Page 36 of The Bratva's Innocent Bride

“Oh, so all that talk about my job being so easy feels pretty stupid now, huh?” I say, referring to when Roman first complained that I was given the role from Kervyn. At that time, our father had recently passed, and I was taking on his work as well as the new responsibilities Kervyn had given me. There was a lot on my plate, and my brothers didn’t seem to understand the extent of that.

“I’m just saying,” Roman says, grinning, “that there’s a race this weekend, and I would much rather go to that than be bogged down with calls from cousin Kervyn and his annoying brothers.”

“You’d better not talk about them like that,” I say, pointing at him. “Or they may appear in this kitchen.”

“What, like—” A gust of wind blows in the window, shutting a closet door in the hallway, and Roman jumps. I laugh at him far past when he’s stalked out the front door.

Chapter 16 - Fiona

“What is this?” I ask, looking up at Boris, who has just come out of the shower. Classes are set to start in a week, and when I came down for breakfast this morning, there was a pamphlet and a few printed papers sitting in front of my place.

“Didn’t you read them?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Online classes?” I ask, skimming the paper again. “But I tried enrolling in online classes last term, and they told me I wasn’t eligible. That it was only for certain students.”

“Well,” Boris says, turning and pulling a carton of orange juice from the fridge. “I guess you’re eligible now.”

“What did you do?”

“What?”

“How did you get them to agree to this?” I ask, waving the paper. “Who did you kidnap? Or blackmail? Or torture?”

“You have me all wrong,” he says, pouring me a glass of juice and setting it in front of me. “I didn’t handle this like the Bratva boss, I just handled it like a rich man. I made a donation to the university, and they had to do whatever I wanted.”

“And if they hadn’t?”

“Then I resort to kidnapping.”

I grin at him, then open the pamphlet and start looking through the available classes. I’d always wanted to do my courses online—it felt like they would be more manageable that way.

“Only if you want,” Boris says after draining his cup. “Don’t feel like you have to.”

“Do you have a degree?”

“Yes, of course.”

“And I’m assuming all your siblings do, too?”

“Well, all except Anya. She’s taking online courses as well.”

“It’s settled. I’m not going to be the least educated person in the room.”

Over the next few weeks, I choose my classes and meet with some administrators via video call. They all tell me they’re so happy to have me in the online and distance education track, and I struggle to keep from mentioning how I’d requested to join last year and was denied.

Boris orders me a new laptop with a camera so I can do my online classes, and though I get the notification that it’s delivered, I don’t see it on the porch, so I walk over to the other house with Ivan, who is still complaining about the heat, in tow.

As soon as we round the corner, I see the package on the porch, and I run up, leaning down to grab it right as Anya opens the door.

“Oh, hey!” she says, her eyes darting to the package. “Porch pirate!”

“Argh,” I say, hefting the box into my hands. “This is for my classes. They start in a few days, so I wanted to be ready.”

“No shit!” she says. “You’re taking online classes, too?”

Over the next few hours, Anya helped me navigate the digital classroom and gave me a thousand tips on avoiding bad professors and getting lecture recordings. Apparently, she’s been taking all her classes online.

“Boris conveniently failed to mention that,” I say, rolling my eyes. Though I’ve been sleeping in his bedroom, waiting for him to come home at night, he’s been notably absent the past few days. He says he’s dealing with a lot of business that fell to the side while he was recovering, but it feels like there’s more to it.

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