Page 82 of The Bratva's Forbidden Pregnancy

She touched her chest and blushed. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” I said.

“What for?” She squinted, her eyes narrowing at me.

“For showing me that I could be better, that my life wasn’t overwhelmed by utter darkness as I’d thought,” came my reply.

“Well, I’m glad I did that.” She slipped into my arms.

Lately, I’d been thinking about Joshua a lot and how ironic it was that I had ended up with his daughter. With how I hated him, I wouldn’t have thought, twenty-one years ago, that I’d share a room with anyone related to him. But things took a turn for good, and the unexpected had happened.

A part of me wished that he hadn’t betrayed me, that I wasn’t forced to end his life. Maybe things would have been different today. But the deed was done, and in the end, I still got all I wanted.

Sienna’s ability to shove aside the past and forge ahead with her father’s killer was baffling. But it was proof of her maturity and her love for me. Paul and Natalie Summers did raise the perfect child; they did a better job than Joshua and Sienna’s biological mom could have ever done.

I was proud of the woman she was, even though we were still two separate entities, but like I’ve always said, unlike terms attract.

Despite how she had affected me positively, I was still the same man when it was time for business. I learned to balance family and work without mixing up the two. At home, I was a loving husband, but at work, I was the cruel and ruthless boss I was known to be.

Simon believed I was on the right track, that the balance I had struck was perfect; he’d told me two days ago that with Sienna, I’d hit the jackpot.

“She’s a rare gem, that one, Boss.” His voice resounded in my head. “And I believe you two were meant for each other.”

He was right to believe so, and with every single day that passed, I was grateful that I’d met her when I did and that things turned out this way.

Sienna was someone I could never replace; she was perfect for me regardless of our differences. Nothing she did was wrong in my eyes, nothing at all, and sometimes, I felt like I was bewitched. She had crawled under my skin and occupied every nook and cranny of my mind.

She was an amazing person all round, and with her, I’d found peace; I’d found love. I was happy around her, and seeing her happy all the time was satisfactory.

There was a knock on the door, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Are you expecting someone?” she asked, eating a strawberry.

I pondered for a moment. Not really. Although there was this one guy who’d been pestering me to see Sienna. Could it be him at the door?

“I’ll get it.” I kissed her forehead, rising to my feet.

I opened the door, and there he was, standing on the other side with a bouquet of flowers in his hands.

“Zdravstvuyte, Vlad,” Andy said, literally meaning, Hello, Vlad. He was dressed up in a nice suit, just as he was the night we’d first met at the club.

“Zdravstvuyte, Andy,” I replied, my expression blank.

“Is Sienna home?” he asked. “I’d like to speak with her if that’s okay with you.”

I glanced at the bouquet in his hands and returned my gaze to his face, where regret was plastered all over.

He would have had a lot of explaining to do as to why he’d brought flowers for my wife, but I knew better.

Andy had reached out to me two days earlier, begging to have a talk with Sienna. I knew he had some things to let off his chest, but a part of me was still mad at him for the stupid stunt he’d pulled on her life.

The only reason he was still breathing, still walking this Earth, was because Sienna had asked me to spare his life.

I’d had him holed up at a secret facility where I’d planned to torture him slowly for attempting to hurt my wife and unborn child.

After Sienna’s plea to spare his life, I thought about him and realized his actions were driven by rage, considering the cycle of violence we were trapped in. He knew I’d killed his brother, and he wanted vengeance. Same as me when I took Joshua’s life.

In the end, Andy and I were not so different, after all; we were both victims of our rage, and we let it drive us, control us.

---