CHAPTER 14
Naomi
I waited with Gavril in the hallway as we watched the children file out of the rooms, my heart twisted with pain both for him and me. His pain had been raw earlier, the very pain that I still didn’t understand what drove it. I might have only known him for a few months, but I was well aware of his emotions, of his moods.
Gavril was in pain. He had suffered some great loss in his life, and perhaps that was what drove him now.
Either that or he truly liked the violence around him. I knew that he did enjoy parts of it, but given what I had seen today, there was good in Gavril.
There was good in him, begging for release. After all, what sort of pakhan would take a family under his wing and provide for them? I doubted he was going to ask anything of the girls or their mother.
If he did, I would be disappointed yet again.
Alyona came out first, running to us with a wide smile on her face. My eyes snuck up to Gavril’s face, watching the transformation in him that seemed to happen immediately when his eyes found hers. All traces of the tortured man from earlier faded. And in their place was a man who cared for these girls.
Was it wrong to be a tiny bit jealous of his loyalty to them?
“So?” he was asking Alyona. “How did it go?”
“Well,” she replied, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “I didn’t miss a note.”
“Good,” Gavril replied, holding out his hand so the young girl could give him a high five. “I knew you could do it.”
Kira joined us a few moments later, clutching music sheets in her arms. “I did it!” she said, holding out the sheets for us to see. “They want me to learn these sheets for the next time!”
Gavril also gave her a high five, and I couldn’t help but smile a little as he reviewed her sheets. “Well done, Kira,” he said as he handed the sheets back to her. “You’ve learned harder music than this.”
“And you will help?” she asked, her eyes darting to me. “Right, Gavril?”
“Of course,” he answered immediately. “You both have made it this far, but there is still a long way to go. Come. Let’s get you home.”
This time when we arrived at their home, Gavril escorted me to the front door, where a slim woman with a mass of red curls greeted us.
“Pakhan,” she said softly, inclining her head. “Thank you for taking the girls today. Would you like to come in?”
“Please!” Kira called out from the foyer. “You can help me with my new music, Gavril.”
My husband chuckled. “Well, it seems that I’m being coerced into doing so. May I introduce my wife, Sveta Stanislavovna? Sveta, this is Inessa Artyomovna.”
Inessa gave me a kind smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Sveta Stanislavovna. Would you like a cup of tea while he deals with my unruly girls?”
I looked at Gavril, who gave me a single nod before he disappeared into the house. “That would be lovely,” I answered. “Thank you.”
She smiled and led me into a cheery kitchen, taking a few moments to put a pot of coffee on. “I have to say,” Inessa started. “I heard of your marriage, but was quite surprised to see you with him today. He doesn’t bring anyone here.”
I sat at the small wooden table. “I’m the lucky one, being able to meet your lovely daughters.”
Inessa joined me a moment later, placing a plate of cookies in the middle of the table, the smell of caramel and chocolate heavy in the air. It reminded me of my own mom’s kitchen, how she always had something sweet available when I got home from school.
“Lovely they are,” Inessa said. “Their feistiness comes from their father, as well as their talent.”
The sad smile on her face tugged at my heart, not even starting to imagine what she had been through in her loss and how she had carried on with her life. “They are special girls, and they seem to adore my husband.”
That brought a laugh from the other woman. “That is for certain. The pakhan has been very generous to my children, ensuring that we don’t ever have to worry about losing this home. Or the girls needing to sacrifice the things they love. We are very fortunate for his assistance.” Her eyes sparkled as she looked at me. “What I really want to know is who you truly are, and why he’s trying to pass you off as Sveta Stanislavovna.”
“I—” I started, frantically shuffling through our interaction to see if I had given myself away. Gavril would be furious. “I don’t know what you mean.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, an amused and knowing look on her face. “Your secret is safe with me, I assure you. I have no desire to incur the pakhan’s anger.”
I knew she was telling the truth. If Gavril pulled his support of her girls, then they would be left destitute. “How did you know?” I asked lightly, switching to English.
Inessa smirked as she pushed away from the table and moved to pour two cups of coffee. “If you were Sveta Stanislavovna, you would be kept well away from anyone. The very fact that the pakhan has brought you here tells me you aren’t Sveta at all.”
“My name is Naomi,” I offered up, figuring the least I could do was tell her my true name. She was the first person outside of Gavril’s inner circle that I was able to talk to, and it was refreshing to do so.
She brought the cups to the table, placing one before me. “It’s nice to meet you, Naomi. Welcome to my home and to my life with my girls.”
“Thank you for having me,” I murmured, my throat thick with emotion. She had no idea what it meant for her to call me by my true name, to shed the disguise of Sveta and be myself for once. “I hope you don’t think less of me for hiding my identity.”
The other woman shook her head, her hands cupped her warm mug. “Of course not. I do hope you realize that this isn’t unusual for this life. Whatever plans the pakhan has for you, he has good reason for what he’s doing.”
“Like getting your husband killed?” I asked lightly.
Inessa gave me a sad smile, her grief evident in her eyes. “My husband and I knew what we were getting into. Vasily was a good man who wanted the best for his family. He and I met at a dance, and from the moment he laid eyes on me, I knew I would be his. But he was a man who had grown up in a world of violence. And though he wasn’t violent to me, it was the only thing he was truly good at.”
Idly, I wondered if Gavril and I had met under different circumstances, if it would have been that way. I had never had that moment Inessa was reminiscing about, where a man would take my breath away by just looking at me and cement a connection between us that would span a lifetime. Of course, I had felt something like that with Gavril, but it was only after he had taken me.
What if we had met at a club, his gorgeous eyes finding mine from across the room? Would he have come toward me, offering to buy me a drink or to dance with me until I couldn’t get enough of him?
Or would I have brazenly approached him instead, flirting with him and having a one-night stand that would have changed my life?
It didn’t matter, of course. How we had come together wasn’t a story to tell anyone, not even our child one day.
“Did you know about his life?” I asked after a moment, pulling my thoughts back to the present.
Inessa took a sip of her tea before answering. “He told me on our first date. He wanted me to go into our relationship with my eyes wide open and know what I was getting into. Not just for our marriage, but for our children.”
“How could you accept that?” I didn’t know if I would willingly go into a marriage if I knew there was a chance of losing my husband or even worse, all our lives, one day.
But as I thought about it, I realized that was exactly what I was in right now with Gavril. Even if it hadn’t been my choice, I was locked in with my pregnancy, and the danger was real.
“My heart didn’t give me much of a choice,” she answered, sighing. “I loved my husband fiercely, and it was always in the back of my mind that either he wouldn’t come home one day, or that his work for the Pakhan and the Bratva that he loved so much would get in the way of our lives. I always knew it wasn’t going to end well. Men in these positions rarely live to grow old.”
I couldn’t believe how she had taken all of this in stride. How many times had she kissed her husband goodbye and thought that it could be the last time she would see him? How could Inessa look at her children and know that one day she would be a single mother? She was a heck of a lot braver than I could ever be.
“My association with the pakhan isn’t going to be permanent,” Inessa said after a few moments. “I’m well aware that one day I will lose his patronage and his devotion to my family and to my girls.”
“It’s not right,” I replied, staring into the dark liquid in my cup. “It’s not right at all what could happen.”
“It is what is expected,” she answered with a shrug. “You are not Russian, so you do not understand. This has always been our lot in life. A thousand years of suffering flow in our veins, and every generation must know its due.”
I was horrified by her answer. She had two daughters to be concerned with, two daughters that could be given to anyone for anything if the Bratva demanded it. While I hoped that Gavril would never do something so horrible, I knew he was capable of such evil.
“My girls are my world,” Inessa continued. “But one day they will be thrown to the wolves. If not the pakhan’s, then someone else’s. I am very fortunate that I haven’t been forced to remarry someone in the Bratva, and all my thanks go to your husband at the moment.”