The Very Rude Boys Next Door by Chloe Kent
Chapter Six
Anastasia had felt like a caged animal. Her thoughts riveted from them to her situation. And her restlessness compounded everything, and with it came a horrible paranoia that her uncle had found her and she imagined he would turn up at the door any moment now.
There was nothing Viktoria could do to help her. Whatever good news she thought she had would not be good enough for her to be free of her uncle forever.
She was destined for failure and misery and riddled now with agony for a strange longing to be touched again, to be dominated, forced, and that was when she cried out in frustration, threaded her hands through her hair, and pulled.
What was wrong with her?
By the time her phone rang, it was already nine in the evening, but her aunt had always been an early riser since it was only about four in the morning in Moscow.
“My sweet dorogoy,” Viktoria said. Anastasia’s parents had called her that always—darling—and she felt a moment of sadness but also relief that in a world which was against her now, she still had her father’s sister on her side.
“Anastasia, I have the most amazing news. Oh, you are not going to believe what has happened. I mean it is sad, too, of course, but for you, sweet child, it is the end of your problems as you know it.”
“I don’t understand. What are you saying, Aunt?”
“In a sentence,” Viktoria said, “what has happened means an undisputable solution for you, my dear. I think there is a way you can get out of marrying Boris once and for all and put my brother in his place. Now, you won’t remember my aunt at all, but she actually met you once when you were but a baby, just born. She never left her home for any reason and accepted no visitors either. But the day you were born, she came to see you. I remember the day clearly. She walked in, took one look at you, nodded, and left. That was it.”
Anastasia could hear her aunt smile almost in fondness at the memory.
“She was an old, grumpy woman. In fact, she was grumpy long before she got old, and was prone to hitting whoever she chose with her ivory cane if they annoyed her enough. But never for no reason.
“Fedor hated her from the start. He got a caning from her once, and he vowed never to acknowledge her as an aunt and forbade any of his family from seeing her. Which was moot since she chose who she wanted to see and couldn’t care a ruble about what Fedor had to say. But you see, Tetya, Maria, our father’s eighth and last living sister, died quietly in her sleep at the age of a hundred and two, about three weeks ago. She had instructed her lawyers to carry out her funeral in complete privacy, and no one knew she had died until now.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Aunt,” Anastasia said. From what she had gathered, their aunt may have led a very secluded life, but if Anastasia had to lose her own tetya, she would be forever devastated.
Viktoria was her only solace, her only ally after her parents died, and it had made her uncle, Viktoria’s own brother, bristle to the point where he ordered her never to see Anastasia again. He had strategically cut Anastasia off from every single female in the family on the premise they were all deranged and would influence Anastasia negatively.
That didn’t stop Viktoria from keeping in contact with her, though, and they met at out-of-the-way places. When Viktoria heard the news that Anastasia was to be married, she had forced her way in, and won her brother over when she said that Anastasia needed some female company to help her with her wedding preparations. He only just barely approved.
It was a sad sight to see someone as robust as Viktoria escape into the shadows out of fear of her own brother. Anastasia could never believe that Fedor came from the same set of siblings as Anastasia’s father and her Aunt Viktoria.
“Thank you, sweet girl. She might have been a terror, but I did admire her, and who knows, I am probably going to end up like her in my old age. I just need a cane, and I think first in line would be my brother for treating you the way he did and for what he is doing to you now.
“But back to how this is going to help you. My beautiful, beautiful girl,” Viktoria said, her voice tight with emotion and... tears? Was her aunt crying?
“Aunt? What’s wrong?” Anastasia asked, concerned.
“Oh, these are happy tears, dorogoy, and you will see it in a minute. Tetya Maria had the last laugh when she led the world to believe she had died penniless except for the shares she had. My brother staunchly believed the thirty-three percent of shares she owns will come back to him, as he is the oldest of the sons of the Koltovs on the board now, thus giving him complete control over the company, something he has wanted for a long, long time, quite desperately, in fact. And the reason why Tetya Maria despised him so much was that he tried to have her taken out. My brother’s greed is insurmountable. But… now, wait for it. There was a will, and it was delivered to me this morning,” Viktoria said triumphantly.
“Anastasia, TetyaMaria has left you everything. Several billion American dollars. All her properties, her land, her jewelry, and she instructed her shares in the Koltov company be transferred on to you.”
“What?” Anastasia whispered.
“Oh, but there is more, my sweet. You didn’t just inherit the third of the shares she owns in the Koltov company, our Tetya Maria, who everyone thought only owned a third of the company, the very shield the Koltovs use to mask the Bratva business, was actually in possession of two-thirds of the shares. She had secretly bought out Uncle Oleg and still had him attend meetings, still pretended he was very much on the board, all to get back at my brother. I can’t believe we are cut from the same cloth, but Fedor had wanted one of them to die so he could have controlling interest, for as long as I can remember, and now look at it. What a woman is our Tetya Maria, right?” Viktoria laughed heartily.
Anastasia’s own father, because he was the youngest of the Koltov men, had none of the privileges that Fedor was given as the eldest brother. He had made his money other ways and had left Anastasia with a lucrative trust fund, but that was taken away from her by her uncle too. She had heard her uncle say many times that her father was a flake, not cut out for mafia business and that he would rather throw away any share of the Koltov company than give it to him.
“I went off course again. You, my sweetness, are in possession of two-thirds of the whole Koltov company. You are worth several billion; you inherited all TetyaMaria’s assets. Do you know what this means, Anastasia? You will have a controlling interest over Fedor. You can make my brother bend to his knees and beg if you threaten to remove him from the company. It’s his whole life, that money, that greed, that power. And now that power is in your hands.”
“I-I still don’t understand,” Anastasia stuttered. “How is this even possible?” Her head had started to spin, and she couldn’t grasp the meaning of it all, no matter how hard she tried to catch it.
“You can have every single Koltov at your mercy, and you can snap your fingers, and whoever you choose can be destitute, without protection, banished from the family. Anastasia, you are the Koltovs now. You have that power. But it comes with one… interesting stipulation.”
“What stipulation?” Anastasia asked, holding her breath.
“I think this is what the Americans would call sticking it to the Koltovs but particularly my brother because he was such a rigid purist. But you will only inherit the shares and money and assets if you have a baby.
“Wait. What did you say?”
“You have to be pregnant.”
“What?” She was sure she misheard her aunt again.
“Pregnant.”
“Like with a child?” Anastasia asked stupidly.
“There is only one kind of pregnant, Anastasia.” Viktoria chuckled.
“But—”
“This is the solution we needed, and it has landed right in your lap, darling. Even if you can somehow get out of marrying Boris, do you think Fedor won’t be looking to pass you on to the next man, who will offer enough money and power for you. You have a chance to control your life, and it requires you to have a baby.
“You don’t even need to be married unless you choose to. But the father of your unborn child, or the man you marry who had fathered your child, must be American. That part was newly added, the lawyer had told me. As if Tetya Maria knew she was going to die and still wanted to control the universe, and as I said, stick it to Fedor one last time. I supposed she wanted to diversify the family. Besides, if I remember correctly, the love of her life and the man she couldn’t marry, was indeed an American. It was a sad love story, and because she neither admitted nor denied it, we will never know the truth. But I believe it is true.”
“I still can’t believe this all.”
“It is true and legally certified, dorogoy. I don’t think it’s safe for you to go out and pick up a man to have sex with. So I’m going to gather my meager contacts together and try to find the perfect candidate, one on standby in case we miss your ovulation window this time round, but he will be available for whenever we need him.
“A nice young man,” she said talking almost to herself now. “Good looking, with nice manners and is okay with signing a nondisclosure agreement that will also include he will not be held responsible for taking care of the child. I’m going to make an offer of five hundred thousand American.
“Don’t worry, you are richer than half of the Bratva families put together once your inheritance kicks in. You could offer him a billion American, and it would hardly dent your future back account. According to the lawyers, they are working with a system of goodwill because Tetya Maria believed neither me nor you would ever try to cheat her. And she is right. As desperate as we are, we will not do that. Once you show you are pregnant, we have two months to prove paternity, which will be kept confidential naturally so the father doesn’t have to worry about anything, and everything will immediately revert to you.
“But the best part is during those two months in which we have before we can prove paternity, Anastasia, you will be taken to a secret location in one of Tetya Maria’s houses. It will be fully protected with armed guards and bodyguards and impenetrable by anyone and most of all Fedor and anyone to do with him.
“And then, my darling, I will sit back and watch you show my brother who the boss really is. Now, all you have to do is breathe. I will take care of everything else and send you a message of any new developments.
“Okay,” Anastasia said meekly.
When they said goodbye, Viktoria was much happier, whereas Anastasia stood quietly, not daring to breathe.
It was the solution itself that was too bizarre to contemplate, and for the tenth time, she ran the reels of the conversation she'd had with Viktoria through her mind—in case she had misunderstood something.
Her brain seemed as if it were going to explode. Her thoughts kept going around in a loop. Had she been daydreaming up scenarios in which she could crush her uncle for good? Was this the result of a super fantasy, but after saying goodbye to her aunt, who was certain her troubles were over because she had a solution like no other, Viktoria had emailed her the documents and the personal letter attached to it.
It was all the more real, then.
She didn’t want to spend the rest of her life running. But to become pregnant?
The strange stipulation added to the end of it all sent her senses into a spiral of chaos and put her abilities on the spot. She had no clue how to go about fulfilling that one clause.
She didn’t even think she could pull it off; she was entirely realistic that way. But she imagined her Aunt Viktoria taking her by the shoulders if they were together in person and telling her bluntly, she had no choice if she wanted to beat her uncle. She could either have a lifetime of freedom from her tyrannical uncle or live her days as the wife of a man who was evil incarnate.
She didn’t even know how to start having sex.