Page 53 of Arranged Bratva Virgin

No one has offered me a drink yet, and all of her brothers seem content with either talking to their own wives or each other, so I stand up and head towards the bar to sort myself out. I pour a whiskey on the rocks, making it a double to try and ease the tension I am feeling.

Then, with my drink in hand, I lean against the wall watching Darya for ages, not talking to anyone and wonder how long it will be before they serve dinner so that we can eat and get the hell out of here.

More people arrive, some family that I don’t know and some who are just close family friends. None of them pay any attention to me, so I don’t bother greeting any of them, either.

I hate this.

I can’t wait to go home.

When Chiara finally arrives I breathe a literal sigh of relief to see her and my little niece, who is wrapped up in her arms.

She comes straight over to me to say hello, and I don’t waste a second before scooping her daughter from her arms and nuzzling my face against her tummy until she screams with laughter. “How is my little teddy bear?”

I can’t help doting over her. She is the most beautiful child, and her chubby cheeks are always rosy and bright.

“Why are you standing over here alone?” Chiara asks, looking around at everyone else.

My niece squeals and kicks for me to put her down. When I do, she bolts off towards the other kids.

“I don’t know, it just feels a bit tense I guess.” I shrug.

“What feels tense?” Maxim arrives and smiles at me.

Chiara turns away from us. “I am going to go and say to the girls. Play nice,” she says, throwing me a sharp look.

“What does she mean, play nice?” Maxim laughs.

Maxim and I didn’t get on when we first met, but after going through some stuff together, we got closer. We kind of bonded over both wanting to look out for Chiara when my stepfather was going crazy and doing all of that shit.

I know Maxim is a good guy. He did take a bullet for me, after all.

I sigh, knowing that if I am going to talk to anyone, he is the best one of all the brothers.

“What’s up with your brothers, man?” I decide to get straight to the point.

“What do you mean?” he asks with his brows knotted.

“There is clearly animosity towards me, no one is bothering to even speak to me. It’s just uncomfortable. What is their problem with me?”

Maxim chuckles, which annoys the hell out of me.

“Stef, it’s a two-way street. You are hiding here in the corner, not talking to them, either. Whatever effort you put in, they will give back to you. If you come to a family gathering like this one and hide away from people, they are going to assume you don’t want anyone to talk to you, and they will give you your space.” He raises his brows at me, waiting for my response.

I sigh in frustration. He’s right. I haven’t exactly been making it easy for anyone to talk to me, even if they wanted to.

“So, if you want to join the conversation, just come join the conversation. You'll see—there is nothing going on. No weirdness, no animosity.” Maxim holds his hands out in the air with a slight shrug.

“Fine, I’ll be right there. Thanks, man. I probably needed to hear that.”

Maxim smiles. “Alright. I am going to get a drink. Do you need another one?”

“Sure, yeah, I’ll have another.”

He walks off and I feel a little bit of the tension ease away.

Maybe I was overthinking this, and in doing so ended up alienating myself. I guess I should just do what he says and go and stand with everyone else instead of expecting people to come looking for me. It is a party, after all.

I glance across the room to where Darya is and immediately the skin on the back of my neck is tingling. My fists clench in anger.

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