Page 76 of Dirty Roxie
Roxie
The limousine arrives at Daria’s house to pick us girls up. Daria is traveling with her family to the cathedral. She’d given each of us girls a babushka scarf this morning to wear to the service, before leaving with her family. But not before telling us we are her true family, regardless of whose car she travels in. Bringing tears to my eyes, at least, and I think Jen’s as well.
After seeing how Daria and some of her family were dressed, I can only hope my dress is nice enough. The service is a formal event. And by formal, I mean exactly that. With a gunshot through the forehead, it surprised me to learn there would be an open casket, but Daria said they had frozen his body, then embalmed it in Russia, so it was in decent shape and the bullet wound is hardly noticeable, apparently.
It was important to the family for Viktor to be dressed in white and wrapped in a belt, per tradition. Plus, mourners will want to place flowers in his casket, and many will kiss him goodbye from what I’ve been told. Granted, I’ve never had to bury the actual body of someone I love, but I can’t imagine ever wanting to kiss a corpse. Even the thought of it makes me shudder.
The house manager covered all the mirrors in the house with black cloth and stopped all the clocks. She left Daria’s room for last so we could get ready but covered them immediately after.
Viktor’s body will remain at the cathedral for three days so people can pay their respects. And Daria’s family home will be open for the same amount of time for the same reasons. I’m not exactly looking forward to three days of mourning, but I’m in the right frame of mind for it lately.
Daria met with her entire family last night—remaining siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles—and informed them she was the one to kill her father.
Even from where we were waiting, half a wing away in her bedroom, we could hear the cries and screaming. At first, I was afraid for Daria. Not knowing how far they took eye-for-an-eye vengeance. But Al assured us her family would not hurt her. Especially not after Daria told them that Viktor was responsible for both her mother’s and Katya’s deaths.
And Al was right. Daria came back up to her room a couple of hours later, unharmed and in one piece. Though one side of her face was still red from where her brother had struck her. It shocked me to learn that her family could still want to punish her after hearing all that Viktor had done.
It did not shock Daria.
She’d expected it and was ready for it. “It’s why I couldn’t bring Mack on this trip,” she’d said. “He would have insisted on being with me when I told them. I would have let him because I can’t say no to the man. And he would have, how you say,lost his shitwhen my brother struck me.”
“I can’t believeyoudidn’t loseyourshit when your brother hit you,” I’d said.
“Who says I didn’t?” She’d smiled.
But she seemed much calmer after meeting with her family. And we’d all stayed up late into the night talking, drinking, and marveling over Daria’s childhood home, which looked more like a five-star resort than anything. Then falling asleep in her obscenely large custom-made bed as the sun was coming up.
Even though it was only a few hours, it seems like a lifetime ago now that we’re pulling up to the cathedral.
“Ohmigod!” Quinn says, looking out the window. “Look at all the cars. Is that for this? For Viktor?”
“I’m sure,” Jen says. “He may have been a dick, but he was a popular dick.”
“Or at least a feared one,” Al adds.
“That too,” Jen says.
The driver somehow gets us to the front of the line and opens the door for us to get out. Quinn goes first, followed by Jen and Al, with me bringing up the rear, yet we all pause at the same time. Awestruck by the size and sheer magnificence of the cathedral. With its huge gold onion domes and ornamentation, dozens of long narrow windows, and arched solid wood doors with handles bigger than my head.
“It’s like a fairy tale,” Quinn breathes.
“Only in this one the princess slayed the dragon,” Al says.
And with that, we head inside.
