Page 84 of The Pakhan's Secret Baby

There are shipping routes to rebuild and security to beef up along every stretch between here and Moscow, and with the Gusev operation folding into mine I have twice the territory to manage and half the infrastructure to do it with. The work ahead of us is enormous, but for the first time in months the guns have stopped and nobody's trying to kill anyone I care about.

"Boss?"

"Yeah, Devid, bring the car around. We have work to do." I move toward the elevators, confident that life is finally moving in the right direction. And I sure hope Emory is up for doing the wedding planning, because I will be too busy.

Maybe my mother will help her.

EPILOGUE

Emory

Anna pins the last piece of my veil into place and steps back to look at me. She hasn't said a word in the last ten minutes, which is unusual for a woman who has an opinion about everything.

Lex sits on the floor beside her feet, chewing on the satin ribbon that was supposed to be tied around the ring pillow, and Anna reaches down and gently takes it from his mouth without breaking eye contact with me.

"You remind me of myself the day I married Rashid's father." She smooths the front of my veil and adjusts it over my shoulders. "I was terrified and stubborn. I refused to let anyone help me. You have that same dumbfounded look on your face right now."

"I'm not terrified," I tell her.

"You're shaking, Emory." When she laughs it's tight and cold, but I smile at her. She's trying as hard as she can not to be the bitter old biddy who criticizes everyone.

I look down at my hands and wring them together. The manicure is nice, but it's not me. And the spot where my engagement ring has perched for the past several months is empty, waiting on the wedding ring to take its place.

"I want to tell you something before we go out there," she says, and she sounds more maternal than I've ever heard her. "When my son brought you into his house I thought you were a problem he'd created for himself. I thought you were temporary, that he'd tire of you and send you away and I'd go back to my quiet life."

She pauses and looks down at Lex, who's found a new ribbon to chew on. She takes that one from him too, and hands him a stuffed bear from the chair instead.

"I was wrong," she says, turning back to me. "You changed my son in ways that I spent thirty years trying to do and couldn't. He is softer with you than he's ever been with anyone, and he's a better father than his own father was, which is something I never thought I'd say about him." She squeezes my hands. "You are the best thing that's ever happened to this family, and I am proud to call you my daughter."

My eyes well up and I blink hard to keep the tears from ruining what Marta spent an hour putting on my face.

Anna reaches up and brushes away the one tear that escapes with her bony fingers, as gently as I think she's ever touched anyone.

"Don't you dare cry," she says. "You can cry later. Right now you walk out there and you marry my son, and you make that boy out there the happiest man in St. Petersburg."

"He doesn't do happy," I tell her, smirking as I use my pinky to dab at the moisture on my eye. Rashid is a stern, cold man, only breaking that demeanor when he is in the bedroom with me.

"He does now," she says, and she lets go of my hands and picks Lex up off the floor. The boy grabs a fistful of her dress and settles against her shoulder, still holding the bear. She adjusts the ring pillow under her free arm and looks at me one more time. "Are you ready?"

"I'm ready."

Anna walks out first, carrying Lex down the aisle toward the altar where Rashid stands waiting with Devid beside him.

The room is full of faces I don't recognize, families that Rashid does business with, allies and associates who came to pay their respects to a union that means as much politically as it does personally.

Rashid explained it to me in detail, though I got bored of it and distracted him by kissing.

But the faces blur when I step into the doorway and the only thing I see clearly is Rashid at the end of the aisle, in a dark suit with his hands clasped in front of him.

He looks at me fondly, though there's no other hint of emotion.

But his jaw does tighten slightly, and he stands a little straighter. He doesn't have to say how much this means to him.

I can see it in how he proudly puffs his chest out as everyone stands and turns to face me.

Batya offers an arm, which I take, and he pats my hand softly. He's still sick as a dog, and walking slower due to a limp.

But despite his short time on earth with us that remains, I'm glad I'm able to have this moment with him. I feared for a while that it might never happen.