Page 229 of The Umarova Crime Family

I pick up my pace as she rides me, and every time she rolls her hips, I thrust inside her. It’s not very long until she comes undone around me, and I find my own release inside of her.

I’m pretty sure I haven’t used a condom since the first or second time we were together, and I’m not even scared if she gets pregnant. Xava is the kind of woman I want to raise my children. Honestly, at this point in my life, I can’t imagine anyone else doing it.

Chapter Twenty

Xava

Okay, there’s absolutely no going back after this.

I’m in my apartment, sitting at the small desk inside my room while on my laptop. What I’m looking at could very well change the rest of my life. I stare at the “submit application” button to attend École Lenôtre next year. It’s one of the most world-renowned pastry schools and accepts students from over one hundred countries every single year.

The only way I’m going to know if this is what I want to do is by clicking the button and at least trying it if I get accepted. In theory, I think this is something I could love doing for a long time, but just like anyone else, I think you have to be thrown into it to really know if something is for you or not.

After I click the “submit application” button, I close my laptop. Almost on cue, my phone goes off. It’s a text message, so I unlock my screen and go to my messages app. Only, it’s not anyone I expect to hear from right now.

Mom

I’m in Grozny and would love to go out to lunch with you. Can you meet me somewhere?

Yara’s still in town, so I walk out of my room and shout for her. “Yara!”

“In the living room!” she shouts back with her thick accent. It’s funny how, after being in Grozny for a year, my own accent has softened.

“You’re never going to believe who texted me just now.” I widen my eyes and raise my brows.

“Who?”

“My mother.” It almost feels surreal saying it. Things haven’t been great with us as of late, and I’ve tried reaching out from time to time to get some answers and maybe even some closure from her, but she’s been avoiding me. It’s left me with a lot of questions that I don’t have the answers to, and unless I do see her face-to-face, I don’t think I’m going to get the answers I seek.

“Wow. That’s unexpected. What did she say?”

I read off exactly what she sent me. “I’m in Grozny and would love to go out to lunch with you. Can you meet me somewhere?”

“Hmm, maybe she’s trying to turn over a new leaf. Are you going to meet up with her?”

I know if I don’t, I won’t be able to get the answers I want so badly. “Yeah. I need to. She and I have some things we need to discuss, and she’s been really good at avoiding me lately.” Avoiding me except for the conversation where she told me she was being paid to take care of me. That conversation has completely screwed with my head. It made me doubt so many memories we made together and wonder about so much more.

“Okay, so set something up,” Yara says as I text my adoptive mother back.

Xava

Meet me at the Grozny Hotel in an hour?

Within a few seconds, I get a reply back.

Mom

Okay, see you then.

The fact I scheduled a lunch with her should make me feel better, right? I should be happy that I have the opportunity to speak with her and discuss anything else I have questions about. Yet, instead of being happy, it feels like my stomach is on a roller coaster ride.

“Do you need me to go with you, or do you want to be alone?”

I love Yara for being as supportive as she is. When all this happened with me finding out I was really an Umarova, she was my rock. She’s the person who made me feel like my entire world wasn’t being pulled out from under me. Without her, I would have been a mess the entire time everything happened.

I shake my head. “No, I think I’ll be okay. It’s probably better if I have this lunch with her alone anyway.”

“Understandable. I’ll be here relaxing until you get back. I… I did want to talk to you about something if you have a few minutes, though.”

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