Page 29 of The Mobster's Forced Marriage

Nikolai? My eyes widen, and I freeze for a moment, but I try to keep my shock from showing so I don’t scare Misha away. Goddamnit. Elena has said before that this man is a psycho, but to do something like this to his own grandson?

“Why…?” I murmur to myself, but Misha catches it all the same.

“Grandpa often loses his patience when I do something wrong. He says I shouldn’t have been born at all because I can only spoil—”

“Misha?” Sasha’s voice makes us both startle, and we turn around simultaneously to see her by the couch with a worried frown on her face. “Are you alright?”

Her voice is gentle, even though when she looks at me, I see only ice in her eyes. But right now, my mind is too shaken to care about that.

Our conversation doesn’t seem to impress Misha too much, though, because his voice is as quiet and steady as usual. “Yes, Mom.”

Sasha looks at him for a moment before sighing and gesturing at the kitchen. “It’s time for lunch. I’ve made some hot chocolate for you.”

“Thank you.” Misha gets up and turns around to look at me. “We can finish it later, alright?”

He looks so serious I can’t help but chuckle. “Sure.”

Misha nods and walks away to the kitchen, but before Sasha can follow him, I call her. She lingers for a moment before turning around with a silent question.

“Is it true?”

“What?”

“About Nikolai.” I glance at the kitchen and lower my voice. “About what he did to Misha.”

Sasha’s expression immediately hardens, and she clenches her jaw and looks at me with a glint of steel in her green eyes. “Yes, it’s true, so I hope you have enough brains to never bring it up again.”

She walks away without another word, and all I can do is sit there with my heart cold and my eyes staring into the distance. God, what monster would do something like this to a child? I have to admit, I’ve seen plenty of examples of child abuse on the outskirts of Chicago’s crime-ridden neighborhoods, and physical punishment is nothing new in the Mafia world…but still, it shakes me to the core.

Misha is such a smart, quiet, and well-behaved child. How could his own grandfather torture him for the smallest hint of disobedience? And why hasn’t anyone done anything about it? My first instinct is to blame Sasha for it, but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that, with her dependence on her father, she couldn’t do much to stop him.

What about her mother, then? Her cousins? The guards in their place? Have they all just been watching itfor years? A heated wave of fury rises in my chest at the thought, followed by a strong urge to protect the boy. He may not be my son, but he is a part of my family now, so there’s no way I will ever let him suffer again.

After our conversation in the living room, an urge to make Misha smile and prove that I will never be like his goddamn grandfather follows me everywhere, making me forget even about Sasha. He’s been through enough shit in his life, so why not give him a chance to have some real fun and be happy if only for a day?

It takes me a few days and a quick conversation with Matteo to figure out what to do, so one day when Sasha leaves the house to deal with Misha’s documents for school, I knock on the door of his room. Every little sound immediately goes quiet, and I wait for a while for Misha to acknowledge my presence, but he never does.

“Hey, Misha, it’s Louis,” I say eventually, trying to sound calm and cheerful at the same time. “Can I talk to you?”

Another pause. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, no, it’s not that!” I shake my head even though he can’t see me. “I only wanted to offer…um, I’m going somewhere fun, so I thought maybe you wanted to join me?”

Damn, that didn’t sound very good, did it? I grimace, blaming myself for the weird choice of words, when I hear movement behind the door. “With Mom?”

“No, she’s not at home, and…well, I don’t think she would allow you to come with me.”

“I don’t want to make her upset.”

Yeah, I kinda expected that he’d say something like this, and it’s fair. At his age, I wouldn’t want to upset Mom either.

“Sure, I understand, it’s alright. I just—there will be popcorn, amusement rides, real sharks, and, you know, plenty of fun stuff to do. Besides, the weather is nice, so I thought you’d like to join?” I finish it with a half-question, still hoping to wake up some excitement in Misha, but he remains silent and I sigh. “Well, maybe next time.”

Ah, damn.

It wasn’t a total failure, though, because at least Misha showed some interest. I have to think about something to do at home, then…or with Sasha, even though I have a hard time imagining her playing games with me. Maybe an inflatable amusement park? I hum, walking down the stairs. It doesn’t sound like perfect outdoor fun for December, although—

“Where is it?”

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