Page 57 of His to Ruin

It was incredible to wake up next to Piotr each morning. Though he had to work, he didn’t leave until we’d had breakfast togetherand he took an hour for lunch to spend with me each day. I spent the rest of my time exploring the city with Jimmy, Marko, and Vlad by my side. The Russians turned out to be surprisingly good company. Marko was knowledgeable about history, and Vlad knew all the best places to eat. I was sorry to leave them behind in Paris, but they work for Sev, not Piotr.

Everything changed when Piotr and I got back to New York. He’s been working eighteen-hour days, coming home to fuck me, and then falling asleep. He’s always gone before I wake. I hate rattling around in his enormous apartment on my own. It doesn’t have the charm of Sev’s place in Paris. The views are horrendous. All I can see are other apartment blocks. Piotr told me I can start looking for a new place, but I don’t want to house hunt without him.

“You’re very distracted,” my mother says, cutting into my thoughts.

“Just thinking about Paris.”

“Are you sure that’s it? There’s nothing you want to tell me?”

“Like what?”

I follow her pointed gaze to where my hand is resting on my stomach. I roll my eyes. Is she seriously asking if I’m pregnant?

“Mama, I’ve been married for two weeks. It would be too early to tell.”

“I thought perhaps something happened between you and Piotr when you were in Florence.”

She makes it sound as if we’d gone there together on some romantic trip when, in fact, he followed me over there when Antonio banished me. I shake my head despairingly.

“You know I didn’t want to marry Piotr, but you still think I was fucking him in Italy?”

“Don’t be so vulgar, Olivia.” My mother picks an imaginary piece of fluff off her cardigan. “And I thought you were stringing the poor boy along, making him work to win your hand.”

I don’t set her straight. My mother rewrites history to suit her own romantic visions. It’s why she’s never taken my brothers to task for the ways they won their wives.

“Regardless, there is no baby on the way and there won’t be for some time. I plan to start a business.”

“Olivia!” She reacts as if I announced my intention to burn down a nunnery. “You can’t be serious.”

“Why not? Emilia runs a hotel, and Giulia and Vinnie both run their own charities.”

“Yes, but that’s not what I raised my daughter to do.”

That’s true. She concentrated all her efforts on teaching me to catch the eye of a powerful man and bend over backward to make him happy.

“It’s what I want to do.”

My mother purses her lips. “What do you know about running a business?”

“As much as I know about having a baby.”

“But having a baby is natural.”

My mother may only be in her early fifties, but her mindset is that of a much older woman. She speaks as if the sexual revolution never happened. I suppose in our world it didn’t. Infact, the attitudes of the people around me seem firmly rooted in the distant past.

“Just drop it, Mamma,” I snap just as Piotr and Boris come into the room.

Boris looks smart in a dark brown suit with a beige vest and a patterned tie. Piotr is dressed in his usual black ensemble. He bends to kiss my cheek before taking the seat to my right while Boris greets my mother and sits next to her.

“Tell me you don’t approve of Olivia’s nonsense.” Rather than dropping the subject, my mother tries to recruit Piotr to her side. “Tell me you’re not putting off starting a family so Olivia can play at running a business.”

Her condescending tone has me gritting my teeth.

“What’s this?” Boris looks at Piotr rather than me. “What business?”

Piotr smiles placidly. “Perhaps you would like to tell my uncle about it,malyskha?”

He might simply be giving me the lead because I haven’t shared details with him yet, but I choose to believe he’s trying to empower me.

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