Chapter 7 - HER FIRST KISS
Elara’s hand tightened around the locket.
“What does that mean?”
Taras looked at Evelyn’s photograph.
“Not as a bride.”
“Then stop saying things halfway.”
“I’m trying.”
“Try faster.”
Catherine covered a startled laugh.
Taras almost smiled.
Almost.
Then it disappeared.
“After Evelyn became ill, she asked Galina to promise something.”
“We know.”
“No.”
Taras shook his head.
“You know part of it.”
Elara waited.
“She said if my pride ever brought the family down, Galina was to take you.”
“Why me?”
“Because Evelyn believed you would be the last one to leave.”
Elara looked away.
“She told me Catherine would build her own life.”
Catherine’s eyes filled.
“Juliet would follow her heart.”
Juliet wiped one cheek.
“And you…”
Taras’s voice broke.
“You would stay beside me because you thought leaving people meant failing them.”
Elara could not speak.
“She was afraid I would mistake your loyalty for permission.”
He looked at the gold locket.
“She chose Galina because Galina would never ask you to become somebody else in exchange for shelter.”
Elara turned toward Vadim.
The irony was almost unbearable.
“And instead, you sent me here as a debt.”
Taras nodded.
“I twisted what Evelyn meant until it fit what I needed.”
“Why the lies about my reputation?”
“Because I knew Galina.”
He looked at Vadim.
“And I knew her son was not likely to accept a frightened, unwilling woman as payment.”
Vadim’s expression became glacial.
“You were correct.”
“So I made her sound willing.”
Taras’s voice dropped.
“Experienced.”
Elara closed her eyes.
“Disposable.”
“No.”
She looked at him.
“Yes.”
Taras had no answer.
Vadim removed something from his pocket.
His wedding ring.
He placed it on Taras’s desk.
“The debt remains.”
Taras looked at him.
“The marriage does not.”
Elara’s heart stopped.
Vadim continued.
“You owe me four million dollars.”
His eyes were cold.
“You do not owe me a daughter.”
Taras nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Vadim looked at Elara.
She expected him to tell her what happened next.
He did not.
“What do you want?”
That question again.
A question nobody in Chicago had bothered asking before her wedding.
Elara looked at her father.
Then her sisters.
Then the mansion.
“I’m going back to Russia.”
Taras’s face changed.
Vadim’s did too.
Elara raised one hand.
“I’m not finished.”
Vadim waited.
“I’m going because I want distance from this house.”
She looked at him.
“And because I haven’t decided what you are to me yet.”
He nodded.
“That is enough.”
Taras stepped forward.
“Elara.”
She turned.
“I’m not forgiving you today.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“I’m not promising I will.”
“I know.”
“If you want to repair anything, don’t send flowers.”
Taras almost smiled.
“What should I do?”
“Tell the truth.”
“To who?”
“Everyone you lied to.”
His expression sobered.
“My sisters.”
He nodded.
“Your staff.”
Another nod.
“Anyone who heard you talk about me like I was a family embarrassment.”
That one hurt him.
Good.
“And Patrick?”
Taras’s jaw shifted.
“His job is safe.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Taras understood.
“I will tell him.”
Elara picked up Evelyn’s cedar box.
“That’s a start.”
On the flight back, she wore her mother’s green coat.
Not because it was stylish.
It wasn’t.
The sleeves were slightly short.
The buttons were old.
But it smelled faintly of cedar.
For the first time, Elara understood that her mother had not spent her final years worrying that Elara was weak.
She had worried that Elara would mistake endurance for love.
Vadim sat across from her.
Hours passed.
Then Elara said, “You took your ring off.”
“Yes.”
“Do you want to end the marriage?”
Vadim looked at her.
“What I want is not the first question anymore.”
“What is?”
“What do you want?”
She smiled faintly.
“You’re getting repetitive.”
“I can live with that.”
Elara touched her own wedding band.
“What if I don’t hate being married to you?”
Vadim’s eyes changed.
“That is a dangerous standard.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
She watched him.
“You haven’t touched me since the wedding.”
“You were frightened when the priest told me to kiss you.”
“You noticed.”
“Yes.”
“My father would have called that embarrassing.”
“Your father has poor judgment.”
She laughed.
Vadim smiled.
It transformed his whole face.
Elara’s chest tightened.
“I’ve been thinking about something.”
“What?”
“The kiss.”
His smile disappeared.
He became completely still.
“Elara.”
“I’m not asking you to do anything.”
“Good.”
She frowned.
“Good?”
“If you ever kiss me, I would prefer not to wonder whether you think you owe it.”
That sentence nearly undid her.
She stood.
Vadim watched her approach.
No arrogance.
No assumption.
No movement at all.
Elara stopped in front of him.
“I spent twenty-six years letting other people define what everything meant.”
He waited.
“My body.”
Silence.
“My quietness.”
Silence.
“My marriage.”
Vadim’s eyes stayed on hers.
“And now?”
She swallowed.
“I want my first kiss to belong to me.”
His voice lowered.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Completely?”
“Yes.”
So Elara kissed him.
She was awkward.
Of course she was.
Her nose bumped his.
She almost pulled away from embarrassment.
Vadim smiled against her mouth.
That made her laugh.
Then he lifted one hand.
Stopped before touching her face.
She nodded.
Only then did he place his palm gently against her cheek.
The second kiss was softer.
Better.
Nothing like the dramatic things books had promised.
It was warmer.
Quieter.
Safer.
When Elara stepped back, Vadim did not chase her.
He simply looked at her like something precious had been entrusted to him.
“Was that terrible?”
“No.”
“Convincing.”
His mouth moved.
“Would you like a formal report?”
She laughed again.
“No.”
They returned to Russia two days later.
Galina was waiting in the glass corridor.
The red scarf from the photograph rested across her lap.
Beside it was a tiny silver bracelet made for a child.
Elara stopped.
“What is that?”
Galina looked at the wedding ring still on Elara’s hand.
Then at Vadim’s bare one.
“I think you are finally ready for the part Evelyn never told Taras.”
Elara’s pulse quickened.
Galina lifted the little bracelet.
A single blue bead hung from it.
Matching Evelyn’s rosary.
“Your mother did not ask me to rescue you.”
Galina’s eyes filled.
May you like
“She asked me to make sure that, when the time came, you knew how to choose.”
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