Page 56 of Forced Mafia Bride
Nadia.
Moved by that familial tug, I rose to my feet, covering the distance to wrap her in a warm embrace. It’d been years since I got to hold the rascal in my arms. She smelled a lot like I remembered—rebellion and sweetness.
“Oh, Nik,” Nadia whimpered, face buried in my neck. I heard the relief, the comfort, and a hint of regret. “It’s so good to see you again. It’s been, what? How many years?”
I pulled back, searching her face through her thick, dark lashes. They shimmered with silver tears, and she stared back at me with glassy eyes. “The last time I saw you was two weeks after you turned twenty-two.”
She laughed, gently wiping the tears off her eyes. “I turned thirty-two yesterday. That makes it exactly ten years, right? Such a coincidence, but I am glad life brought you back to me.”
“I am, too. I got married yesterday.”
Her hand paused mid-air, and the most comical expression sat on her face. Gobsmacked, her jaw dropped. “Nikolai got married?Did Egor give you his blessings?”
I slipped my hands into “Yeah. He did, but couldn’t make it. Freya’s organizing a huge family dinner to make up for their absence.”
The smile fell off her face, and she fiddled with the strap of her sling purse.
Nadia hadn’t been very lucky with getting Egor’s blessings for her marriage. Two weeks after her twenty-second birthday, she abruptly announced her engagement to some guy Egor considered a weasel. Needless to say, no one approved. Not Grandpa, not Aunt Nadia, and certainly not Egor. They kicked against it—Egor fought against it. And when she vehemently refused to listen, he promised to kick her out and disassociate her from the family name and inheritance if she went ahead with the wedding.
The Yezhov bloodline flowed hardheads and sadly, the trait didn’t escape our youngest.
So, she went ahead to marry the bastard anyway, and Egor did exactly as he promised. And he didn’t look back.
I was powerless. There was nothing I could do to bring her back. For a few months, we kept in touch, and I learned that she had come to Paris to live with the one person who supported her—our mother. We never talked about her much, but though estranged, Egor and I had a more cordial, formalrelationship with her than we did with Nadia in the last ten years.
She attempted another smile. “That’s good. It’s good that he did. I bet he was shocked, though, when you announced that you were getting married. I just can’t believe it. What happened to your mission of fucking all the women in Los Angeles?”
I smirked. “I grew up; that’s what happened. Got real responsibilities more serious than tasting pussies.” Even if there was one I wasn’t sure I’d get tired of tasting.
Nadia laughed again, getting livelier than she was seconds ago. “I missed you, Nikolai. It used to be us against the world, or at least us against Egor, you remember? A formidable team. Sad how my life turned out. Gosh, I’d like to see Timur now.”
It bothered me, the way she’d talked about her life. “Timur’s a man now,” I said, glancing at the short cut of her hair brushing the collar of her shirt dress. That was the only sign I needed. I narrowed my eyes at her. The Nadia I knew would have never cut her hair unless her life depended on it.
“What the fuck happened?”
Her lips wobbled. She knew she couldn’t deny it. We’d always been like that, able to read each other’s minds to know when something was wrong. “He left me, Nik.”
“That fucking bastard,” I hissed, fingers clenched.
The tears in her voice quickly formed a river, but as strong as she was, she held it in. “He was a fucking fraud. The secondhe found out Egor cut me off, he left the house one day for a morning run, and I never heard from him again.”
“He could be dead.”
She raised her eyes to mine, not even bothering to hide the glaring pain in them. “He left a note.”
“What did it say?”
Her chest heaved. “I’m sorry I had to leave like this, babe, but we both deserve a better life. I know you’ve put a target on my back, so I’m going to tell you I’m in Sweden, but I’m not there. Be happy.”
Anger flooded my veins. “If he thought he was being a criminal mastermind, that was the definition of being a complete idiot.”
She suppressed a chuckle. “I agree. He was an idiot, and so was I.”
I held her gaze, wanting to tell her she wasn’t, and she only acted like a woman in love. But I couldn’t relate to the word when it felt so foreign, yet familiar in the strangest way.
“You know I can find him before dawn tomorrow if you want?”
This time, she busted out in bitter laughter. “We were only married for three months, Nik. I picked up the pieces a long time ago and have been doing well for myself ever since. If he’s lying in a ditch somewhere, then....” Her mouth twisted, and she didn’t complete the sentence. The son of a bitch still had her heart.