Unforgiven - Complete

Chapter Thirty-four

Rose's head spun around in alarm, and even Janine looked a little perturbed, but Dimitri gave them both a reassuring smile. He'd been anticipating a discussion with Rose's father and was keen to get it over and done with. Abe had things he wanted to say, but so did Dimitri.

"There's a cafeteria downstairs. Why don't we walk down there and talk on the way? Do you want anything Jeanie? Rozalia?"

"Yeah, get me a soda can you?" Rose asked her father casually, giving Dimitri a supportive look before flicking her eyes to her father. Her look clearly said 'go easy on him.'

Dimitri presented Janine with the flowers and gave Rose a lingering kiss before following Abe from the room. The two walked in silence down the long linoleum corridor, stopping to wait for the lift.

"When you get a phone call like the one I got about Janine yesterday, it changes your perspective on things. You're too young to really understand what I mean, but it's the sort of thing that makes you rethink how you see things. How things can change in just an instant," Abe mused.

"Yes I'm young, and I've been lucky enough not to have to experience that sort of call, but I do have an idea of what you mean. When Rozalia told me we were going to be parents, my whole world shifted on its axis. That didn't end up being the way things have worked out for us now, but my world changed at that moment, and it can't just go back again."

Abe looked up at his daughter's boyfriend. Her lover. He hadn't expected him to be so forthright. "What were you going to do?" he asked curiously.

"Get a job, get married and take care of my family," Dimitri said without skipping a beat.

"It's a lot to take on at eighteen," Abe challenged.

"Someone should be judged not on their circumstances but how they respond to them. A man who runs away from his responsibilities is no man at all," Dimitri replied, his jaw tensing a little.

"But you must have been relieved when she lost the baby?"

"A little," he allowed. "We both were. But we were sad, too. It was our baby Mr. Mazur. We only knew about him or her for thirteen days, but we still lost a child."

The lift dinged, and the two stepped into the empty car, Abe pressing the button for the ground floor.

"So what now? Rozalia said you gave her a ring? Don't you think you should have spoken with us, her parents first?" Abe challenged, his eyes dropping to the matching rose gold band Dimitri wore on his middle finger.

"I don't think so," Dimitri said firmly. "Our rings signify a private agreement between Rozalia and me about our commitment to each other. We're happy to wait to become engaged, which is when we'd be making those promises public. I take it that when I propose, you'd like me to ask you for your blessing first?" There was no point beating around the bush. Dimitri knew how he saw things going and Abe would have to be blind if he didn't see it, too.

"Damn right," Abe said nodding. "I hope that day is a long way away yet?"

"At least four years, but probably eight," Dimitri said with a sigh. "We'd both like to have finished our degrees, and I'd like to have some sort of income. Once I finish Medicine, I'll need to do a residency, and it may be out of state. I thought that might be the time to make things official."

"So she'd be at least twenty-two, but probably more like twenty-six?" Abe checked, trying the idea on for size.

"Yes sir," Dimitri confirmed.

"I like the sound of twenty-six a lot better," Abe mumbled as the lift coasted to a stop at the ground floor.

"I'll keep that in mind, sir," Dimitri replied the edge of his lip twitching in amusement. Abe was a lot calmer and more rational than Dimitri had thought he might be.