Page 68 of Scarred (Russian Sinners 2)

“No, I didn’t,” Olivia told her. “I thought you would show him since it’s your gift.”

Beaming Tasha ran to one of the small paintings and brought it over.

“This is for you, Uncle.” She handed it to me and I looked it over. It was a painting of Tasha’s mother, my sister. “Do you like it? Do you?”

My niece was an impatient child, I thought to myself smiling.

“I love it,” I told her. I stared at the painting. It was very good; Olivia must have helped her a lot.

Malcome got his clutches on Nadia, my sister, too. Three years ago, he spotted her as a hostess at a Russian satellite convention. He killed her within a year. Thankfully, my sister had enough sense not to take Tasha around him. She’d left her with a babysitter too young to care for a three-year-old, never to return from her rendezvous with Malcome. She had been gone for two years, never to see her daughter grow up. All because of that sick bastard.

She was a beauty. Her raven dark hair and green eyes always got her noticed by men. But she always picked the worst men. Tasha’s father was dead but he had been a piece of shit too. Then she went for Malcome, his wealth an attractive attribute for her. And Malcome Schmidt had a thing for younger, vulnerable women. Nadia was a year older than me and she was thirty-two when he spotted her. A year later, she was dead.

After the coroner's examination, I went through the report. She has been severely sexually and physically abused for an extended period of time, and she was pregnant.

Thinking about my sister always brought on a sense of sadness; failure that I didn’t see her troubles till it was too late and rage that the guy that did this to her got away.

“Tasha did all the painting alone,” Olivia explained softly. “I just helped her with the outline and mixing colors.”

“The painting portrays her picture really well,” I commended them. “It is beautiful.”

“Is it dinner time?” Tasha asked, eager to get moving.

“I guess it is now,” Olivia teased her. It was amazing to see Olivia’s transformation around my niece. Her walls were no longer an obstacle, her demeanor towards Tasha playful and relaxed. My heart swelled with feelings long forgotten; this was what it felt to have my own family.

Both of them joked back and forth as we headed in search of the dinner.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Olivia

The dinner with Nikolai and Tasha reminded me of the rare nights I had dinner with Mom and Oliver alone, without my father present. It was the only time we all felt relaxed and spoke freely. Andrey and a few others joined too.

Nikolai already called in a few other schools for us to check into that would be a good fit for Tasha. She was excited to go to school but also a bit nervous.

“Were you nervous when you had to go to school, Olivia?” Tasha asked me.

“You know that was a long time ago,” I told her. “It was a bit easier since I had my twin brother and Anastasia. College was scarier for me.”

“Why?” That girl had more questions than any other kid I knew. Or maybe it just showed how little I knew about kids.

“Well, my brother went to a military academy, Anastasia was working on her college degree already, and Scarlett, my other friend, was starting university in a different town. So it was a bit scary to go to a school where I knew nobody. But it all worked out.”

I could practically hear her wheels spinning in her head. I took her silence and bit into my food.

“Are you going to have babies, Olivia?” I almost choked on my food. How did we go from the first day of school or college fright to having babies? I quickly grabbed a glass of water trying to wash down the food in my throat.

I cleared my throat before answering. “Not sure. Why?”

“I think you’d be a good mom,” she commented. I really did not understand the way this child’s mind worked.

“Um, thanks. I guess.” I raised my eyebrow at Nikolai if he had an inkling where the questions were coming from but by his expression, I could tell he wasn’t sure either. Although he certainly didn’t look as uncomfortable as I was.

I watched Tasha’s face and there was worry there. “If something is worrying you, you might as well say it, Tasha. It will come out sooner or later. You’ll worry less if you say it sooner.”

“A girl at the school said that her mom had a baby and now nobody cared about her.”

What?I was not equipped for this. Scarlett was a kindergarten teacher and studied children psychology too. She’d handle this beautifully.

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