
The store was turning a healthy profit. And I had helped her claim the funds from the shell companies her mother had put in her name. Senator Collins hadn’t figured that out yet. It was going to be fun when she did.
Still, they were changes, and Edith disapproved of the unfamiliar, which was exactly what I was.
I just hoped it wasn’t enough to make her disapprove of me entirely.
My hands were clammy, and the hair at the back of my neck rose as my heart thundered while Anna led me down a long hallway. It felt more like a gallows walk than the hall of a top-notch assisted living center.
Silently, I prayed to a god that I didn’t believe in.
I begged him to let this old woman at least tolerate me enough that she didn’t jeopardize everything I had with Anna.
Suddenly, everything wrong with us felt monumental.
She was half my age. She lived a simple, quiet life, while I ran a multi-billion-dollar organization that was a front for a criminal enterprise.
She was warm pop music and power ballads; I was cold classical symphonies.
I came into Anna’s life only three months ago, and I didn’t know how to breathe without her.
When we reached the activity room, Anna led me straight over to Edith, who was alone, sitting in front of a card table. She was tiny, fierce-eyed, and wore a Christmas sweater in February, a battered violin held in her long, spindly fingers.
She looked me up and down in one glance, her lips pursed as she pushed her massive bifocals up her nose.
“Is this the one?” she asked Anna, judgment lacing every single word.
“Edith, meet Darius. Darius, meet Edith,” Anna said with that sweet smile, and I couldn’t help but melt.
“It’s lovely to meet you, ma’am,” I said.
“We’ll see about that,” Edith said with a glare. “Do you plan on breaking Anna’s heart?”
Before I could answer, she pointed to the chair across the table. “Sit, we’re going to see if you’re worthy of my girl or not.”
“I can promise you I am not worthy. But, I try a little harder every single day.” I took a seat, trying desperately not to wither under her glare. At least Anna didn’t have to explain we were together. That was something.
Edith immediately dealt the cards, forcing me into a game of cribbage. I hadn’t played in years. The circles I ran in preferred poker or Durak.
We played in near silence, and I let her win.
Anna sat next to Edith, holding the violin and testing the strings, as Ella Fitzgerald played on the record player perched on the windowsill.
“My Anna seems to be rather fond of you,” she said, discarding a couple of cards.
“Was that a question or an accusation?” I asked.
Her sharp eyes flashed up to me, and I couldn’t tell if she was amused or judging me. “I haven’t made up my mind yet.”
“Let me know when you do,” I said, studying my cards.
“She’s also told me about the changes in the store. And how they are all your idea.”
I nodded. “I didn’t change much, just updated your inventory system and slapped some new signs and a fresh coat of paint up.”
“Well, whatever you’ve done, it seems to have reinvigorated the store. I’ve gone over the numbers, and they haven’t been that good in nearly a decade.”
“Anna deserves all the credit for that. It’s her vision, blended with yours. All I did was add some technology and advertising.”
A low humph sounded under her breath. I looked over at Anna to see how I was doing, but she was intensely focused on the violin.
“And how long have you been dating my Anna?” she asked, running her finger over the cribbage board’s peg holes.
“Three months,” I said, tapping the edge of my cards on the table.
“And how long have you been in love with her?”
Anna’s eyes went wide, and her hands froze.
“Three months,” I answered honestly.
Edith gave another dismissive sound in the back of her throat, then tapped the board twice. I wasn’t sure if it was a habit or some kind of warning. “It’s taken you three months to come and see me?”
I folded my cards and placed them face down on the table. She deserved my complete attention.
“I wanted to wait longer. I knew the moment you saw me, you would realize I wasn’t good enough for her. Anna values your opinion above anyone else’s in the entire world. And if you told her to leave me, there wouldn’t be a damn thing I could do about it.”
“So you were buying time?”
“I was buying time, and I was hoping I could make her fall for me hard enough that your disapproval wouldn’t matter. I failed in that endeavor.”
The corner of her mouth twisted up into a sly smile. “And what would you do if I approved?”
Half a dozen smart-ass retorts were on the tip of my tongue, but I held them back. This wasn’t the time for jokes. She was asking me exactly what my intentions were, in a way that was meant as a challenge I intended to meet.
I had asked Samara, Elena, and the other wives for their recommendations on a romantic way to propose.
Romance was never something I thought I had to be good at. I had never even considered the idea that I would ever get married, and if I did, it would have been a business arrangement.
Any proposal would have been done with a lawyer and a prenup.
I hadn’t seen Anna in my future. She wasn’t a possibility that had occurred to me until it was too late.
It was Zoya who had told me what I needed to hear.
“Romance isn’t about flowers. It’s not about diamonds, skydiving, or grand gestures.
It’s not even about black-and-white films and proclamations of love.
Romance is about intimacy. Knowing your partner so well that you know what they would want.
What is important to her? Once you figure that out, the rest falls into place. ”
That was the moment that I knew Edith needed to be a part of this, that she needed to approve of the union before I could ask. Some men asked their intended’s father. I had a feeling those men got off easy.
I took the black velvet box out of my pocket and laid it on the table between Edith and me.
Anna froze. The violin dropped from her fingers as her hands went to cover her mouth.
Edith reached for the box, turned it so the hinge was facing Anna, and opened it just enough to inspect the ring inside.
She closed the box and pushed it toward me.
My heart was in my throat, and my stomach was in more knots than I knew was possible. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think. I just waited for this tiny woman to lay down her verdict.
“Well?” she asked, with a sparkle in her eye. “I am an old woman, and I will not be here forever. What exactly are you waiting for?”
Before she could change her mind, I grabbed the box and jumped up from my seat. The plastic folding chair clattered to the floor, and everyone in the activity room seemed to stop what they were doing. The only sound was Ella’s crooning and my heart thundering.
I knelt down in front of Anna. Her lips were parted, and her hands fell to her lap when I opened the box to show her the vintage 1950s Art Déco ring.
This was the perfect moment for her.
She didn’t care about fancy dinners, about long, drawn-out speeches. For her, perfection was knowing that she was loved and cared for. And the people in her life who wanted her to succeed and supported her unconditionally were present for the important moments in her life.
All she needed to know was that we supported her for who she was, that I saw her for who she was, not for who I wanted her to be.
“Will you sing only for me, my little nightingale? Will you be only mine forever?”