Page 108 of The Umarova Crime Family

“How are you feeling about this whole thing?” There’s something in her voice that tells me she’s worried about me, and I’m curious about why she would be worried in the first place.

“I think I’m ready for it to be over with, honestly. I’m not one for large, overdone events.”

“Did you invite many people?” Emily inquires.

“Yes, about two hundred and fifty. We had to invite a lot of Santos’ family, plus allies of our family, friends, you know how it goes.” Emily nods at what I’m saying like she understands, but she doesn’t understand yet. She and Lom aren’t yet married, but I’m certain when she has this baby, they’ll begin planning something.

“Oh, wow. I feel like it’s going to be just as big as mine was to Ruslan’s,” Amelia chimes in. I didn’t even realize she had come back yet, but she did. Emily and I both turn our attention to her, and she looks amazing, better than I thought she’d look in this dress, if I’m being honest.

“Yeah, it probably will be. At least your wedding seemed to go off without a hitch drama-wise. I highly doubt mine is going to be so lucky. There have already been so many obstacles we had to overcome with his allegiance to his father and whatnot.”

“What’s going on with that?” Emily inquires. Emily isn’t involved in the family business, and neither is Amelia, but I know I can trust these women in my life.

“A stipulation to me agreeing to marry Santos in the first place is that he had to agree to be loyal to his great-uncle,” I state, looking between Amelia and Emily.

“His father is the one trying to take over, right?” Amelia inquires, and Emily rises from the chair across from me, heading to snatch her dress off the rack.

“Yes, his father is Julio, the only son of Rafael Ramirez, supposedly.”

“Supposedly? It sounds so scandalous.” Emily giggles lightly, but I know there will be a time when she really understands the magnitude of these things.

“I’m sure there are many children Rafael fathered. He was known as a serial rapist, so Julio being the only child is highly unlikely. In fact, there’s one person I know who is probably his child, but the Skulls Renegade MC have remained hush-hush on the matter.”

Amelia furrows her brows. “What happened?”

“He abducted a woman named Maria, who’s an ol’ lady to Pain and Chaos of the Skulls Renegade MC. Her father had worked for Rafael, and there were quite a few issues between her father and Rafael. It was discovered that her father ultimately gave her and her sister to Rafael as a way to pay a debt. I can’t remember the exact circumstances of how Maria landed with the motorcycle club, but I believe they were getting some women from a human trafficking situation. Years after Maria was with the Skulls Renegade MC, Rafael abducted her. It was said she was raped and beaten. A few months later, she had a child, so everyone thinks Rafael is the father, even though Maria and her men have denied it for many years.”

“God, and you’re probably right, Eset. He was a rapist, so I’m sure he has many other children out there that no one knows about,” Emily says from behind my bedroom wall. She must’ve kept the door open so she could still take part in the conversation.

“What’s going to happen now that he’s said he’s loyal to his great-uncle? I’m sure his father isn’t going to be happy about that,” Amelia adds.

I shake my head. “No, he won’t be. To my knowledge, Julio doesn’t know about what Santos did. If Julio knew, I’m sure Santos wouldn’t be in London right now.”

“Why? You think his father would’ve done something to him?” Emily’s baffled as she comes out of the bedroom, showing us how amazing she looks in her dress. Her baby bump is small and adorable, and I know the choices I made picking out these dresses were perfect.

“I don’t have a doubt in my mind that he would. Julio wants power, and when he finds out Santos stepped in his way, I’m sure we’ll be facing yet another battle our family will have to handle,” I state, looking between my sisters.

“Well, whatever comes our way, we can handle. I don’t have a doubt about it.” Amelia pours some orange juice into a champagne flute and then pours a bit of champagne in there. Amelia hands it to me, and I take a sip. As the champagne and orange juice drift over my tongue, I glance down at my pink satin robe, still a bit shocked I’m getting married today.

No, it’s not a marriage made of love, but it’s something I chose for myself, and that makes me so happy. I’ve been lucky enough to decide this for myself, and I know it could’ve been very different. “You’re right. We’ll handle whatever comes our way.” More than anything, I appreciate how my family sticks together, no matter the circumstances. I take in a deep breath and look at Amelia and then at Emily. “My mother called me out of the blue the other day.”

“What?” both Amelia and Emily are completely shocked.

“Yeah, I was shocked too. Long story short, she was diagnosed with cancer and is trying to guilt me into having a relationship with her.”

Emily blinks over and over again from the pure shock of it all.

“I hope you didn’t give her an inch because she’s the type of woman who’d take a mile,” Amelia comments.

“I didn’t. I confronted her about everything she did, especially destroying all my artwork when I spent hours upon hours perfecting those pieces. She showed no remorse and instead made excuses for it. She isn’t a changed woman. She doesn’t care about what she did. She’s only trying to get me to be close to her again because she might be dying. It’s the only reason, and she thinks I’m stupid enough to believe she wants to repair our relationship.” I shake my head, beyond frustrated.

The sad part is, if this was a couple of years ago, I probably would’ve accepted her half-assed apology. I would’ve just wanted to repair our relationship, to keep the peace, but now I don’t give a fuck. I’ll be chaotic whenever I need to be, and now that I’m officially an Umarova, I understand it’s my only option.

I am the chaos.

I am the thing others should fear.

Chapter Thirteen

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