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I wave her off and pour myself another drink, turning to my left. Yuslan, my younger brother, is watching his girlfriend go with Natalia. I smile, “She’s beautiful.”
“She is. She might be the one,” he grins.
“You always think whoever you’re dating is the one. Come on. Be a bachelor like me.” I chuckle.
Yuslan shakes his head, “I don’t think you’ll always be one, though.”
I snort and am about to respond when I sense someone sitting to my right. I turn to see Shirley seated there, looking up at me.
My mood instantly drops, and I sigh, sipping on my drink.
“What do you want?” I can’t even bring myself to say her name, “Have you decided you want money from me for child support? Cause you could have just emailed me. I’ll deposit it in whatever account you send so you can run off back to the West Coast.”
Her eyes sparkle, and she nods. “I deserve that. Can we please speak in private?”
I shake my head and hear Ivan clear his throat. He gives me a pointed look, and I scowl and nod. “Fine, come on.”
I leave my drink and lead her into one of the private party rooms. Chairs and tables are stacked up against the side, and I go to a table standing in the middle and lean against it with my arms crossed over my chest.
There’s a long pause before she says softly, “Your beard is even grayer than before.”
I shrug. I don’t know what her play is, but I’m not giving her anything but the bare minimum.
She licks her lips and glances at the floor before looking at me and saying, “Evgenii. I thought that I would never be able to forgive you for how you betrayed me. You shattered my self-confidence and everything I thought about the world. You robbed me of innocence I didn’t even know I had. But I was young, and business was business, and I know that I need to move past that.”
She pauses, and I can feel a lump forming in my throat. I stand straight and clear my throat. “It’s fine,” I say gruffly, “We’re even so we can both get over it.”
I try to move past her, but she places a hand on my chest, “I’m sorry.” She looks up at me with pleading in her eyes, “I’m sorry I betrayed you by changing my proposal, but I wanted to make you feel how I had felt. How it felt to be led on and then screwed over. I was head over heels in love with you when we met, and after everything you did, I thought I would never be able to love another person again.”
The guilt sits heavily in my chest, and I nod. “I get it. I fucked up and hurt you. You got me back. We’re good.”
She shakes her head, frustrated. “No, I couldn’t love another person again because I loved you. I still love you.”
I pull back immediately, unable to look at her. “We can’t be in love. We’re toxic to each other. After everything we’ve done against each other, the betrayals and lies, how can we ever trust each other? And without trust, how can we ever be together? It will always hang over our relationship.”
She holds her hand out. “I’m Shirley McCannister. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I stare at her, raising an eyebrow. “Did you knock your head? What are you on about?”
She swallows. “I know it’s stupid, but I am introducing myself again so we can start fresh. A new relationship, separate from what we did before. We’re not those people anymore.”
I shake my ass and try to stop the smile. I shake her hand. “Evgenii Volkov, you got a pretty good ass, you know that. I like it.”
She laughs, and it’s music to my ears. I want to be mad at her, but that little stunt melts my heart. I approach her and put my hands on her arms, drawing her to me so I can lean down and kiss her deeply.
She slides her arms around my neck and holds me tightly. When the kiss ends, she rests her head against my chest. “I want to raise our baby together. I want to be with you and raise our family.”
I stroke her back. “I would love that very much.”
I let her go and lace our fingers together, leading her out of the room to find both families waiting for us, staring in our direction. Alessandro and Ivan are at the head of the tables. Ivan is sitting, but Alessandro is standing, holding a glass of wine, “I have wonderful news, everyone. Shirley is pregnant with Evgenii’s baby. We are going to have another member of our family join us in a few months, and a great wedding to party too.”
Ivan stands up, raising his glass, “Another beautiful unity between our families. What is it that you Italians say?”
He leans down to Tori, who smiles and whispers in his ear. He stands straight. “Cin Cin!”
“Cheers,” Alessandro chuckles, raising his glass.
Everyone cheers and claps, and then there is a loud scraping of chairs as everyone gets up to congratulate us. I smile brightly. The only odd thing I notice is that Nat isn’t with the crowd. She is standing at the kitchen doorway, her arms crossed, but she’s smiling sadly.
