Page 18 of Mafia Christmas Vows

Well. That’s interesting, at least.

Still, I had hoped that he was… I don’t know. Interested in me, somehow.

That it wasn’t quite as sanitized as it seems.

“I won’t hurt you, Magdalena. I will protect you. I will protect your mother. I will keep you safe. Orlov House, the land, the staff… they are yours. We can keep your mother here. Any… I can give you money, and clothes, and anything you want, it will be yours.”

“And if what I wanted was a loving family? A happy husband?”

Alexei looks away.

“Got it,” I murmur.

“I will not promise something I cannot give,” he says softly.

Well. At least he’s being honest.

I stand.

“Where are you going?” Alexei asks.

Turning, I look back at him.

“Does it matter?”

“Elena will return. She wished to bring us cake.”

That earns a little smile from me. “And you don’t want to disappoint Elena, do you?”

Alexei nods. “She is… hopeful.”

“For what?”

“That I am not the monster that I am.”

Interesting. “And you want to give her hope, but not me?”

Alexei frowns.

I sigh, and settle back onto the couch.

Alexei looks at me. “What are you doing?”

“I like Elena. I appreciate your honesty. So I’ll happily eat cake with her and pretend. What about you?”

Alexei takes a deep breath. I can smell his cologne, spicy and vaguely citrus against my senses.

“For Elena, we can pretend.”

The next morning, Alexei is gone.

I pretend it doesn’t bother me. Elena lets me know that he’s gone back to Novgorod for business.

He left me a black credit card, which I know from my general understanding of the world is the type without a limit.

Well, at least he wasn’t kidding about the money stuff.

I spend the morning making the best of my unlimited money. Elena gives me the shipping address for the house, and I type it in so many times, it’s basically memorized by the time I’m ready to talk to my mom.

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