Page 55 of Mafia Christmas Vows

This next part of the story is far less pleasant.

“I didn’t know she was sick until the doctors came and told me that there wouldn’t be another Christmas for her,” I whisper.

Maggie goes very, very still.

“My father wasn’t here. It was just me and her. I don’t know if the doctor thought through his proclamation, but as soon as he walked away, he told me that my mother’s illness would be fatal. He told me to send for my father.”

“Alexei…”

“I did,” I grit. “I asked for him immediately.”

“What happened then?”

“He came. We sat with her until she passed. It was a terrible time, because I had relatives come to pay their respects and they treated it like it was almost… a reunion. Orlov House was full, and the sounds of chatter and laughter were the background to my mother’s death,” I whisper.

“Oh, Alexei,” Maggie says.

I shake my head. “When she died, my father asked me what I wanted to do with Orlov House. I told him nothing. At the time, I wanted to see the whole thing off. I wanted it all to disappear.”

“But you didn’t let it.”

I shake my head. “No. I went to live with my father in Moscow. He passed recently as well, but it was not the same as whenmother died. We, he and I both, were not the same after she died.”

Maggie takes my hand.

I marvel at her fingers, the fine bones of her wrist and the flow of them into her small arm. I tug her close, tucking her head against my shoulder.

“Orlov House has always been the last place that I saw my mother. Until now, I had only remembered the pain. The loss, the way that I lost not just her, but my entire childhood as well,” I whisper.

Maggie doesn’t say anything. She listens, patiently, and I take a deep breath.

“I have never wanted to lose Orlov House. But I have also avoided it. I don’t come home for holidays. I don’t spend New Year here. I try to talk to Elena, but I don’t see her, because I don’t come back here,” I whisper. “I knew I needed a wife to maintain the house, but I refused to actually find a wife. Because if I found a wife, then I would need to face the house as well.”

“I kind of figured that’s why you wanted to leave,” Maggie smiles.

I pull her close. “You are too smart, my Maggie.”

“I’m just smart enough, and I also know a lot about how people avoid their problems.”

I laugh.

“Maggie. Magdalena. You have shown me that I cut myself off from the memories of Orlov House, but in the process, I did too much. I cut off the memories of my happiness with my mother aswell. Being here with you has reminded me that I am more than just the man my father made me. I am also the man my mother made me. You reminded me of this, and that is the greatest gift anyone could have ever given.”

She pulls back, a smile curling across her lips. “I love that, Alexei.”

“And I l?—”

I’m not able to finish the sentence.

Maggie’s eyes flash with a panic and she quickly moves in, her lips bruising mine. For a second, I’m startled. I wanted to confess how I feel, and it seems almost like she guessed that.

It seems like she suspected what I was about to say, and then decided that she didn’t want to hear it.

But that can’t be the case.

I return Maggie’s kiss. It grows heated, and my mind blanks. I pull her on top of me, letting her sweet, tight body straddle mine as our kisses grow fervent. My hands race over her skin, and her lips caress mine. Soon, I don’t remember what I was going to say.

All I want to do is show her how I feel. Show her the depths of my heart.

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