Page 53 of The Umarova Crime Family

“It went very well, actually. I—” I begin speaking, but my phone begins to ring. I look at the caller ID and see it’s my sister, Eset. “Sorry, I have to take this.”

I tap on the green button to accept the call. “Eset, how are you?”

“Lom, I might kill her. I mean, I really could do it. There’s a ninety percent chance I’ll do it within the next hour, honestly.”

“Who?” I don’t know what my sister’s going on about.

“Our mother. I thought she might’ve left a couple of paintings upstairs. Some of them took me over a hundred hours to complete. The realism was so beautiful, but she either ripped them to shreds or took matches to them. They’re not fixable, and she’s ruined the art I worked so hard to create.” As my sister speaks, I hear her heart breaking with every word. She was holding out hope that our mother wasn’t as callous as she’s made herself seem, but I should’ve warned her.

“I’m sorry, Eset. She doesn’t care about us or the things that drive us. How are you enjoying living in Ruslan’s old house?” I try to change the subject, hoping it’ll help.

“It’s okay. I mean, it’s different. I don’t really view it as my home, even though it is now.”

“Dear sister, it’s more of a home than you’ve ever known. The place you grew up in wasn’t a home. It was a prison.” Eset knows I’m right because it was. There was nothing loving about the place where we grew up.

“Yeah, you’re right. I just needed to call and complain about it to someone because it’s not like anyone else would understand. But, um, are you excited about Ruslan and Amelia’s wedding?”

God, their wedding. It’s only two weeks away, but I know time will fly by. Maybe by then, I’ll be ready to tell my brother how much Emily means to me.

Chapter Five

Emily

I’m sitting in my chair at work, staring down at my now-cold latte. I got so busy with work this morning that I didn’t even have one sip. There was client after client to call, and then one of the other agents called out, and their listings got piled on me. I had to leave to do their open house, and I just got back in the office maybe five minutes ago.

“Sweetie, you need a latte, stat. You look horrible,” Kim comments, and I glance over at him with a look of pure exhaustion spreading across my face. He has no idea how badly I need one.

“I’m going to get a few more things done here, and then I plan on hitting up that coffee cart downstairs. I don’t even care that it’s past four. I’m drained. So inevitably drained,” I explain as I click the send button to reply back to a client.

“I’ll head down with you. I think I’ll stay here a little late tonight, so I have a lighter day tomorrow.”

“Okay, just give me a few more minutes to get a couple more of these emails knocked off my plate.”

“Sounds good, babycakes. In the meantime, are you going to tell me whatever happened with that possessive hunk from the other night?” Kim raises his brows, and a smirk tugs at his lips.

“There’s not much to tell, honestly,” I comment while keeping my eyes on the computer screen in front of me.

“That’s such a lie. Tell me everything. I want to know every dirty little detail, Emily.” Kim leans back in his chair and casts accusatory eyes toward me.

I huff and roll my eyes, pulling my attention away from the task at hand. “I confronted him about what he said.”

“Okay, and?”

“And it led to some really intense sex.” I clear my throat at the end of what I’m saying and look back at my computer, but a set of feet heading in our direction causes me to look over toward the direction it’s coming from.

“Emily, come into my office,” says Michael, the fifty-something-year-old owner of the company. Kim and I work for Jefferson Real Estate & Co., and he’s the head honcho.

“Sure, I’ll be there in just a moment,” I say, and Michael walks off toward his office.

“What does he want to see you for?” Kim questions me with raised brows.

I shrug my shoulders. “I have no idea. Hopefully, it isn’t to fire me.”

“I highly doubt that. You do so much for this company, and they’d be a fool to ever fire you,” Kim immediately answers, and my mind’s running rampant, thinking about what he could want to see me for. I was given a job here, but I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m working my ass off to make sure I’m picking up the slack for other people and still doing everything I need to get done every day.

I suck in a sharp breath before I stand up, push my chair in under my desk, and then head off toward Michael’s office. I go up to the door and rap my knuckles against the glass before entering. He waves with his hand for me to come in, so I push on the handle of his glass door and allow the door to shut behind me. I head over to his desk and take a seat in one of the chairs sitting on the other side. “Is everything all right?” I nervously ask Michael.

He inhales slowly through his nose and looks me up and down. “I don’t think you should be the one to ask the questions here, Emily. I must admit, I’m a bit taken aback by your sudden changes. I expected more from you, honestly.”

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