Fine. I hated this man.
“You don’t like the mansion, dear? We have an off-beach villa. We can move there,” Grandma said.
“I…” My hand disappeared beneath the table and landed on Dmitri’s thigh. I pinched him the way you pinch someone, impossible. He didn’t flinch. I tried harder but still got nothing. This man was built from something other than normal human material. “It’s not like that.”
“Well, we will have to move there too then,” Grandma concluded.
Like grandmother, like grandson. That was what Dmitri said as well.
I looked at Dmitri and found the smirk sitting comfortably on his face. I pinched him again out of principle. He still didn’t react, so I pulled my hand away and accepted defeat.
His hand caught mine under the table before I got far. He threaded our fingers together and settled my hand on his lap, holding it there. His thumb moved slowly across my skin while the rest of the conversation carried on around us.
The discussion about wedding plans continued between Caitlin and Grandma while Dmitri and Akim slipped into Russian. I stayed quiet, listening to both conversations without fully following either. Most of my attention remained on Dmitri’s hand holding mine.
A guard stepped into the dining room, and the conversation died. He bowed before looking directly at Dmitri.
“Boss, you have a guest at the gate.” He said, and Dmitri remained silent, as though he expected more information than that. The guard’s eyes shifted toward me. “She said she is Madam’s mother.”
My heart stumbled. I looked at the guard and then at Dmitri. Dmitri was already pushing back his chair, his face settling into the expression he wore whenever something required handling.
That was how I knew it was my mother.
Akim rose on instinct, already pulling out his phone. “I’ll handle that.”
“Did she request a meeting?” Dmitri asked.
“No, boss,” Akim answered.
Dmitri left the dining room, and Akim followed. Everything changed so quickly that the room seemed different from one second to the next.
I pushed back my chair and followed them, my heart racing ahead of the rest of me.
“She will not be getting in here. Tell her—” Dmitri stopped when my voice reached him.
“Is it my mother?” I asked.
They both turned toward me, and the silence told me I was right. Dmitri gave Akim a nod, and Akim turned and walked away.
“I’ll handle her,” Dmitri said as he approached me.
“You’re sending her away?”
“She won’t see you until you’re ready.” He stopped in front of me and lifted a hand to my face. His thumb moved along my cheek in a slow stroke. “Go finish your breakfast.”
I stood there thinking about my mother waiting on the other side of that gate. I thought about all the years we spent without her and all the questions I never got to ask. If she left now,I would spend days constructing reasons for why she came, building answers out of nothing because the real ones had driven away.
“Let her in,” I said, hating that I was doing this.
“Inna.”
“I want to know why she’s here.” I swallowed. “Maybe we can finally put an end to this.”
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“She won’t see Cole.” The words came out before anything else. “If she’s here for him, I won’t let that happen.”
Dmitri’s jaw tightened. He studied me for a moment before speaking.
