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Sanctum: EPILOGUE
“THERE. LIFT YOUR CHIN UP.”
Aria lifts her chin up and stares at me, speaking through lips that barely move. “I cannot believe you do this every single day.”
I smile. “I definitely do not do this every day, but on a day like today, we need to.”Content from NôvelDr(a)ma.Org.
Aria’s mentioned wanting me to do her make-up for a while, and since today is a family photo shoot, it’s fitting. She’s not a fan of the full make-up routine and really, who can blame her.
“Then how do you look so flawless?” She asks with a sigh. “That perfect skin. Those gorgeous beach waves. Not a single eyebrow out of place and yet if I so much as misplace my tweezers for like one day, and believe me that happens, I practically have a unibrow.”
“Listen,” Polina says, chomping on a carrot from the veggie tray Ekaterina’s arranged next to the trays of sandwiches and cookies. “You just feel blah right now because you just had a baby. There’s stretch marks and all sorts of things happening to you. And let’s be honest, Harper’s a natural beauty.”
I blush and shake my head, but Polina holds up a hand. “Honey, you wake up in the morning and make morning breath smell nice. Just accept a compliment for what it is, okay? Italians have good genes.”
I grin and Polina rolls her eyes. “Look at her teeth.”
“Now those are due to my mother’s insistence on braces and whitening strips,” I admit.
“Hmmm.” Aria scratches her chin.
“You’re perfect,” Mikhail says, shaking his head. “You look beautiful, Aria. Come on, it’s time.”
“You guys have it easy,” she says, shaking her head at all of them. “Matching suits. Take a shower, fingers through the hair. Shave or touch up the beard, depending on who you are. You have no idea how easy you have it!”
Aleks’s eyes twinkle at me as Mikhail brings her over to where the photographers waits for them to take their pictures.
“You really do steal the show, you know.”
He kisses me full on the lips.
Polina rolls her eyes. “Go ahead, get all lovey. Carbs don’t leave you on read or forget your birthday.” She takes one of the sandwiches from the tray and a bag of chips and walks away, shaking her head.
Aleks gives me a quizzical look and I only shrug. I have no idea what that’s all about, and I have to admit I’m a little curious what the rules are for Polina. Will she have to marry one day, too?
Lev comes in behind Nikko, both of them speaking in rapid Russian. Nikko looks at Aleks and says something I can’t decipher. Aleks frowns and responds. I love it when he speaks his native tongue, but I get curious, too.
“What’s going on? Why the Russian?”
“Not trying to keep you out of the loop. Sometimes it comes naturally to us and we lapse into it without thought.” He shrugs. “Sometimes our mouths move quicker than our brains do.” Leaning in, he kisses my cheek. “You ought to know that personally.”
I bat him away, flushing at the subtle reminder of exactly how well he used that mouth this morning.
I gesture to where Ivy’s happily coloring at a little side table with Ekaterina. Ekaterina’s holding baby Sasha, asleep on her shoulder, dressed in the sweetest little baby tuxedo onesie. “Honestly, Aleks,” I whisper. “Not in front of the children!”
My heart leaps at the sight of his wicked, crooked grin.
We take pictures, and the photographer shows us proofs before we even leave the studio. My eyes grow misty at the sight of the family surrounding me, my ample belly a sign of our own growing family.
After the pictures, we make our way over to the food.
Mikhail sits up straighter and nods to Aleks. “We need to talk.”
Aleks’s jaw tightens. “We do.”
I sit beside Aria. “What’s going on?”
She frowns. “We’ve found the identity of the men responsible for hurting Lev and suspect they have something to do with the attempt at poisoning you as well, but we aren’t quite sure yet. We have a few more things we need to check out before we… act.”
“Oh, no,” I whisper. “Seriously?”
Based on my own family history, this could go many ways.
Aria nods. “The Romanov family is still relatively small, though they’ve been made stronger because of the two men they just initiated. But still, with fewer numbers, they’ll have to plan another means of retribution.”
Another means of retribution. What will that mean?
“Such as…”
“Could be anything. Financial demands. An insidious cyber-attack, which Aleks and I could easily orchestrate. They could take an eye for an eye. Or…something else.”
I tap my chin thoughtfully. I’m one of them now. Someone hurt my brother-in-law, and that isn’t something I’ll allow to happen without serious recourse. “Perhaps they’ll need someone who can shoot?”
Aria winks. “We’ll make a good team, the two of us.”
“Harper.” Aleks gestures for me to come over. I stand, newly informed and ready to face whatever comes next. Life will never be boring beside Aleks and his family.
“So,” I say, taking two sandwiches and nestling them onto a plate. “Time to tell Mikhail?”
Mikhail’s sharp eyes meet mine. “Tell me what?”
Aleks begins to chuckle and I grin, taking the ultrasound picture out of my bag. “We have news, everyone. It appears….” I hold the picture up and point. “We’re about to have twins.”