Page 112 of Immaculate Corruption (Romanoff Bratva)

“I also thought of Brigitte,” I admit. “I know she did horrible things, but… she was my friend. Or, I thought she was my friend. I don’t know. I’m just so mad that so much has happened. That there is so much bad in the world. Bad that killed Rose. Bad that took over Brigitte and turned her evil. I hate it so much and I also hate that I still miss them. Both of them.”

Dima pulls me aside to face him. “There is bad in the world, Arya. You and I know it better than most people. I used to think the bad outweighed the good, but someone changed my mind about that.”

“Who?”

He pulls away and looks down at me.

“Oh,” I say, realizing what he meant. “Me.”

“You have always been so good. You see the best in people. You’re loyal. You’re kind. You are the kind of person most people strive to be, Arya, and you give me hope that the world isn’t lost. If people like you can exist, then there has to be a whole hell of a lot of good out there somewhere.”

Once again, tears are prickling at the backs of my eyes, but I fight them back.

I don’t want to cry. Especially right before we go back into the party.

Instead, I stretch onto my toes and kiss Dima. “Thank you.”

He grins and tips his head towards the ballroom door where it sounds like Gennady is singing karaoke to a chorus of laughter. It’s the Spice Girls, if I’m not mistaken.

“You ready?” he asks.

I grab his hand. “Absolutely.”

40

Arya

“This is a great party. And a beautiful house.” Lauren takes a sip of punch and looks around. “I’ve never seen a house with a ballroom before.”

“Me either,” I admit, laughing. “Dima’s life is… different from most other people’s.”

“Which means your life is different now, too, right?”

We’ve been so busy since I moved in to the mansion that I haven’t really had time to consider that I live here. At first, it seemed like a temporary solution. Yet another place to crash on the long list of places I’ve crashed in the last few months. Granted, this was by far the most extravagant of the bunch.

But now that my stuff is unpacked in the closet and Lukas has a nursery, it feels like it could be… a home.

That’s bizarre.

“I still can’t believe you came all this way for a baby shower,” I say again. “After everything you’ve done for me, I never would have asked you to come all this way.”

Lauren waves my words away. “Please, this is great. Like I said, your boyfriend is very generous. He paid for my flight and booked my hotel. It has been way too long since I’ve taken a vacation anyway. It’s hard to ask for time off when your dad is your boss. It’s like being in school again and trying to convince them I’m too sick to go.”

I laugh. “That can’t be fun.”

She nods. “No, but it’s great, too. I love spending so much time with my family. It keeps us close.”

“I bet that’s nice,” I say, even though I have no fucking idea if it’s nice.

What do I know about family? My mom cared more about drugs than me, my fiancé turned out to be a drug dealing mass murderer, and the best friend I loved like a sister betrayed me and tried to kidnap my son.

They aren’t exactly citing my life story in “How-to-be-a-parent” textbooks.

Lauren must be able to see the torment on my face because she reaches out and lays a hand over mine. “I know there’s a lot about your life I don’t know or understand, but you can talk to me if you need it.”

Her kindness makes my throat constrict with unshed tears. “Thank you. That’s… really nice.”

“I like to think we are sort of friends now. I mean, I helped find your son, which I think makes me an honorary godmother or something, right?”

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