Chapter 40 Amber
AMBER
Five and a half months later…
“So, you aren’t at all suspicious about this guy?” Roman asked me as we pushed the stroller through the park, summertime shining in all its radiance. Light trickled through the tree canopy above us and green grass spread through the lawns.
“Suspicious?” I replied of the guard Anya was trying to date.
Trying was the keyword there. All of them were overly protective of her.
Mikhail, Andre, Sergei, and even Roman. He was the one Anya thought to have on her side, as the “fun” one, but he was a dad too, and they didn’t mess around with looking out for the women in the family. “Of course, I’m suspicious.”
“See!” He lifted his hand while he kept the other on the handlebar. Emily was looking sleepy, but Henry kept tugging on the strap to escape.
He was the escape artist. The streaker across the penthouse when he didn’t want a bath.
And the all-around fiend who kept both of us on our toes.
The pulling-up phase was an adventure. The crawling part was wild.
But the second that boy could start to walk—which he’d learned last week—my days of not keeping a hawk eye on him were over.
That boy had some speed in his little legs.
“But I’m only suspicious because I’m a woman. I’ll always be suspicious of any man who’s interested in a friend of mine. That’s just how the sisterhood works.”
I lifted my ice cream cone to my mouth and licked it, smiling.
Sisterhood. It was a phenomenon I never thought I’d have. All those depressing days of assuming I’d never have a family ended when I found Roman and the rest of the Orlovs.
In a few more months, I would really have a sister. Nat would be my sister-in-law. Sergei would officially be my brother-in-law. The rest of them were just the same, though.
When Sofia learned that she was pregnant again a couple of months ago, we’d all had a good laugh about it. All four of us were expecting at the same time. Mikhail and Roman joked about investing in the diaper industry.
“All right. But otherwise, don’t you think it’s suspicious that he’s interested in her so soon?” he asked.
“No.” The young man in question was a former soldier who’d been discharged.
Since he had a medical background, he’d come to train at Claire’s clinic.
While Anya had taken a quick interest in him, he earned points from me for being polite and telling her he wanted to wait before dating again since he’d recently gotten out of a long relationship. “Anya’s a lovely woman.”
He frowned at me.
“If he was supposed to be a suspicious man, he never would’ve made it into the building at all.”
“That’s true.”
I licked my ice cream again. “It’s that you guys are overprotective.”
“We have every right to be like that,” he growled.
I leaned my head on his shoulder. “I know.” And I did.
I knew rather well how protective my fiancé was of me.
He’d killed for me. He arranged high-stakes operations like a hit in a prison and out on the sea.
Roman would always have my back. “We know you guys are overprotective.” I reached up to kiss his cheek. “And we love that you guys are.”
He smiled wryly. “But she’s making it sound like it’s getting serious!”
I laughed lightly. “I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones planning a wedding at the moment. She can’t be that serious about him.”
“She told me that she’s going to ask him to be her date to the wedding,” he replied.
“That’s sweet.”
He shot me another look.
“We already gave our approval. Claire, Nat, Sofia, and I all grilled him when he started at the clinic.” I was pretty sure Natalie frightened him, but she’d been dealing with some horrible reflux and could barely sleep with how big her belly was.
No one could hold it against her for being partly rude.
“Hmm.”
I smiled as we strolled along, loving that this big, bad, dangerous Mafia man could do something like this with me. Walk through the park. Spend time like a family. And worry about his younger cousin wanting to date a nice young man.
Embracing this new life felt like a retake on my existence.
I no longer worried about whether William would find me. All his friends and associates would never be able to leer at me and make me feel uncomfortable. No creepy criminal would be able to count on completing a transaction to own me.
Because Roman did. He had my heart. And I would always trust him with it.
Over the last few months, I started to engage with more therapy sessions. Even though I thought I had a good handle on it, some flashbacks would bother me.
I didn’t flinch at every noise anymore. I was better at maintaining eye contact and not shying away from every new person I saw.
While I’d always be a homebody because that was where I could spend the most direct time with the twins and with Roman, I had lost a lot of the hesitation to go out at all.
Healing was possible with the family I’d found. With the man I loved. Roman stood by me with every hurdle I faced, and I prayed and hoped that by the time our next child was born, I would feel even more complete to be the best mother possible.
Roman chided me often, telling me that I already was the best mother possible. And every time he told me that, I felt brighter and fuller from the inside out that I was the one Emily and Henry would always identify as their mother.
Despite all the shadows of my past, I’d found so much light in the unlikeliest place—in the home of a mobster.
“Are you sure you want to have the twins’ birthday party this weekend?” Roman asked a while later, clearly moving on past the topic of Anya dating someone.
“Well, it’s their birthday! Of course, we’ll have it then.”
“But the baby shower will be next weekend. That’s a lot.”
I smiled. “A lot of fun and togetherness.”
“We really can’t wait too long for a baby shower,” he said.
We couldn’t. My due date was approaching more swiftly than I thought it would.
So many things had happened since I learned that I was pregnant, too.
Maisie got glasses. Anya was dating. Daria eloped with a guard.
Lorne retired and was now my assistant. Other ups and downs had come, too, but this family could handle anything.
I rubbed my baby bump, loving this phase of my pregnancy, but I really was looking forward to the wedding that would come after my son or daughter was born.
Even though I was impatient to be able to call Roman my husband, it would’ve been so stressful planning a wedding with the twins nearing their first birthday and with my pregnancy changing my body as I chased after the twins.
Roman had hit a spell of long work hours too when he started up the negotiations for a new hotel.
Life was busy, but good. And after I was healed from giving birth, I’d be able to put my attention on my wedding. A wedding I never imagined I’d be able to have, but since meeting Roman, my life had only changed for the better.
“You know what?”
Roman glanced at me. “What?”
“I’m really glad that of all the nanny positions I could have found, I landed on you.”
He paused to kiss me. “And I’m really glad that all those nannies who applied didn’t last, so the vacancy was open to you.”
I kissed him and pushed the stroller with him before one of the twins would protest.
“You know what?” he asked me a moment later.
“What?”
“I imagined you being pregnant from the moment I met you. How sexy you’d be with this baby bump.”
“From the moment you met me? At the interview?” I gaped at him. “You did not.”
“I did.” He smiled. “It must have been a vision of fate.”
Peering up at him with all the love my heart could manage, I wondered what else fate had in store for us.
A mental montage of Roman playing with Emily and Henry when they were older.
Holidays and birthday parties. All the children we could be blessed with in the future.
Because I now knew from the bottom of my heart that they, and I, would always be safe with this strong Mafia man protecting us.