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Three days later my mother's life is officially declared perfect. Maddy’s transplant is successful. She claims to feel no pain at all. Later that evening Mom comes to our apartment and we open a bottle of champagne. We raise our glasses and I make a toast.
“Because life is perfect.”
And we take one little sip. Afterwards we laugh, and eat, and talk until it is late. Then Mom goes down to her apartment and Konstantin and I fall into bed. We stare into each other’s eyes.
“It’s not a dream, is it?” I whisper.
“No my darling, it’s not a dream,” he whispers back. “It will be a dream when we beat the enemy, and give our children back the earth they deserve.”
Epilogue
Raine
* * *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0pdQU87dc8
Everything I Do I Do For You.
* * *
Konstantin is acquitted of all charges and his reputation is restored, which I expected, of course. What I didn’t expect is how all his friends and business acquaintances stood by him and never once doubted his Innocence. I guess they knew, as I did, that he is good guy, incapable of such a brutal act.
It is a good day for us. We spend it in bed with a massive tub of ice cream. Sex and ice cream. I don’t know if I would recommend it. It’s good while it's going on, but the state of the sheets. Ugh what a mess.
Then the next day Mom and I begin to plan for the wedding. We plan it so it takes place a week after Maddy comes home from hospital. That day falls on the first week of September.
I wake up with excitement fizzing through my veins like a newly opened bottle of champagne. I sneak out of the bed I shared with Maddy that night, go to the fridge, and sit alone at my mother’s kitchen island drinking some lovely, cold milk and smile to myself. I know for sure, I’m the happiest woman in the world at that moment in time.
Every dream I ever had has been fulfilled.
I’m still not showing and can just about get into my fabulous mermaid wedding dress. Mom cries when she sees me, even Maddy gets all emotional.
“The billionaire is a lucky guy,” she sniffs.
Outside we couldn’t have hoped for better weather. The sky is a brilliant blue and not a cloud in sight, the perfect omen. The ceremony is held in a beautiful old Russian church. It is filled with the scent of flowers. The pews are full of people, most of them I do not know. Friends and business associates of Konstantin. He has no family. He was an orphan.
None of the members of the alliance turn up. They have an understanding. They do not congregate in groups of more than two. In this way they can be taken out easily.
Maddy teases me just before I walk down the aisle. I remember feeling really nervous. My stomach in tight knots. My uncle from my father’s side walks up to me. He will be giving me away.
“You look beautiful,” he says. “Your dad would have been proud.”
Then the music starts and I slip my hand through his elbow. We begin the walk down. I start to feel faint, like I’m floating. Then I see the most beautiful, precious man in the whole world waiting for me, his eyes, his eyes, so full of love. My heart beats so fast I think I might expire with joy.
It is a beautiful and simple ceremony, but it all goes too fast.
The reception is quite a lavish affair held at an exclusive hotel.
It’s all a blur now but I remember his eyes watching me, so much love in them. I remember rice raining down on us. I remember the tall cake. I remember Maddy laughing. I remember Mom crying, I remember Lois laughing at something.
And then I remember leaving our reception and Konstantin’s strong arm around my waist as we ran towards the car.
We honeymoon at the beautiful island of the Seychelles. Ah, what a happy time. We are indescribably happy. I almost dread coming back to the States. Coming back would mean facing up to all the problems, and sure enough our return is hard for me.
Konstantin would lock himself in his coding room for hours at a time while he slowly built his alternative internet, one string of zeros and ones at a time, all in his mind. And all that time I would sit around and start to worry about what would happen if the alliance doesn’t win. I keep thinking of Helena’s cautionary tale of the rat with the venom in his body. Running, thinking it’s wounded but it has escaped, but in fact, it is already more dead than alive.
The more I think and imagine scenarios in my head, the more convinced I become that the cabal will win. To the extent, I become paranoid about it. Sometimes I will lie awake after Konstantin is sleeping. I’ll listen to his deep even breathing, put my hand on my belly, and be afraid for the future.
