Page 8 of Arranged Bratva Virgin

“Thank you,” I reply, pulling Darya up against my side. She smiles tightly, seeming disinterested in the entire event.

She has been engaging with our guests, smiling and playing the role beautifully, but now it is getting later, and I can see her becoming more and more distant.

“Will you excuse me? I just want to go freshen up.” She smiles sweetly.

I drop my arm reluctantly and smile back. “Don’t be long.”

She walks away, leaving Kiril and I standing alone.

For a moment there is just awkward silence, and then Maxim and Chiara join us, to my relief.

“Stefano, that was a beautiful wedding,” Chiara smiles, reaching up to hug me.

“Do you want a drink?” Maxim asks her. She nods and he wanders off, obviously knowing her preferences. Kiril follows after him, and Chiara tilts her head towards me with her brows knotted.

“What is really going on here, Stef?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what do you really get out of this? Darya is such an amazing girl. I just hate the thought of her getting hurt over a business deal. She doesn’t deserve that.”

“She isn’t going to get hurt.”

Chiara throws me a glare, as though she knows me better than that.

I chuckle. “Don’t give me that look. You should know me by now. I am not the guy in all those rumors. Beneath all this armor, there is a heart.”

She sighs and rolls her eyes. “I know. But seriously. If you hurt her, I will come after you myself.”

I shake my head, laughing again. I wrap my arm around my sister’s shoulder and pull her against my side, hugging her tightly. “I trust you will, little sis. I know you love me, and you’ll make sure I do the right thing.”

She playfully punches me in the ribs. “Ew. Don’t be all mushy like that,” she laughs.

Ever since our father’s death we have become so much closer. He spent years driving a wedge between us, feeding each of us thoughts about the other to keep us apart. He didn’t want us to get along because we were both easier to control if we were dependent on him and him alone for support. After realizing that, we were able to work through things together. We both suffered the same, living with that man, just in different ways.

We have been there for each other lately, and I am deeply fond of Chiara. She is my family, and I am grateful for everything she does for me.

“Seriously though, you don’t have to worry. I will take good care of her, I promise.”

“You better.” She throws me a look just as Maxim returns with her blue gin, garnished with blueberries and a mint leaf.

She grins at her husband and steps close to his side, snuggling against him.

I want Darya to do that to me.

I want her to want me like that.

Where is she? What is taking so long?

I glance around the room searching for my bride.

When I spot her standing with a friend of hers, laughing at smiling, I feel a tinge of jealousy.

I need to get her out of here. We have spent enough time making a public display of this wedding, and I want to get her home now before she changes her mind and leaves to go back to her old home. She belongs with me now. She needs to come home with me.

The longer we stay at this reception, the colder she seems to grow towards me.

It is exhausting, though, all of this smiling and talking and socializing.

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