Page 25 of Solemn Vow

“I have to put my laundry away, and I have a sewing project to get done.” My sewing machine is one of the few things I refuse to sell. It actually helps me make money by doing some alterations for people. I have a dress I need to finish hemming for the girl upstairs.

“My mother used to sew in the kitchen while I played with my toys.” He brushes his knuckles across my lips. “I didn’t bring any toys, but I’m sure I can find something to play with.”

Marlena chewson the inside of her cheek while she sews. I wonder if she realizes she has the habit.

After I helped her put away clean towels and hang up the rest of her laundry, she brought out a dress from her bedroom closet. She let me bring her sewing table from the bedroom to the living room, so she’d have more room, but then she shooed me away to the recliner.

I’ve been watching her work for over an hour while fielding text messages from Sergei.

Andrei wants us to meet at Kraze tonight. If I’m late, Sergei will be unbearable for a week. He’s barely stopped complaining about having to wait for me yesterday.

“When did you learn to sew? Did your mother teach you?” I ask when she removes the last pin from her mouth and stuffs it into a pincushion.

“No.” As she looks up from the machine, the little light coming from it shines in her eyes. “My mom died when I was a baby.”

“How soon after you were born?” I question. Growing up without a mother is hard, especially for a little girl, I think. My mother passed away when I was twelve, a grown man according to my father. I still miss her today. I can’t imagine not having her while I was growing up.

“She had to deliver me with a cesarean. There were complications, and she didn’t make it out of the operating room.” Her shoulders sag for a moment then she dives right back into work.

“I learned to sew in high school. I took a fashion class as an elective, scraped up enough money from my part-time job to get a second-hand sewing machine, and taught myself anything the class hadn’t.”

“Your father didn’t buy one for you?” I watch her features as my question hits her. Tension builds in her shoulders again.

“No.” She tears a string, lifts the foot of the sewing mechanism, and maneuvers the fabric around again. “He didn’t.” She’s concentrating on her project.

“Why not?” When I have a daughter, she will be ruthlessly spoiled. Her brothers will hate it, but they will protect her at all costs.

The fact Marlena had nothing like that growing up doesn’t sit well with me. Without a mother to guide her, it was her father’s duty to step up. He should have drowned her in everything she needed.

She never should have wanted for anything. And she sure as fuck shouldn’t have been working to scrape together money.

She looks up from the machine. “There wasn’t much money left after he drank it or snorted it.”

My jaw tenses. Her mother was never there, and her father wasn’t either. The world is a cruel place, and she’s learned this from a very young age. Too young.

No wonder she is so resistant to having anyone involved in her life. No one’s ever taken care of her before.

“Do you still speak with him?” I’d like to have a conversation with the man.

She shakes her head and goes back to her work. “He died when I was sixteen.”

“Who were your parents then? Aunts, uncles?”

“No one. I chose not to go into foster care.” She continues with the dress.

“Where did you live then?” I imagine her at sixteen trying to find her way through the streets of the city, looking for shelter, a home, a friend. Anger fills me that she had to wander alone for so long.

“Here and there.”

“Is that when you met Jimmy?” Pieces are coming together now. The puzzle that is Marlena is taking shape.

“Yeah. Michael put me on his crew. Jimmy showed me how to get into cars, then he showed me how to lift them. By the time Jimmy went away, I was nineteen. I didn’t have to worry about Child Protective Services getting me anymore, so I got out. Michael let me walk away so long as I promised to stay out of the business altogether. No working for anyone else.”

“And when he saw you last night, what did he have to say then?”

“He asked about Jimmy. He wanted to be sure I’d kept my word about staying out of the car business.” She smiles as she says this. I try to imagine her working with the likes of Jimmy. Young, scared, unsure of what’s ahead of her.

“And?”

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