Chapter 17 - Katie

I had been Mrs. Fokin for two weeks, and everything was going great. Aleks doted on me, at least when he was around, which wasn't nearly as much as I would have liked. But I admired how hard he worked, and understood he was running an empire, even if I didn't have a clear understanding of what that empire entailed.

My lunch business was booming. Because of all of the amazing appliances and gadgets in Olga's kitchen, I was able to come up with some new recipes that had gotten rave reviews. The word spread, and Aleks even hired a new delivery guy to branch out to more buildings. My mornings were full of preparing all the extra meals.

Olga came in three days a week to cook for us, and to drop off all the ingredients I used in the boxes. I'd made friends with her once she warmed up to me and started speaking English, and she even offered to help when it was clear I was getting in the weeds with all the new business. The dinners she cooked for us were heavenly, but I wouldn't have minded taking over all the cooking just to have something to do once I was finished with the lunch boxes.

I brought it up to Aleks, but he balked. His elderly Russian chef had been cooking for him since he was a kid, and she could stay with him until she decided to retire. When I casually brought it up to Olga under the guise of asking if she missed her grandkids back in the old country, she only laughed and said she'd retire in a few years and go back to Moscow then.

So, while my mornings were packed full of hustle and bustle, my afternoons dragged when Aleks wasn't around. And he wasn't around a lot. Sometimes, he didn't come home until very late; other times, he had to rush out in the middle of the night. No matter how much I asked what was going on, he was always cagey about what he was doing or where he was going.

"Finance is global, it never sleeps," he said once when he raced out past eleven at night.

After that, I stopped worrying, until curiosity got the best of me after a phone call at two in the morning had him scrambling out of bed, swearing under his breath as he yanked on his clothes.

He'd been just as tight-lipped that night, and I'd been a bit of a brat about it, making him look so distraught that I couldn't get it out of my mind. I snuck downstairs to surprise him with a kiss and to let him know I wasn't upset. I waited silently for him to notice me and smile, but he was fully focused on unlocking a cabinet in his downstairs office that I'd never given a second thought. But I slipped out of the doorway and into the shadows when I saw it was chock full of guns. He strapped a smaller one to each hip and then slung a long one over his shoulder before locking it back up again.

I snuck back upstairs without him noticing me and tossed and turned that night. What kind of overseas financial crisis required him to be armed to the teeth like that? I convinced myself that maybe he was going to open a safe deposit box or something like that and needed extra security.

Yeah, just going to the bank. In the middle of the night.

The next morning, I couldn't find the nerve to ask about it since I didn't want him to think I was snooping because I didn't trust him.

I did trust him. Completely. He'd fulfilled every promise he made to me. Jenna was thrilled with her new apartment, and Aunt Marjorie had started her first round of treatments. I hated lying to them about where the sudden influx of funds had come from. I'd told them that my catering company had gone viral after an especially popular party had made the local entertainment news, and now everyone was clamoring to hire me.

There was no way I could tell them about Aleks or my rushed marriage to him. No matter how much he tried to reassure me, it was a pipe dream that Nat would accept us being together. My best friend's nature was too fiery and she was too possessive about her beloved father for that to happen. A quickie divorce sometime in the much too near future was the only answer.

I dreaded it, and swatted all thoughts of it out of my mind like they were annoying gnats. I wanted to savor our time together, not worry about the day it all had to end.

Except now, I really didn't want it to end. Not in a quickie divorce or any kind of divorce. My childhood crush on Aleks was turning into love. That was something else I had to fight against if I didn't want to die of heartache when this inevitably ended.

Aleks just made it so difficult. Impossible.

Who was I kidding? Heartache was on the horizon because I adored that man.

I was lolling out by the pool, musing about my new, temporary life and taking in the afternoon sun, when a woman about my age stormed out the glass doors and traipsed through the garden, waving at me.

She was willowy and blonde, and as she got closer, she looked shockingly like a much prettier version of Aleks. She had the same straight nose as Nat, too, so definitely related.

"I'm Mila," she said. "Don't get up." She leaned over and kissed both my cheeks in a European sort of way, then flopped into the chair next to me. "I'm Aleks's baby sister. Have you heard of me? I'm the only girl sibling. I'm sorry we're just meeting, but I hope we'll be best friends."

I was a bit shocked by her, but her eyes were full of sincerity, so I eagerly agreed. I hadn't realized I had grown lonely without Aleks around during the day, and Olga was only there every other day and had her own work to do.

Mila wanted to hear all about the wedding, bitter she wasn't invited to be a witness. After I told her a few details, she launched into big plans for a real wedding when things calmed down.

"What things?" I pounced, hoping to get some answers out of Aleks's very chatty sister.

The chatty sister instantly clammed up, shrugging. "Oh, overseas nonsense. It's super boring."

"But you're in the family business, too, right? What do you do?"

"This and that," she said, the same look on her face that Aleks got when dodging my questions. "The guys want me to learn everything, so sometimes I'm at a restaurant, and sometimes I'm in one of the offices. I'm good with people, so I'm kind of a fixer."

"What do you fix?" I asked, dying for a straight answer.

"Oh, this and that. Whatever's broken."

It was a good thing not getting straight answers wasn't actually fatal. I understood their business was probably complicated, but being left out was frustrating. Maybe they actually thought I'd find it boring. How could I, when my new husband was the most fascinating man I'd ever met. I longed to know all of it, down to the smallest detail.

She then asked me if I wanted to know all her favorite shops in Beverly Hills, and I found that I did. As big and sumptuous as the estate was, I hadn't left since the day we went to retrieve my things. I needed a day out on the town, and was happy to spend it with Mila, who was gregarious and had instantly accepted me.

Despite the fact she was only a year older than me, she didn't make any noises about it. Like me, she trusted Aleks, and like me, she wanted him to be happy. I burst with pride that I was one of the things that made him happy enough for her to so readily accept me as a family member.

I was shy at first about choosing anything for myself, but Mila's enthusiasm for putting together the perfect outfit was infectious. She was passionate about fabrics the way I was about picking the best tomato of the bunch. After a whirlwind couple of hours, we were laden down with bags and boxes from some of the ritziest shops in Beverly Hills. Since they all knew Mila by name, we were welcomed with open arms, tea and cookies, and often, champagne, so I was a bit tipsy by the time we got back to the mansion.

Giggling and starving, once we dumped our packages in the entry hall, we raided the fridge and set ourselves up in one of the cozier sitting rooms to wait for Aleks to come home. I cracked open a bottle of wine for us since I was having such a great time, and felt like I was on the way to a true friendship with Mila.

The loneliness of the past two weeks had been alleviated, but as much as we laughed together, sadness and guilt lurked at the edges of my good mood.

Aleks's sister was just one more person who would hate me when I left.