Page 66 of Forced Mafia Bride
She waved a shiny silver spoon at Nikolai. “Niko? When are we finally going to dig in? I might just abandon this chicken and heat up some fries, you know?”
“He wants us to die of hunger.” Egor pitched in, addressing everyone, but his eyes were fixed on me.
I gulped.
The aura surrounding this man was enough to make anyone fall on their knees in fear, but the children and his wife paraded around him like he was an ordinary man selling flowers on the street.
“Maybe if you asked him, he’d comply in a heartbeat.”
Reacting was easier with a forward and blunt Freya, but how was I supposed to respond to a teasing Egor? Even if we’d gotten acquainted pretty fast, and he formally acknowledged me as his sister-in-law, I wasn’t sure how to act around him.
Be nice?
Tease back?
Be formal?
Thankfully, Nikolai swooped in to save my tied tongue. Flashing a smile at Freya, he put Alina down and stationed himself behind my chair. “We’ll eat soon. I’m expecting someone.”
Egor’s brows dipped, and he sat up straight on his chair, intertwining his fingers as he leaned forward, but before a word came out of his mouth, the doorbell sliced through the silence, and Niko was quick on his feet to attend to the visitor.
Hushed voices echoed through the foyer, followed by quiet emerging footsteps, and when Nikolai ushered Nadia in, the silence that fell was deafening. I held my breath.
From the periphery, I saw Freya’s hand creep towards her husband’s. She covered the back of his big hand and squeezed gently. And when I looked up, I understood why.
Egor had the look of a predator ready to kill.Ready to kill my husband.The lines on his face contorted to deadly strokes, his pupils narrowed dangerously, and his jaw clenched. He was livid.
“Alina. Alexei.” The rest of his words flowed in a hot Russian rush.
Judging by the quiet manner the children obeyed and carried their leftover fries into another room, I didn’t need Niko’s translation to know he’d asked them to leave.
“You didn’t mention anything about inviting strangers to ourfamilydinner, Nikolai.”
I couldn’t see my husband’s face, but the firmness of his voice was adequate proof to know he wasn’t planning to back down either.
“It is a family dinner.”
“With a stranger in our midst?”
“She is not a stranger, brother. Nadia is our—”
A loud crack thundered in the dining room when Egor’s fist struck the table, and my shoulders trembled when his chair scraped the floor, flying backward. “One more time, Niko. I dare you to say her name one more fucking time.”
Nikolai stepped up to him, his face in full view. He appeared calm, but the fire in his eyes was as stubborn as his brother’s. “Nadia is family. She’s ours, our blood. Tossing her away like fucking trash won’t change what happened. She made a mistake.”
“A mistake? She chose that bastard over her family; that is what she did. I fucking warned her, and she didn’t listen.”
“How many times did I listen to you when I was younger? How many times did you listen to Papa when you were younger? And when Grandpa threw so many girls in your face to pick a wife, how many did you marry?”
Freya adjusted her seat and tilted toward me to whisper, “Don’t worry; they’ll be over this soon. If anybody asked me, I’d say Niko did a great job bringing Nadia here. This reunion was long overdue. I’ve just never seen Egor this upset about anything.”
“I can understand because they rarely ever show their emotions. He must have been hurt pretty bad after their sister left.”
“Yeah.”
We whispered back and forth, flashing encouraging smiles to Nadia, who stood at the side like a sad bystander while everyone else watched the drama between the brothers simmer.
Then, very abruptly, it stopped.