Chapter 5

Vera

The wedding had taken three days to plan and the celebration was about to begin, for them. I was about to be sold to a potential devil, so there was no celebration here.

It was quite remarkable how Aunt Sofia had somehow managed to plan a little church ceremony for just family and friends in such a short time. Granted, nothing was ever small with Aunt Sofia.

I sat in my room staring into the mirror with Katya at my side. The atmosphere since Katya’s explanation of why she wanted to be away from her husband had made the entire atmosphere gloomy for the most part. Nobody was feeling the joy of festivities. But we had all learned to fake it till we made it. Not that the clouds in the sky took the memo, but we were focusing on the positives.

“Did you see that the Patriarch is in attendance? He might be the one to officiate your wedding.” Katya says.

“Aunt Sofia invited the Patriarch? How on earth did she get him to show up on such short notice?” I almost scream from the shock of it.

You know the Pope of Rome? Yeah, she basically invited the Pope of Russia. I was surprised he showed up under such a short notice. He definitely has better things to do than to officiate a wedding of two unwilling participants.

“You know my mum.” Yeah, we all did. She always went hard on everything she did. The best of the best all the time was what she expected.

But I was glad his entourage were the only visible cars for now. Was it possible that the groom had decided he was no longer getting married to me because of cold feet?

I stand and smoothen my dress. Under different circumstances, I’d still have chosen this dress. Aunt Sofia had said many times that if we were going to let them take another one of her babies it should at least be on our terms. And what I wanted was to be the most beautiful bride my father would ever see. He deserved that much, plus I loved the dress.

I am led towards the front of the white door that I would be entering from and regard it and wonder what kind of life waits for me on the other side. I had asked my father to be the only one to walk me down the aisle, so he stood beside me offering me support in the way he always had, by being there for me.

“I wish this was happening under different circumstances.” He says with a sigh. The sigh sounded strange.“Me too, Dad.” I consider not saying anything about how he looked tired, but I do. I was not marrying Boris. “Dad, are you okay?”

“Yes I am.” He waves off my question. “Today is about you. You’d let me know if anything goes wrong. I could discuss with the Pakhan to have the wedding annulled after.”

I get the source of his fear so I simply say “Of course Dad.”

A man in a uniform opens the door when the first notes of the song play. I take a deep breath, and step into the church to welcome whatever life it was that I was going to meet at the other side.

When I gather myself enough to look up I realise three things all at once. Firstly, Boris was in attendance. Katya was probably hiding somewhere else as I was proved correct when I scanned the room and saw that she was nowhere to be found. Next, the man I am getting married to is the same man that was in my gallery. With that realisation I feel my heart calm a bit. Surely, he couldn’t treat me the way Boris did Katya, right?

And finally,he had brought his girlfriend along with him. The chief of all forms of disrespect. I clench my teeth and try to let go of the anger rising in the pit of my stomach.But it did not work and I really could only deal with so much. At that moment, I decided that the girlfriend has got to go. My father needed me to marry Nikolai and Nikolai was going to learn to be faithful.

The Patriarch of Moscow officiated the wedding, the certificate was signed and the next thing I knew I was being taken back to my dressing room to prepare for the after party. I find Katya there as she was freaking out enough without knowing that Boris was downstairs and by all the laws of the world he had every right to take her back to his house

“That was the fastest wedding ever.” Katya comments fidgeting with the sleeves of her dress.

“Are you okay? I saw Boris at the wedding.” My wedding, I still didn’t believe that I was married.

“I’d be fine, Vera.” Katya says with a tight lipped smile. “Enjoy your wedding. Go, have fun.”

I walked into the after party happening in The Glasshouse what I considered fashionably late because I didn’t want to leave Katya. It was like Sofia saved all her creative juices for this part of the wedding. But I was not allowed to enjoy the view for long enough as I was immediately dragged to Nikolai for our first dance as a couple. It was quite hard to picture Nikolai dancing.

He gracefully offers me his hand and leads us to the dance floor.

I do not recommend dancing with handsome men with alluring eyes and a powerful aura, they did things to people’s insides that could only be described as attraction.Somehow, even if I had never seen Nikolai’s face I knew he was handsome.

“It’s you isn't it? The man from the art gallery?” Hope flares up in my chest

“I had hoped you’d realise.”

“You’re wearing the same mask, it would be hard not to.”

My eyes drift to his girlfriend watching us with a large smile plastered on her face. As he turns me I begin to wonder if she is okay.

“I see that you brought your girlfriend along.”

“Girlfriend?”

“Yes, the woman that was with you during the art exhibition.” When he does not offer any explanation, I raise my chin and add “I’d appreciate it if you did not bring her to important events going forward.”

“Could you point her out? Just so I know who we are talking about.” There is amusement in his voice.

“The same person you came to the gallery with.” His face scrunches like he is trying to hold back laughter. “It is not funny, Nikolai. You made vows in a church, in front of a Patriarch!”

He bursts out laughing and I am left standing there in utter confusion and shock, I was trying to have a serious conversation. If he could not even do that, then my presence here was unnecessary. As I turn to leave, I feel his hands grab me by my waist and he spins me back into him. Every part of me pressed against every part of him.

“I understand why you might have misunderstood.” Humour stays dancing in his eyes. “But Vera, that woman is my mother.”

Shock reverberates through my entire body, quickly followed by embarrassment that I made such a silly mistake.

“Earth, I’d really appreciate it if you can swallow me.” I mumble under my breath. I think Nikolai catches it because he places his lips on mine, and proceeds to swallow me whole.

And as much as it pains me to admit, I hold on to him and kiss him back because I like the feeling of his lips on mine.

Who knew that devils made the best kissers.