Page 62 of The Umarova Crime Family

“Let me call Eset, but I’d say within the hour. Is that enough time?” Amelia asks.

“Um, yeah. I’m not super high maintenance.” I stick my tongue out at my cousin, and she throws her head back in laughter.

It feels amazing to be near her again, and I can’t wait to go out on the town and shoot the shit with her. If Eset comes, that’ll be cool, especially since I don’t know her too well. It’ll give me an opportunity to spend some time with her. Who knows, maybe one day, Eset and I can be as close as Amelia and I are.

Chapter Ten

Lom

Today is my older brother’s big day. It’s the day when he marries the woman of his dreams. The two of them chose to have the ceremony in a place where a lot of people have weddings, but it’s somewhere that Amelia loves. I believe my brother took her there on one of their dates, so there’s some sentimental value about it all. The location is none other than Tsvetochnyy Park, right in the center of Grozny.

The park is very well known for its various sculptures and botanical gardens. A lot of the time, tourists have this park on their “must stop at” list. My brother rented the entire park for the whole day, so no one will come onto the premises who hasn’t actually been invited.

Ruslan and Amelia have used the heart sculptures as their aisle, and seating is placed on either side of the heart. You can’t get the best view of the two of them, but if it’s what they wanted, that’s all that matters.

My brother’s wearing a suit for the wedding, something like he wears every single day, but this suit is a bit more spruced up. Meanwhile, Amelia completely shocked my family by wearing a traditional Chechen wedding gown. The only thing she isn’t wearing is a hijab, but I would never expect her to since she wasn’t raised in the same cultural climate as the rest of us.

She has a sort of delicate pearl string wrapped around her head, with crystals or diamonds on top of it. Meanwhile, her veil starts from the back of her head and flows down against the train of her gown. She looks so simple, but you can tell everything she’s wearing has been very thought out.

Her hair is pulled back against her head, and then a long braid starts. As I said, very simple.

She’s in the purest white, and the gown covers up everything. There isn’t one bit of cleavage showing. In gowns like this, it isn’t necessary to show off what you have lying underneath it. The details alone accentuate the woman. You can only slightly see her collar bones on each side sticking out from her slightly scooped neckline.

It looks like this dress could’ve been planned to have a deep V-line, but there’s cloth running through that area and some sort of design the seamstresses must have put in. It matches her crystal or diamond belt that wraps around her torso, and then it fans out into a massive train.

I do notice Amelia has some sort of deep blue-colored earrings in her ears, and while Emily sits beside me and we watch the wedding take place, I nudge her with my elbow. “What’s with the blue?” I whisper it so lowly that no one else can hear us, and Emily smirks back at me.

“Finally, something you don’t know.” Every bit of her tone is as playful as ever, and I lightly snicker. After a few long moments, she tells me, “In America, it’s tradition to do three things on your wedding day. Something borrowed, which is the circular diamond ring Amelia has on her middle finger. Something blue, which are the sapphire earrings I bought her for today, and something new… which is likely the knickers she’ll have your brother ripping off her later.” Emily gives me a wink, and I don’t understand what britches are. My English is fairly good, but I don’t know what that word could mean.

“Knickers?” I say, questioning her.

“Her panties, underoos, undergarments, thong,” Emily tells me, and an older woman behind us smacks me on the shoulder, then points forward. I feel like I’ve been snapped at while attending church services. Emily and I stop whispering to each other and start paying attention to the rest of the ceremony.

After about ten minutes, the ceremony is completed, and both Ruslan and Amelia walk down the aisle as Mr. and Mrs. Ruslan Umarova. People hoot and holler in celebration, and a round of applause breaks out for the both of them.

Most of the people here in attendance know the Umarovas, and because of that, it means they’re allies, long-time friends of our actual father, or people we’ve known our entire lives. The only person who really showed up for Amelia was Emily, which proves just how small her world was. In a way, I think it must be a blessing. I imagine she never has to worry about people wanting to speak to her about certain things or people wanting something from her.

Within the next couple of hours, we attend an American-themed “happy hour” where everyone attending the wedding takes part in having drinks and eating appetizers. It is something where we can all mingle with each other, but I notice that Emily and I mostly end up speaking to each other, except for when we spoke to Eset and Nazyr a bit.

Emily, Amelia, and Eset all went out to dinner the other night, and I’m glad they’re all getting along. It’s a no-brainer that Amelia and Emily would since they’re cousins. Still, Emily making a conscious effort to try to have a relationship with my baby sister does nothing but give me more confidence and hope about the outcome of our relationship in the long run. Things like that matter, and Emily’s only proving herself more and more to me as time goes on.

The workers for the wedding are putting the last final touches on the reception area. Instead of having small, circular tables, Ruslan and Amelia opted for very long ones. We have five rows of tables that end up forming a sort of horseshoe shape, and over the tables hang fairy lights. It’s a nice change from the typical weddings we see here in Grozny. My brother and Amelia have really done a fantastic job of blending their two cultures and creating something beautiful.

Amelia’s currently walking around with Ruslan, thanking everyone for coming, with Karim on her hip. He’s all smiles and is in his own sort of baby tuxedo, which is damn cute if you ask me.

We have some space between the other guests and us, so I grab onto Emily’s hand, forcing her to look at me. “Have you spoken to Amelia about what’s happened back home?”

Emily nods and then takes a sip of her champagne. “Yeah. I told her everything, and I mean everything. There wasn’t any small detail I refrained from telling her.”

Good. I’m sure telling Amelia is going to help take some of the weight off her shoulders. “What did she say about it all?”

Emily shrugs her shoulders. “What else can she say besides the obvious? She told me she was sorry I went through it and encouraged me to do what I’m already doing so my aunt can’t hold anything else over my head anymore.”

“Have you spoken to your parents yet?” I honestly don’t know if Emily called them up and told them about what happened, but given the severity of the situation, I think she’d want to see them face-to-face.

“No, not yet. I think it’s something I need to tell them in person. I hid a lot from them, and given the fact that I did hide it from them, I should at least give them the dignity and respect to tell them right to their faces.”

I don’t blame her for wanting to do that, not one bit. Although, I have some doubts that she’s even going to do it in the first place. Whenever she talks about speaking to her parents, there’s an undeniable fear in Emily’s eyes. Her entire body language changes. She’s usually relaxed posture-wise until then, and when she speaks about it, she’ll wrap her arms around her waist. Her breathing always goes from normal to ragged, long breaths that sound like they hitch every once in a while. If Emily actually tells her mother, I’ll be shocked, but she needs to if she wants to avoid her aunt going behind her back.

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