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Will this be how my baby is raised?
I know their moral compass is skewed off the scale, but …I do bad things, but you have to love me anyway? I shoot your dad and you will love me anyway? I sigh.
“What’s wrong?” she asks.
“Nothing, I’m just being a hypocrite.”
Larissa doesn’t press for an explanation.
“I can call Dominika for something warm to eat.” Larissa touches my hand and looks around the room. “It’s been so long since I’ve stepped foot in this house. I don’t know how Kolya can stand being back here.”
I sink into the soft bed. “I don’t understand how he can stand many of the things he does.”
4
NIKOLAI
A WEEK LATER
I knowwhat Eden thought the day I hurried away from her bedside and out the door. She thought I was on the hunt for Zakhar. Not that day, but I continue to hunt him. In the middle of the night, when she’s asleep, I leave our bed and go out in the night, searching for him.
She may be able to forgive her father, but I will never.
He almost took her away from me. He nearly took the future away from me.
My hate for him has morphed into something that cannot be reasoned with. How cruel it is that I can’t control the intensity of my feelings for either Eden or her father.
I turn on my heels to find Eden and Nina Orlov, the wedding planner, staring at me wide-eyed. I realize then I’ve been pacing the gallery floor. We agreed to meet Nina at the Tatiana Gallery uptown, and she’s glad to have a chance to prove she still has value after the wedding shower fiasco.
Nina smiles, tugging out the chair between her and Eden at the circular table. “Your fiancée has excellent taste, Nikolai Gennadyevich. I daresay as good as yours.”
I kiss the top of Eden’s head before sitting down. “No, her taste is better than mine.” I struggle a little to make myself comfortable, though a scotch neat would help. “Now, what were the two of you discussing?”
“Actually, we aren’t discussing the wedding,” Nina replies. “We are discussing the upcoming exhibit at the Met—Treasures of the Louvre. They’re doing an exchange of artworks that usually never leave their respective countries. Tickets to the gala opening are hard to come by. Invites only for gallery owners.”
“How lucky that I am a gallery owner.” I grin at Eden, and her face lights up. The way she beams always hooks me.
“Nikolai, are we going?” Her arms wrap around me when I nod. I notice the way her touch is measured and reserved. She may play up the act of a loving fiancée, but I know the turmoil haunting her as well as I know mine.
“Funny,” Nina laughs. “I usually only see that reaction when jewelry is involved.” She pulls a few papers out of her leather portfolio. “Speaking of, I still recommend a destination wedding.”
“Why? Will it be harder to breach security?”
Both Nina and I freeze and stare at Eden as she waits for an answer to her question. The giddiness is gone and replaced with a calm and serious look. For a moment, I don’t recognize this woman I once considered a spoiled princess. And it is in that moment I see someone else on her face.
Subconsciously, my mouth forms the words in silence.Eden Zakharovna—Eden, daughter of Zakhar.
The thought makes my pulse start pounding, and I slow my breath to keep myself steady.
Thankfully, Eden does not notice as she glances at one of the brochures detailing a location in the Bahamas.
When Nina does not immediately respond, Eden continues.
“I have to consider my baby’s safety as well as my own,” Eden says coolly. “Especially after the last time. It doesn’t matter how nice the venue looks if we have gatecrashers.”
Nina straightens her back, obviously not expecting to be questioned in this way by a bride. She pushes the brochures that won’t suit Eden’s requirements back into a binder.
“As I’ve said before. There are private islands in the Caribbean, but distance may also be a concern. Your guests might object to traveling if it puts them at additional risk. There is a location in Upstate New York I would highly recommend. A literal fortress built before this country was birthed. And the good thing about fortresses is that they usually only offer a few known entryways.”
