Chapter 3: Goodbye

The party portion of the day starts. No matter the differences between Latinos and Russians, they both enjoy a good party. The music starts, drinks are distributed among guests, people chat and dance cheerfully. Everyone around us is having a good time.

Dimitri hasn’t said a word to me since we said I do. I haven’t tried to speak with him either. I just look at him out of the corner of my eye expecting for him to acknowledge my presence in any way. Whatever he is thinking about, it consumes his whole attention. We take a seat on the table for two specially reserved for the bride and groom in front of the small dance floor. A waiter comes, he offers us two glasses of champagne. I take mine, but the second I do Dimitri takes it away from me.

“I don’t want a drunk wife,” he says curtly.

“Having a glass of champagne doesn’t make me a drunk wife,” I protest with a frown on my face. Who does he think he is? I try to take the glass from his hand, but he pulls it further away.

“I said no,” he states firmly.

“You can’t control what I drink,” I say using his same tone of voice so he knows he can’t intimidate me, even though deep inside I am intimidated.

Dimitri turns his eyes to me, his piercing gaze leaves no room for protest. Dimitri looks daggers at me as he leans over the table towards me, he is so close that I can smell his cologne; it is a pleasant scent, I would enjoy it more if he wasn't gazing at me with such threatening eyes.

“You’ll be surprised by all the things I can control about you. You are mine, after all,” he says with a threatening tone that makes me shiver.

My mouth feels dry, I say nothing back. I’m too shocked by his words. I am his? We might be married, but that doesn’t make me anyone’s property.

“Bring her a coke,” Dimitri tells the waiter.

He complies immediately and hands me a coke.

“It’s not diet,” I say refusing to take the drink.

“Bring the princess a diet coke,” Dimitri says rolling his eyes. “You know, I don’t like difficult girls,” he says the second the waiter brings me a diet coke.

“And I don’t like to be married to a possessive criminal,” I say with acid in my voice.

He laughs at my remark, but it’s not a happy laugh, it’s more of a sardonic noise. Then he takes me by the chin to force me to look him straight in the eyes. “You have quite a mouth, don’t you? I think I’m going to have to put you in your place.”

I gulp, his blue eyes are filled with danger and the promise that he won’t let this slide. My hands start shaking, I just met Dimitri and I already find him to be the most intimidating person I have ever encounter. I can’t believe I’m going to spend the rest of my life with this man. I try to move my head to the other side, but Dimitri tightens his grip.

“Let me go,” I mutter with a trembling voice.

“Say please,” he replies.

“Please…”

He releases me with a smirk. I feel goosebumps all over my body. He can’t treat me like this, I need to put a stop to this situation, but just when I am about to say something his father approaches our table by the arm of a young beautiful girl that looks like she belongs on the cover of a fashion magazine. She must be around my age although she seems wiser and more mature than I. It’s as if she has lived more than me this past 20 years, maybe she has because I haven’t done much, I’m just a girl that likes to chill and spent time with her friends and family, this girl seems worldly.

“Son, congratulations, you are a married man now!” Nikolay says as he gives his son a congratulatory hug. Dimitri says nothing, he just sighs and then pulls away. “And congratulations to you too, Victoria,” Nikolay then says to me.

I nod awkwardly. Why is he congratulating me? He and my father forced this marriage upon me!

The tall blonde girl beside Nikolay leans over me and puts her thin arms around me.

“Congratulations, new sister!” She says with a wide sincere grin.

“Victoria, as you might have already guessed, this is my little sister Irina,” Dimitri says.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Irina,” I lie.

“I am so happy to finally meet you! I am sure we are going to be very good friends!” Irina says enthusiastically.

“I am sure we will,” I mutter knowing in my heart that we won’t.

“Where is my mother?” Dimitri asks.

By the awkward look on Nikolay’s and Irina’s faces, I can tell there is something going on with the mother, but they are too uncomfortable to say it out loud.

“The high heels hurt her feet, she is resting,” Irina mutters.

“She will come to her senses, she’ll change her mind with time…” Nikolay says under his breath.

“She won’t…” Dimitri says shaking his head.

“Forget about it. This is a party! Let’s celebrate!” Nikolay says dismissing what his son just said.

What do they mean she will come to her senses? Of course, I won’t ask Dimitri anything about it. First of all, I don’t really care and second of all, he, in this short period we have been together, has shown me that he is a douche. The less contact we have, the better.

After the Ivanovs leave our table, my family comes to congratulate us. I turn to the other side when my father tries to kiss me on the cheek, this is all his fault, I won’t forgive him so easily. My mother and sister look a little bit melancholic, but they are trying to hide their feelings under a thin smile. Dimitri shakes everyone’s hand with coldness and a gesture of indifference.

“Welcome to the family, Dimitri,” my mother says to him. I can tell saying these words was hard for her.

“Thank you,” Dimitri replies curtly.

The party continues, our guests drink and celebrate not carrying about the fact that the bride and groom are seated with their arms folded looking annoyed to be here. After a while, the wedding planner approaches our table.

“It’s time for your first dance,” she says with a smile.

I furrow my brow. “I don’t think we are doing that today…” I reply.

“What are you talking about? Of course we are,” Dimitri says as he takes my hand.

I look at him surprised. He wants us to dance?

“I rather not. I am not a good dancer,” I lie. It’s not that I can’t dance, I just don’t feel like doing it with him, not after the way he has behave this past few hours we have known each other.

“It’s a tradition, we have to play along,” he reminds me. I shake my head. Dimitri leans to my ear and whispers. “This is not a request, Victoria.”

I gulp. How can he be so intimidating with just a a few words? I get up from my seat, driven by fear. Dimitri then takes me to the dance floor, a romantic ballad starts to play as the guests look at us attentively. I put my hands on his shoulders and we start to dance to the music. He is so tall my forehead barely reaches his chin. Dimitri is holding me by the waist, his head is leaning towards me and so my hair brushes his cheek.

“You are not a bad dancer,” he remarks. “I think you were just lying.”

“Maybe I was,” I mutter.

Dimitri takes my hand and makes me twirl like a ballerina. He smiles and for a second he looks like a decent human being. Someone in the crowd yells “Kiss your wife!” Dimitri smiles and leans to kiss me. I kiss him back not wanting to make a scene in front of all our guests. His lips feel soft and sweet, it’s like they don’t belong to the scary man behind them. The guests clap, I give my husband a thin smile as he straightens his back.

After our dance, we go back to our table. Short before midnight Dimitri puts his arm on mine and squeezes gently.

“It is time to go,” he informs me.

My heart sinks to my stomach. This is it, now I’ll leave my home to go live with a man I barely know. Cold sweat runs down my back. We get up from our seats, I go up to my room and take the suitcase I prepared for this moment. I take off my wedding dress and I put on a simple pink dress I bought with Jenny at a mall a while back.

“You are leaving already?” Jenny asks standing under the doorframe of my bedroom.

“Yes, I guess it’s time for us to go,” I say unconvinced but trying my best to hide the fear I feel from my little sister. She is already sad enough that I am going to move out, I don’t want to burden her with more sorrow.

“I’ll walk with you to the car,” she says dejectedly. Then her eyes sparkle with a mischievous look. “Hey, at least mom was right, your new husband is hot!”

I laugh at her remark before I roll my eyes. Then I just nod. It’s pointless to let her know that I don’t care if he is the most handsome guy on the planet. This marriage is an imposition and I resent him for that.

We go downstairs. Our families are waiting for us in the foyer. Next to Nikolay and Irina stands a tall middle-aged woman with blond hair turning grey, she is beautiful and moves with elegance, I guess she is Dimitri’s mother.

“Are you ready?” Dimitri asks as he takes my suitcase and hands it to who I assume is his driver. Then he leans to my ear and whispers. “Give your parents a big goodbye hug, Victoria, who knows when you’ll see them again.”

I open my eyes wide with surprise at the sound of his words. What does he mean by that? I feel a chill down my spine, my only comfort in all of this was the idea that I was going to stay close to my family and suddenly it appears as if Dimitri is taking that possibility away from me. Where is he taking me? Why won’t I see them for a long time? I have so many questions that I don’t dare to ask out loud. I stare at him baffled and Dimitri just replies with an I’m warning you stare. My parents didn’t hear him, so they don’t know what’s going on. I rather not tell them, it is pointless to worry them when I don’t even know what is happening right now. I turn around and I say goodbye to my family. Tears well up but I blink them away. I have to be strong.

“My girl, I love you so much,” my mother says with eyes filled with sorrow.

“Call as soon as you get to your new home,” Jenny says to me.

“I will,” I reply with a fake smile.

I can’t explain why, but I have a feeling that I won’t be able to call her or anyone else. I can’t shake the feeling that I am headed towards the lion’s den.