Russian Billionaire's Bride (Chekov Billionaire Series Book 4) (4 page)

Turning to look at herself in the mirror, she admired the sparkly dress Mia had designed for her. Hugging her body like a second skin on top, it flared out gently at the waist where it dropped to below her knees. With a slit up one leg, it was easy for Sarah to move in and the fabric felt luxurious as it rubbed against her skin. Her friend was going to do great things when she moved to New York and Sarah was excited that she would still get to see her when she traveled to the east coast office.

A low whistle caught her attention as she turned to see her future husband, dressed in his typical Armani.

“You look good enough to eat,” he told her as he kissed her. “But there is something missing,” he added as he handed her a box. Taking it from him, she opened the box and gasped. A diamond choker lay nestled in velvet. Lifting it out, he turned her around and placed it around her neck before fastening it. “It looks beautiful on you, kotyonok. Perhaps you will wear it later. And nothing else,” he added as he kissed her neck.

Touching the necklace, Sarah looked at herself in the mirror before looking up at him. “It’s perfect,” she breathed, too emotional to say more.

“You’re perfect, my love,” he replied as he hugged her to him. “Are you ready, my lady? Your chariot awaits.”

When they arrived at the Belmont Chateau, Sarah stopped to look at the amazing view. Sliding his hand around her waist, she leaned against his shoulder.

“The view is almost as nice as ours,” she said, as she tucked her arm around him.

Turning, they followed the slate walkway, framed with trees draped in twinkling lights, around to the back where they would be married. They had met earlier with the minister and gone over everything with the wedding party. French doors stood open, beckoning them inside. Sarah smiled. Everything looked perfect, she thought, as she looked around.

The girls had seen to every detail and she couldn’t be more pleased. As they walked toward the bar, they were happy to see all their family and friends. Sarah looked over at Vitaly when she felt him squeeze her hip.

“Is everything okay?”

Nodding his head, Vitaly was unsure if he could speak. Kissing her forehead, “I wish that Anna could have seen this. She would have loved it all,” he finally said as he fought to keep from crying.

Squeezing his hand, “Your sister died too young,” she said, unsure what else to say.

At that moment, loud voices were heard from the lobby area. Everyone turned as the doors were thrown open and a woman who appeared to be in her late sixties came storming in followed by a man of similar age with two security guards hot on their tail. Vitaly swallowed hard when he recognized them. Releasing Sarah, he stepped forward, as one of the security guards rushed to his side.

“I’m sorry, sir,” he said as he panted. They came in through the garden.

“That’s okay,” Vitaly responded. “I’ve got this; you may go, but stay nearby.”

“Yes, sir.”

Turning to the couple, he clenched his hands behind his back before dropping them to his sides. “Mother. Father. What brings you to San Jose?”

Stepping up and throwing her arms around him, his mother hugged him tightly.

“My own mal'chik is getting married, did you not think that we would come?” she asked as she sobbed into his arms.

Sliding his arms free, he grasped his mother by her arms and pushed her back.

“Well, given that you did not come to my first wedding, I certainly did not expect you to come to this one. And, I stopped being your baby boy the day you kicked me out,” he ground out as he looked at both his parents. “Now, I will ask you again, why are you here?”

Looking desperately around the room, his mother spotted Sarah who had come to stand by Vitaly’s side. “Ah, you must be the bride to be,” she stated as she reached to grab Sarah. Placing his arm out, Vitaly blocked her from touching Sarah as he looked at his parents.

Unsure what to do, Sarah nodded, “Yes, Mrs. Chekov, I am Sarah.”

“Mrs. Chekov? Our last name is Ivanovitch. Did Vitaly not tell you?” she asked giving her son a sidelong look.

Looking at Vitaly, he shrugged his shoulders. “My uncle is Chekov. Given that my parents wanted nothing to do with me and he practically raised me until I was an adult, I changed my name to his.”

At a snort from his mother, he turned to her as they exchanged heated words in Russian while his father remained standing slightly behind her. Unsure what to do, Sarah was watching the interchange.

“Well, it looks as if we are having two more joining us for dinner,” came an overly jovial voice from off to the side. Looking up, they watched Sarah’s Aunt Hannah walk up and hook her arms around Vitaly’s parents. “Come, let’s find you a place to sit,” she told them as she forcefully pulled them away. “Perhaps we should start at the bar,” she said as the couple suddenly moved more willingly.

“That probably won’t be wise,” Vitaly muttered, as he watched his parents walk away.

Turning to Sarah, he was utterly lost as to what to do. Everything had been going so well. He should have known that something would happen to intervene, but he had no idea it would be his parents.

Looking at her helplessly, “I haven’t seen them in more than twenty years. I have no idea why they are here,” he told her as she hugged him.

“Well, it looks like my aunt as volunteered to supervise,” Sarah replied as she watched her settle the couple down as far away from their table as possible. “Let’s make the best of it and you can find out later what they want.”

Nodding his head, he smiled thinly before turning to greet their other guests. Circling the room, they both thanked everyone for coming before sitting down at their table. Ivan, who was sitting to his left, leaned toward him.

“Any idea why they are here?”

Sipping his drink, Vitaly looked their way and watched as his parents guzzled their drinks and shoveled food in their mouths. “My guess is money,” Vitaly replied. “I used to funnel money to them through my uncle Victor, but since he passed, I’ve had no means to do so anonymously.”

“Why don’t you simply come out and give it to them?”

“No.” Sighing, Vitaly continued, “I never heard from them again since the day they sent me to live with my uncle. Not when I graduated high school, the first in my family. Or college. Or at any point in the last twenty years.”

Tossing back his drink, he dropped it on the server’s tray and grabbed another. “On my birthdays, I would rush home from school and ask my uncle if my parents had called, but he would always shake his head no and tell me that they were too busy. I know that they were in contact with him, but to my knowledge, they never once asked about me.”

Sarah reached out and squeezed his leg. “I’m so sorry, Vitaly. I had no idea. If it’s too much for you, we can have security remove them,” Sarah offered.

“No, Sarah. This is our evening. I refuse to allow my parents to spoil it further by making a scene. We will let it play out.”

Nodding her head, she leaned in to kiss him as the sudden clinking of glasses began to echo around the room. Looking up, she narrowed her eyes at her friends sitting at the next table, “Isn’t that supposed to happen at the WEDDING reception?” she asked.

Shrugging her shoulders, Lisa grinned, “I say it should start now.”

“I agree. Any excuse to kiss my future wife,” Vitaly replied as he kissed Sarah.

Chapter 10

As the dinner progressed, Ivan stood up to give a toast followed by Bill Jenkins, Sarah’s father. As Vitaly prepared to stand up to thank everyone, they all turned at the sound of a chair scraping across the floor. Looking up, he blanched as his mother stood up and walked drunkenly to Bill to take the microphone. Grabbing it from his hand, she sneered before turning to face the room. Closing her eyes, she swayed slightly before she glared at everyone.

“You are here to celebrate my son and his bride to be,” she started, as she wavered on her feet. “But when I look at him, I see the killer of my baby girl, Anna. I cannot stand the sight of him.”

“Then why are you here?” Hannah interrupted, as she stood up. “If you want nothing to do with him, then why did you come?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Irena Ivanovitch pointed to her husband, who had long since passed out on the table. “He wanted to make amends,” she stated. “Me, I will happily take his blood money.” Looking at Vitaly, “Did you think that we wouldn’t know that the money was coming from you? Your guilt paid for a great many things,” she said as she smirked at him.

As Irena talked, Sarah grabbed Vitaly hand, which was soaked in a cold sweat. Clutching his hand to her heart, she kissed him. “I love you, Vitaly. Always know that.” As he nodded at her, he felt a cold gripping his insides, as he felt powerless to stop her. Squeezing his hand one more time, Sarah stood up and interrupted her.

“Has everyone here heard the story about how I caused my mother’s death?” Walking toward Irena, she snatched the microphone from her hand, as she looked at her. “What? Did you think that Vitaly was the only one to have done something stupid as a child?”

Turning back to the room, she looked around before taking a deep breath.

“It was before I turned ten and I wanted to go riding. My dad and brothers were out on the ranch and my mother had refused to let me go. She said that a storm was coming and it was too dangerous. But I was bored.”

As Sarah talked, her family and friends slowly got up from the table and came to stand beside and behind her, but she hadn’t noticed. In her mind, she was reliving that day.

“I saddled up my horse and took off toward the river. When my mom realized that I wasn’t in the house, she ran out to the barn and saw that my horse was gone. She knew where I was headed, quickly saddled up and took off after me. Except. Except that I saw the clouds and realized that, my mother was right. So I headed out to meet my father and brothers and ride back in with them. But my mother didn’t know this. She kept riding.”

Sarah hugged her arms as she continued.

“When we got back, the wind was blowing and rain drops had started falling. No one noticed that my mom’s horse was gone and we didn’t even think to look for her when we went into the house. It wasn’t until dinnertime that we realized that she wasn’t there, but at that point, the rain was falling so hard, we had no way to follow her trail. My dad had called the sheriff and they weren’t able to get a helicopter up into the air until the next day.”

As Sarah paused, her father stepped up to put his arm around her. Taking the microphone, he continued.

“Her mother was crossing a wash when a flashflood came through and took both her and the horse out in a matter of seconds. She didn’t stand a chance. For years, Sarah had nightmares, but she was a child. It would never have occurred to us to blame her for her mother’s accident. Because that’s what it was. An unfortunate accident.”

Turning to look at Sarah, “When I look at my daughter, I see her mother and I know that she would be so proud of the woman she has grown into,” Bill said as he wiped his tears. Turning to Vitaly, “And she would be impressed with the man she has chosen to marry.”

Once finished, Bill asked for a glass of Champagne. Holding it up, “In less than twenty-four hours, my baby girl will be marrying the man that she loves and I cannot wait until I can call Vitaly, son.”

As everyone toasted the couple, Vitaly got up and walked toward everyone. Both Bill and Hannah hugged him, as Sarah’s brothers stepped forward to shake his hand. Before he knew it, he was drawn into the middle of the Jenkins’ family as he was hugged from all sides. Unable to keep his emotions at bay any longer, he cried openly, as he held Sarah by his side.

When Irena reached her table, Ivan met her along with two security officers who had managed to rouse her husband and were supporting him as he stood there.

“And what do you want?” she snarled at him.

“To see that you are escorted from the building,” he told her calmly.

“I will not leave until I get what I came for,” she demanded.

“Not tonight, you won’t. This way, please,” Ivan told her as he took her by the elbow and escorted her from the room.

Chapter 11

Sarah woke to an empty bed. Looking at the time, it was only five o’clock, where was Vitaly? She put on her robe and walked down the stairs into the dark living room to see him pacing the floor. Turning on the light, she was surprised to see that his eyes were red and he was drunk.

“What happened,” she asked as she took the bottle from his hand.

“My mother has been arrested,” he replied as he snatched the bottle back.

“What? For what?”

“Vandalism.”

Sarah stilled as she looked at him. “Of?”

“I’m very sorry, kotyonok, but she has made a complete mess of the gazebo where our ceremony was supposed to take place, as well as the surrounding seating area. It is completely unusable.”

Falling back onto the couch, Sarah grabbed the bottle and took a swig before coughing. She really didn’t like straight vodka. “What are we going to do?”

Rubbing his head, “Everything is falling apart.”

“Are charges being pressed?”

“Oh yes, current estimate of damages are quite high, there’s no choice in the matter.”

“So, we won’t be getting married, there,” Sarah said slowly.

“No.”

Getting up, Sarah paced the floor. Looking up, “I know that our honeymoon is supposed to be a surprise, but I do know that we will be on a boat, yes?”

“Partly, yes. What are you thinking?”

“Well, we are taking the jet down, right?”

“Yes.”

“Can we have the wedding on the boat? It would mean limiting who came down with us to maybe family and friends, but we could have the ceremony on the boat, put everyone up at a hotel for the night and then fly them back the next day while we motor off into the sunset,” Sarah said with a smile. “Do you think it would work?”

“Grab your phone; we have a lot of people to wake up.”

Working for the next three hours, they were able to get all of the members of the wedding party as well as Sarah’s family on board with their plan. It took some coercion along with the offer to bring his wife for a weekend getaway for the minister to agree, but the caterer backed out as the food would not have made the trip to St. Thomas, but she offered to bring some of the food to the plane so they could enjoy it on their flight. They had wheels up at noon for the twelve-hour flight to the US Virgin Islands.