Chapter 12
ARTYOM
“Doesn’t that bother you? She had another man’s child.”
My cousin is getting on my nerves today. He’s sitting in our Babushka’s kitchen for what he’s decided is an informal strategy meeting. In his head, that means he gets to give me advice about my life choices, apparently.
I scratch the back of my neck. This is difficult to explain to Valentin, given how purity-obsessed the Bratva is. I can’t think of anyone in my family who’s married someone who’s not a blushing virgin. Or at least pretending to be.
“I can’t resent anything that brings her so much happiness. It felt right to see her as a mother,” I explain to him. That’s all I’ve wanted, all I’ve worked to ensure, in the years since Nina left me. That she’s safe and happy.
Now I want the same for her child.
I thought it would pain me to meet Ava. I’ll never be glad that Nina slept with another man. But I am glad that Ava has brought so much joy into her life. Meeting Ava was like meeting a part of her. She has Nina’s freckles, Nina’s nose, and the dimple in the center of Nina’s chin.
“Vanya won’t like it,” Valentin cautions. “You know she made Mariana and Grigory do the whole bedsheet thing?”
Add that to the list of reasons I’m pretty sure our babushka has just announced marriage as a requirement to fuck with us.
I shudder. “A horrifying thought. She knows that every bedsheet she’s been shown has chicken blood on it, I’m pretty sure. That’s a time-honored tradition in our family at this point.”
“That tradition doesn’t exactly work when the bride has already had a child,” Valentin points out. “Even the chicken blood can’t save you at that point, Tyoma.”
I shrug. “Vanya will get over the whole virgin thing. I’m still the favorite grandchild.”
“Except me,” my cousin butts in, a shit-eating grin spreading across his face.
He’s right. Vanya loves him, because he’s more of a suck-up than I am. He was named after her own father, and she’s always treasured the connection to her side of the family.
“Fine. I amend my statement: I am the favorite grandchild with leadership aspirations.” Valentin enjoys his lifestyle too much to want to be involved in the council.
He’ll never settle down. He can’t spend half the year spending the family money in Paris if he has a wife and family in New York.
“If there’s one member of the family who’s going to sit out the wedding frenzy, it’s you. ”
Valentin nods and rubs his chin, deep in thought. “I just don’t think Vanya is going to approve. Even if you are the golden child, for now.”
“She didn’t set any requirements other than marriage. I could marry someone off the street and she’d have to accept it.”
“You’ll need to make another heir.”
“There’s no limit,” I huff. “Just because Nina’s had one child doesn’t mean she can’t have more.”
“Step-families. That’s messy stuff, take it from me, cousin.” Valentin’s father has had a string of wives a mile long, none of them older than 25. His mother was the first.
I gesture around us. If these walls could talk… “I’m used to messy families.”
“Vanya will have some bloody metaphor about a tree or something for you, cousin. By bringing Nina into the family, you’re also bringing in the father of her child. And you don’t even know who that is.”
The thought hits me like a bucket of ice, as it does every time my thoughts turn to the bastard who abandoned Nina and Ava, leaving them alone.
Every muscle in my body tenses at the suggestion of a broader family than just myself, Nina and Ava.
I don’t like the thought of sharing with anyone.
Something about Valentin’s words makes me picture a reality I hadn’t considered — one where we have to arrange goddamned drop-offs and pick-ups with the dropkick who abandoned Ava, if he decides his child matters enough to be a part of their lives.
One thing I know for sure: he doesn’t deserve Ava. And he sure as hell didn’t deserve Nina.
“We’ll manage.”
“You might not. For all you know, he’s the head of the fucking Irish mob.”
I slam a fist into the table and grit my teeth together at Valentin’s words. The thought of Nina with the Irish sends a chill down my spine. They’re known for their violence towards women.
“Take it back.”
He smirks at me. “I knew you didn’t like the idea of her sleeping with someone else.”
“Of course I don’t,” I grind out. “But I’m not going to blame her for something that happened when we weren’t together.”
“When she left you, you mean.”
Valentin runs to the other side of the room just as I swing across the table to haul him up by his collar. The bastard is shorter than me and he’s always been quicker, too.
“You see what I mean, cousin,” he drawls, looking at his fingernails. “It’s not the best look to have your future wife sleeping with whoever she wants.”
“Keep your damn opinions to yourself, cousin.”
“Don’t think the family hasn’t noticed what you’re doing. Pushing aside business to chase this girl. You’ll only end up embarrassing yourself when she leaves you again.”
With that, he slips out of the room, leaving me to stew in my thoughts.
He might be regurgitating bullshit, but one thing does have meaning.
I need to find Ava’s father.
Especially if Ivan’s right and he’s someone in this household.
I need to know whether she left me for him, whoever he is. And why he’s not around anymore.
All I’ve gotten from Ivan recently is an explanation of where Nina went when she left me. Only, the story was so full of holes that it told me nothing.
Nina showed up at the Estate, went inside for an hour, then left — in a rush, judging by the coat slung over one shoulder and the way she was urgently talking into her phone.
The next day, she drove all the way to Missouri, where her family lives.
One day later, she left Missouri and never went back. She hasn’t visited for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any other occasion since.
That’s where the trail stops. We were only keeping tabs on her in New York and Missouri. The only other information we have is her college record. She continued her studies remotely, attending every online class, and maintaining her perfect 4.0 GPA.
There’s not a single blip, not even when she must have been the mother of a newborn, living alone, God knows where, and studying remotely without her support systems. Her placement rotations were marked as completed in the system, but there are no records of where she completed them.
It was only when she got the residency at Middlefield, a year and a half ago, that she returned to the city, enrolled Ava in preschool, and came back onto our radar.
That was when I was finally able to make the security arrangements that I wanted.