Chapter 1

Vera

“See you at 7pm, Vera. Don’t be late.” Nadia, my manager, says before I leave the gallery to get prepared for the night I have ahead. She has been extra excited all week since we had a private art exhibition booked. An expensive private one. By an anonymous client.

In the art world, anonymous clients were either rich and rude or rich and had a lot of things to hide. I hoped it was neither. It was going to be the gallery’s first exhibition, I’d be personally touring clients through my pieces and some of the one’s from other artists.

I had been feeling a deep sense of joy – mixed with a lot of nervousness – all week but now, I was just freaking out.

Normally, I was not even supposed to be the one to tour clients around the gallery, anonymous client or not, but I had been specifically asked for. See? All the red flags. But security existed for a reason. It wasn’t my safety I was even worried about. What worried me was the same thing that worries every other artistic person. What if I don’t do well enough?

I turn my head to the sky as soon as I get outside and let the cool wind caress my skin, taking a deep breath. The day was a beautiful day, bad things didn’t normally happen on beautiful days. So, what was the worst that could happen?

I get into my car, along with one of my assigned bodyguards, and immediately call my cousin, Katya. We were always very close. We don’t see each other as often as we used to ever since she got married, I try to show my enthusiasm. But I have never been able to fool Katya, she always sees right through me.

“You are nervous, aren’t you?”

I sigh. “This tour could be a very big deal for my gallery. But it could also possibly ruin it. I just hope that I don’t manage to mess things up.”

“You will do fine, and if for any reason you feel like you might freeze, just freeze in the direction of one of your pieces so you could pretend you were lost in an artistic trance.”

I laugh slightly. “Maybe I would, just to test if it would actually work.”

There’s a slight pause where we simply find comfort in each other’s presence. Being a member of the Russian bratva did not allow me to start or maintain friendships outside of my family. Not that anyone was lining up to befriend me, but I also wasn’t going out of my way to meet other people in the brotherhood. Having relationships, of any sort, outside the family as a member of the bratva was dangerous for the non-member. So, we tend to keep to ourselves.

A notification enters my phone, a message from my father. “Meet me in my office as soon as you arrive. It’s important.”

My father wasn’t really a texter, so the fact that he picked up his phone to text me made the entire situation just seem weird. Plus, he never discussed anything “important” with me. I was his daughter to care for, protect, he sure as hell was not to discuss important issues with me, as he says multiple times, so why would he suddenly want to discuss something important with me.

“Umm… can I call you back later?” I tell Katya even if I’m not willing to let her go.

“Yeah, sure.” There's a little resignation in her voice like she doesn’t want to end the call either. But my mind was running in a thousand and one different directions. Was something going on with my dad?

The fact that there was definitely something wrong is solidified when I enter the house and see one of the Pakhan’s soldiers leaving the house. Dear God.

I immediately start towards my father’s door only to pause right in front of it. What was I going to say when I entered? Maybe I should just pretend like everything is fine and I didn’t just see the Pakhan’s soldier leaving the house. Gently, I push open the door but my plan to act like nothing's wrong goes out the window as soon as my eyes land on him. His dishevelled look catches me off guard, my dad is the most put together person I know. His hair looks like he has run his hands through it multiple times, his tie is loose and that’s not the worst of it. The entire office looks like a tsunami walked through it with papers strewn everywhere.

“Dad, is everything okay?” I wasn’t going to dwell on the fact that that was a very dumb question to ask. Everything was obviously not okay. I walk towards him and the scrunching of paper under my feet causes him to look up.

His brown eyes meet mine and I would have smiled under different circumstances. I got my best features from him.

My father attempts to start talking, but he hesitates like he doesn’t know how to explain the shit that just went down, or rather had been going down for a couple of days. He had been out of the house very early and was getting back really late. The slight bags developing under his eyes prove that he hadn’t been sleeping well these past few days. Was he looking like he lost weight?

I really just wanted to know what was going on and if I could help.

“You know how there has been a war going on between the Petrovs and the Bardinis, that war that you said was really silly because no one had any idea why it started or who exactly made us start fighting in the first place?” He starts.

“Yeah.” I was completely lost. What did that have to do with anything? It was true that it was a very pointless war though. When people start fighting without knowing why, and pride keeps the fight going for much longer than necessary, it becomes a silly fight and a pointless one too. Nobody simply wanted to back down and call it a truce!

“The men have been wavering in their loyalty..” There was a slight pause and I was certain I wasn’t going to like his next words. “They tried to impeach me. They said they needed a Don that could stop the family from getting hurt and knew how to put people that challenge us in their places.”

My heart sinks. Father has always loved being the Don of the Petrov family, and as a family we had been through a lot. He was always compassionate with us because he knew some of the older ones haven’t seen a whole lot of kindness. Plus, the Bardinis are either all psychopaths, sadists or both. “We should put the Bardini’s in their place? Nobody challenges the Bardinis, everybody knows that.”

“They expected better from me, Kotik. And if I’m being honest I could have handled things a little better.” Creases form at his forehead. He looked tired, this entire ordeal was obviously affecting him.

I let the silence sit for a while before asking the question that had been bugging me for a while. Everybody also knows that when a Pakhan’s soldier visits your family it is to issue a marriage decree, the old man had a very archaic way of operating, like a marriage solves everything. It was how Katya got married after all. And possibly why my dad was so against it. He had dearly loved my mum, and even when she walked out of our lives, he had always said if he never finalised a divorce with my mum he would never remarry. It might also have been because he simply didn't want to remarry but I guess we will never know.

“So, the Pakhan’s soldier…” I pause dreading where this conversation was going. “Did he come to ask you to marry someone from their family?”

I really did not want a step mother that was in my age range, I didn't think the Bardini’s had any women around my dad's age. But perhaps, we will make better friends or have a better relationship than my mum and I ever did, not that we even had one.

“No, that’s not why he was here.” I almost breathed a sigh of relief. The fact that I did not had me wondering if I actually would not mind a step mother. Before I could even ask the reason for the soldier’s visit my father gave me my response.

“He came to finalise your marriage proceedings to Nikolai Bardini.”

I was stunned into silence and my heart dropped to my stomach. For a couple of seconds, I forgot how to breathe.

A marriage for me? To a Bardini?

Oh, I am so fucked.