Chapter 7 - Avit #2
I cleared my throat, and all heads snapped toward us. I felt Sienna take a step back. I moved my arm from her back to gently squeeze her waist.
“Everyone, this is Sienna, my wife.”
“Hi,” she said weakly, giving a short wave.
Lev stood and made his way to her, extending his hand. “Sienna, it's nice to meet you. My name is Lev. I'm assuming Avit told you about what we do and who we are?”
She nodded and shook his hand.
“As the Pakhan of the faction, it's my responsibility to ensure you're safe. And as the oldest Safin sibling, it’s my responsibility to make sure you’re treated well and have everything you need.” Lev fixed his gaze on me and I nodded.
Sienna looked up at me, but I couldn’t read her expression. Then she turned back to Lev. “Okay.”
Lev stepped away, and my brothers walked up, shook her hand, and welcomed her to the family. The women followed, pulling her into hugs, and then I gestured toward the table.
I sat at the head, Sienna on my right, Katya next to her, and Pyotr on my left. Next to him was Ninel, then Mariya, everyone else filling the remaining seats.
After everyone’s plates had been filled, Mariya looked at Sienna. “So, Sienna, what special power did you use to capture my brother’s heart?”
I caught the flush in Sienna’s cheeks and shot Mariya a glare, but she just smiled.
“Let me guess,” Pyotr said, fingers pressed to his temples. “She was on the honor roll every year, and in her high school yearbook, she was voted first to become a millionaire.”
Sienna chuckled. “Actually…not a millionaire. A billionaire. I’m into tech and finishing my masters in about six months.”
“She's also in the honors society,” I said proudly, and her cheeks grew red again.
“So…we don’t have to go to Timur anymore if we want dirt on our husbands?” Katya asked sweetly.
Lev tilted his head, watching her with amusement.
“What information have you tried to get on Lev?” Marten asked as he took a sip of his drink.
“Who said we were looking for information on Lev?” Kira batted her eyelashes as she stroked the side of Marten's face.
“Listen, ladies,” Pyotr grinned, “for the right price, I can definitely spill a few stories from when we were younger that they’d kill to keep secret.”
“I know Pyotr can't spill any of my secrets,” Jaroslav smirked.
“Why not?” Vera asked.
“Because I’ve got a flash drive stashed away on Pyotr for a very special occasion,” Jaroslav said slyly.
Pyotr’s smile faltered. “Jay, you told me you got rid of that.”
“Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t,” Jaroslav shrugged and smiled.
“I've got a better question,” Lev said, glancing between Sienna and me. “How did the two of you meet?”
“Sienna used to work at a small café off campus. One day, on her break, she was buried in this book—Protecting Data in a Hybrid World. Things…progressed from there.”
I felt guilty not telling them the truth, but revealing one secret today was more than I could handle, and that process was still ongoing.
Ninel chuckled. “Only you, Avit, would pick up a wife over a cybersecurity textbook.”
“Sienna,” Jaroslav started, “as you probably can tell, Avit is a man who does things by the book, everything well planned out. He doesn’t jump into decisions, especially huge ones like marriage, on a whim.”
He glanced at me, that intense stare he uses when he’s trying to peel back someone’s soul to get the truth. “You truly must be something special.”
Before I could shut that down or ease her nerves, Sienna placed her hand on mine. Her fingers were trembling, but her voice wasn’t when she met Jaroslav’s gaze head-on.
“Jaroslav, is it?”
He nodded.
Then she said something that blew my damn mind.
“Do you know how hard it is to find someone who actually wants to talk about the things I’m interested in?
Someone who understands IT, or at least listens without pretending to?
” she said. “Besides my friend Mandy, who barely understands half of what I say, the answer is no one. So when I met Avit, I lucked out. And unlike most guys my age, when Avit speaks, it’s because he has something to say…
not because he likes the sound of his own voice.
He's intentional. And he doesn’t try to change me into something I’m not, AKA a walking Barbie that will look good on his arm. ”
She tilted her head. “Do you not believe in love at first sight?”
A slow, genuine smile pulled at Jaroslav’s mouth.
“I do,” he said quietly.
“Then why waste years apart,” she added, “when we could spend that time together?”
Silence dropped over the table like someone had cut the power. Even the kids went still.
Then Mariya declared, lifting her glass, “I like her! Welcome to the sisterhood, Sienna.”
The women raised their glasses.
“To the sisterhood!”
Their laughter broke the tension.
From there, the conversation drifted to the Hearth, the last few pieces Ninel decided to add to her art gallery opening, shopping, then places the women wanted to vacation now that the faction was no longer under attack.
As I watched her, I saw Sienna settling in bit by bit—her shoulders loosening, her voice warming as she spoke with my sisters about her studies, campus life, and Mandy.
When dinner was cleared, and dessert was being brought out, I rested my hand on Sienna’s lower back and leaned in.
“Are you okay? Need to escape?”
She smiled and shook her head. “I’m okay.”
The longer I watched her with my family, the deeper the ache in my chest grew. I kept thinking how different things could’ve been if I had met her at that damn café, book in hand, and we’d had a real marriage. Not this arrangement born from necessity to keep her safe.
I wanted to shield her from Jasper, from the shit that would eventually hit the fan. But after all that…what then?
Was I supposed to just walk away? Cut ties and hand her back her old life like we'd never met?
The thought hit me so hard it felt like the air was sucked straight out of the room.
Because I knew that my life wouldn’t go back to what it was before Sienna.
And the idea of returning to that emptiness made something inside me shatter.