Epilogue
Three months later
Chloe
“Are you sure you will not miss this place?” Dora asked me as I carried out the box with the last of my things.
The shelter officially opened two months ago.
Meanwhile, I had enrolled in classes focusing on neuropsychology.
It might take me another decade to get a PhD, but I was looking forward to where this new adventure would take me.
“I’ll visit.” I smiled. “Opening this NGO taught me a lot about administrative duties.”
“That you hate them?” Dora teased.
We laughed and exchanged more small talk as she walked me to the reception area. She gave me a last hug and said goodbye.
I barely heard her because I was focused on a little girl of about six. One of the shelter staff was helping her mother fill out the form at the kiosk. The girl gave me a shy smile.
My heart clenched. I approached them, lowered my box onto an empty chair, and crouched in front of the girl.
“Hi,” I said.
“Hi,” she replied.
“Welcome to Renewed Hope.”
“Do you live here too?” she asked.
“I used to live in a place like this,” I replied. “It helped me a lot.”
“It looks really nice.”
“Amber,” the mother called. “Quit bothering the nice lady.”
“No.” I rose to my feet and smiled at the mother. “I was the one who was nosy. Amber, is it?” I glanced down at the little girl. “Pretty name for a pretty girl.”
Amber preened. “She called me pretty, Mommy.”
There were tears in the woman’s eyes. “I’m sorry.” Her hiccup suppressed a sob. “Her dad called her…a—” She shook her head. “I know who you are,” she told me. “Amber is you…It gave me the courage to leave him.”
Emotions backed up my throat when I realized what she was trying to say.
I clasped the woman’s shoulder and glanced past her to see her name on the screen of the kiosk.
“Well, Sasha, you have help here. This is my last day officially working at the shelter, but I’ll be visiting often.
” The mother looked young. As young as Aralina. “I’m going back to school.”
“Oh.” She looked wistful. “I…” Her cheeks reddened. “I had to drop out of college because—”
“We have programs.” I couldn’t stop myself from nodding because I was excited to help the woman get back on her feet.
I hadn’t been old enough, understanding enough, or mature enough to help my mother, but now that I’d embraced my identity and possessed the means to do so, I wanted to ease the way for struggling parents.
“The NGO has college scholarships for residents who qualify.”
“Really?” Her eyes lit up.
“It’s hard to go back to school with a young child, but there are flexible programs. I’ll give Dora a call—she’s the shelter administrator, and she can help you move forward.”
“I mean…you hardly know me,” she whispered, her words clogged with tears.
I fought against letting my tears fall. Was I impulsive? I glanced at Amber, who was looking up at her mother expectantly. No. No, I wasn’t.
And when Amber said, “Mommy, I’m hungry,” I almost lost it as it brought back the memories of Renée crying at dinnertime. Thankfully, the staff in charge of resident intake came to usher Amber and Sasha into orientation.
I watched them walk away. Amber looked over her shoulder and gave me a small wave. I exhaled a couple of re-centering breaths before I strode out of the building.
Kolya was already waiting for me, his eyes on the phone, tapping away.
He had assumed the brigadier position and was putting his house in order, and that meant lots of meetings, which he tolerated, but he admitted he liked the flexible schedule.
It didn’t mean there weren’t nights where he was late or he didn’t come home until the next morning.
But it was rare now when he came home smelling like soap.
He hadn’t seen me yet, so I took that opportunity to give Renewed Hope shelter one last look.
I didn’t pay attention to the name past the brainstorming stage on what to call the foundation, but I was experiencing the meaning of those words as if it entered the tip of my head and spread across my limbs in some kind of spiritual renewal. I wished Amber and Sasha all the best.
“Chloshka?” Kolya called.
His eyes narrowed on me as I got into the passenger side.
“Is that everything?” He glanced behind him where I deposited the box.
“Yes.”
“Ready to go?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t look like you are.” He stared at me intently. “You’re crying.”
I angled my head teasingly. “How sure are you these aren’t tears of joy?” I certainly wouldn’t be missing the administrative work. Even when we’d hired an assistant for Dora, simply sitting behind the desk or attending functions and being the face of the foundation were not for me.
It was good to have choices.
Second chances and even third chances.
Kolya scrutinized my expression once more, and a grin kicked up at the corner of his mouth. “Looks like they are.”
He gunned the engine, and we headed home. Or at least I thought we were, but he’d taken the opposite direction from Kirill’s compound.
“Are we going out to dinner? We should swing by for Sebastian.”
“It’s too early for dinner.”
“Well, where are we going?”
“You’ll see.”
My husband. Always mysterious. And I knew better than to nag him for information until he was ready to give it to me. Fall was almost upon us, and the sweltering summer heat had finally broken. I couldn’t wait for the autumn colors to sweep through Central Park.
But it didn’t take me long to figure out what Kolya was up to.
Given that we’d been house hunting since after Aralina and Theo’s wedding, he was taking me to look at another property.
We couldn’t agree on what kind of house we liked.
Everything I picked, Kolya argued it was too small or was hard to secure.
Everything he picked…well…I saw their merits, but none of them felt like home.
I told him I didn’t want to live in a fortress.
Forty minutes later, Kolya turned into a driveway flanked by wooded areas on both sides. The paved road led to a circular one in front of a massive brick colonial home.
“Before you say anything,” he said. “Have a look around first.”
“Isn’t the realtor meeting us here?” I didn’t see another car around.
“I have the keys,” he said shortly.
He parked the SUV.
I got out, and the first thing that hit me was not the grandiosity of the house, but the refreshing gentle breeze and crisp scent of the woods inflating my lungs. “Oh wow, it’s…” My brows drew together. “It’s beautiful out here.”
I spun in a small circle and lifted my gaze to the tops of the trees. “Is this an old property? The trees look mature.”
“Recently renovated, but the property is thirty years old.”
Kolya held out his hand, and I instinctively gravitated toward him.
Another trait I loved about him was how he wasn’t afraid to show affection when it came to me and Sebastian, even in public, although sometimes it felt like he’d peed a circle around me.
His message was clear: Sebastian and I were the most important people in his life.
I was glad he wasn’t the type who ignored us in order to protect us. I guess it helped that he was a feared enforcer of the bratva and no one dared to piss him off.
When we entered the house, it smelled of cinnamon and apples. “Did someone already bake in here?”
He shrugged. We walked into the kitchen. A spread of food greeted us. Light snacks like a charcuterie board, an open bottle of wine.
I turned to him. “Did you already buy the house?”
“I put in an offer,” he told me, and there was not one iota of remorse. “After going through several properties, I’d determined what would make us both agree.”
I crossed my arms and glared at him. Although it was a mock glare. I loved take-charge Kolya, but I had to show a little resistance, right? “Is that so?”
He chuckled lightly and dragged me into his arms. “Baby, you know I don’t like it when my hands are not full of you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Look around,” he prodded. “Lots of natural light and you can decorate it as you please. The ceilings are not too high.”
Pale blue and cream coffered ceilings in the dining room and the living room.
It gave the house a cozier architecture.
The kitchen had butter-yellow cabinets and one of those six burner old-fashioned French stoves.
It opened straight onto a patio surrounded by an extensive grassy landscape.
A three-level terrace separated the property from the forest.
“Sebastian’s playset can go right there.” He pointed to a corner. “Security-wise, I’ve already mapped it out.”
I laughed. “Of course you have.”
Kolya nuzzled my throat. “Is that a jab at me, baby?”
Oh God, I was getting tingles right between my legs. I spun around in his arms and linked my fingers at the back of his neck. I tilted my chin up. “Maybe. What are you going to do about it?”
His eyes gleamed, but then the sound of vehicles rolling down the driveway made him groan.
“You invited company?” I quirked a brow.
“I wish I hadn’t,” he grumbled. “We’re going to have a gated entrance, by the way.”
“Not doubting that.”
Kolya tugged me along his side as we went to welcome the visitors.
Well, not really visitors.
We opened the door to Ivan and Irina. They had Sebastian with them.
“He’s such a good boy.” Ivan was holding Sebastian in the crook of his right arm. But when my boy saw his father, he gave an excited giggle and reached for Kolya. As the two men walked inside, Irina smiled at me. “This is gorgeous. I told Ivan we should move out of the city.”
“Let me see how I like it first. I might get cabin fever.” I hollered after Kolya, “Are we expecting anyone else?”
It was Irina who answered, “Kirill and Lucy are picking up Aralina and Gage.”