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I showered up, getting rid of the soreness of my muscles. I had never worked out in my life before and exerting my body so much in a single day has taken its toll. I had cramps everywhere.
I heard some voices coming from downstairs. I couldn't recognize them. I mulled over the fact that I should go and check it out because it could be Nikolai's business partner. His business partners were not the kind of people you want to make a conversation with.
But then I heard a shrill female voice.
I went out of the door and stood at the top of the stairwell. Still, all I heard were the voices. I went downstairs and saw a tall, lean middle-aged man with a young blonde woman standing beside him. I could only see their side profiles. The woman turned and I sucked in a sharp breath.
It was Grace Russell, Nikolai's wife-to-be. I know because I had attended their engagement. Her face was engraved at the back of my mind, the sight when Nikolai had slipped the ring on her finger replayed in my head on a loop.
Beside her was Nikolai's father, he looked like him, tall but he was more on the leaner side while Nikolai was broad and muscular. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and a way darker personality to match all of that.
I shifted my weight from one foot to another and chewed on the inside of my cheek. His father had the same dominating and dark aura Nikolai had. Their presence could make anyone a nervous mess.
I wonder if Nikolai got his bluish-grey dreamy eyes from his mother.
They talked incessantly, something about Nikolai not being home. Grace seemed furious, her arms were crossed over her chest, and her lips were drawn back in a snarl as Nikolai's father tried to calm her down.
"You said he wanted me to be here!" she yelled, and I noticed the tears that rolled down her cheek.
"He does... he wanted to be here, he had an emergency, something about the attack on—"
"It's always an emergency!" she frustratedly threw her hands in the air. "He walked out on me two days before our wedding, I stupidly sat there all dressed up in a white gown thinking that maybe he will show up for the wedding and he didn't. He humiliated me in front of our families."
"A shipment worth billions vanished out of thin air, he is the head of the family. He had to do something. Grace, you're going to be a wife of a godfather, better understand your duties and your role right now than expect unreal things from him. He is not an affectionate man, he had never been one, even as a child Nikolai was cold, insensitive," Nikolai's father explained.
I agree that he might not be an affectionate person but Nikolai isn't all cold. The small unexpected kisses on my forehead or my temples or the top of my head were enough proof of that.
"I was not expecting a grand welcome anyway but the least he could do was be here after he stood me up on our own wedding."
Nikolai's father looked drained and tired by now. He massaged his temples and breathed out loudly. "Grace, why don't you go and rest, you must be jetlagged. I'll let you know when Nikolai gets home. One of the guestrooms has been redecorated for you, Scott will escort you to your room."
