AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Popov walks over and shakes my hand. “Are you ready for the shitstorm to start, Andrei?” He glances at Paige. “Excuse me, Paige Geraldovna.”
Paige nods. “Let’s hope it pours down on the right and not on the left.”
Popov laughs heartily. “Your wife is a treasure, Andrei.” He directs his attention back at me. “There will be no trouble tonight, but they’re losing support.”
“Why?” I ask.
Popov glances at Paige but continues. “The officer that was shot has been linked to the Nikitin Bratva. All rumors and hearsay, of course. But in our world, that is all it takes.”
I reply with a nod of understanding but say nothing. I don’t want Paige to be upset by hearing this again.
“I don’t see Natasha or Dmitri,” says Popov. “I hope you have men here.”
“My men are outside,” I reply quietly. “Natasha and Dmitri are keeping an eye on things while I’m away.”
Popov glances over at Talia, who is taking her seat up front. “While the cat is under surveillance, the mice will play.”
Smiling, he returns to his seat, and the crowd settles down as the music starts to play. In a corner, a string quartet plays Vivaldi’s Seasons, surrounded by massive white urns filled with white lilies. They concentrate on their instruments as a minister steps onto the plain platform up front, which represents the altar. The minister is dressed in a plain dark suit with a Bible in his hands. He doesn’t wear a collar, and it’s unclear what his denomination is.
Loud applause starts before the song finishes. In a gray morning coat, Gleb Novikov struts down the center aisle with his groomsmen following behind him. He whoops and hollers, shaking his fists. His dark hair covers his sweaty forehead, and his eyes are dilated from drugs. He makes a scene, dancing down the aisle as the right side cheers him on, clapping and hooting until he’s standing on the platform.
My jaw tightens at the disrespect Gleb shows my little sister. I want to grab hold of him by the collar and tell him to act like a man, not a party boy without any sense. The minister places his hand on Gleb’s shoulder to settle his ass down, but Gleb brushes it off with a cocky sneer. Gleb grabs his tie and straightens it, pulling the knot tight.
“Let’s do this thing!” he shouts.
With his parents dead, the boy has lost all sense of self-control.
The quartet starts playing again. The slow and somber strings play the wedding march, and it sounds more like a funeral dirge. The guests glance over at the center aisle expectantly. But no one appears to fill the void as the song ends and starts again. Muffled voices out in the hallway rise in anger, and then Sonya finally appears. Though she’s dressed as a bride, she doesn’t look like a happy one. Her tearstained face is drawn, and her mouth is downturned as she starts hesitantly down the aisle. The bouquet shakes in her hands as she clutches the skirt of her voluminous dress. Sonya walks as if she’s being marched to the gallows, not to the altar.
My heart sinks, watching what they’ve done to my little sister.
Her bridesmaids, dressed in garish silver, follow behind her, but I don’t recognize a single face. Unsmiling, they march behind her as if to make sure she’s going nowhere else but to the altar. I glance over at Paige and she is glaring daggers at the horrible procession.
I recall our wedding day and how terrified she looked as her bridesmaids marched her down the aisle toward me the same way. It wasn’t a wedding, and somehow, I expected Paige to blindly do as I said after I treated her that way.
I watch this farce of a ceremony and feel ashamed of how I treated Paige that day.
But she knew that I needed her.
And Sonya knows that Gleb needs her.
I take Paige’s hand in mine and squeeze it gently. Paige places her other hand over mine, showing me her strength and understanding. She didn’t have a proper wedding, and now, Sonya won’t have one either.
“She doesn’t look happy with her choice,” whispers Paige.
“She still has a choice,” I reply.
“But she’s like you,” Paige whispers. “Too proud to make it.”
Gleb glares at Sonya over his shoulder and refuses to offer her a hand. He smirks as she almost stumbles onto the platform. Her bridesmaids try to steady her, but Sonya yanks her arm out of their grasp and swats them away with her bouquet, flowers dropping to the floor. Her heavy breathing is picked up over the microphone as she composes herself and glares at the minister as if he’s her worst enemy.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today …” The man’s voice fades into a drone as my thoughts take over in my mind. What should I do? I know she doesn’t want to be up there. I can tell by the look on her face. Everyone knows they’re not in love, but Bratva marriages aren’t about love. They build alliances and create the next generation.
It isn’t her fairy tale wedding. I can do nothing to help her.
The minister looks up from the small leather book in his hands. “If anyone objects to the marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
“We don’t need you to say that.” Gleb laughs. “I want to kiss my bride.”
