The Last Kolovsky Playboy (14 page)
Read The Last Kolovsky Playboy Online
Authors: Carol Marinelli
‘Zakahr?’ Nina frowned.
‘Zakahr?
Why on earth would you choose a stranger? He’s not even a colleague…’
‘I thought he was your new best friend,’ Aleksi taunted, ‘as you’ve been singing his praises for months.’
‘He helps with our charity. It is just business, Aleksi.’
‘You really thought he liked you?’ Aleksi said, gaining momentum now. ‘You really thought he had the House of Kolovsky’s best interests at heart?’ He stared at his mother with utter contempt.
‘You fool.’
‘Don’t you dare speak to me like that,’ Nina retaliated. ‘I am your mother!’
‘And Zakahr is your
son.’
Kate had never imagined she might feel sorry for Nina, never thought she could feel sympathy for a woman who had stood back and watched her son be beaten, who had denied him treatment for the sake of her reputation, who had abandoned her own flesh and blood in an orphanage and who had humiliated Kate at every turn. But watching the colour drain from Nina’s well made-up face, watching her stumble, watching hands that, unlike her face, looked every bit her age hold onto the desk as her legs gave way, she felt sympathy override satisfaction and Kate found her a chair, helping Nina into it before she slipped to the floor.
‘Riminic!’ Nina sobbed the word out, and Kate realised then that she must have said it to herself every day.
‘Remember Zakahr’s words at your charity ball?’ Aleksi was merciless. ‘Remember how he prostituted himself to survive? How that boy, your son, was forced to beg, to steal, to…?’
‘Stop!’ It was Kate who halted him as Nina was gagging now. ‘Aleksi, stop. She’s heard enough.’
‘She can’t stand to hear it,’ Aleksi said contemptuously. ‘Zakahr
lived
it.’
‘Forgive me!’ Nina screamed, so loudly that even Lavinia came running, her bony legs struggling on sixinch heels as Nina sobbed louder. ‘Forgive me, Aleksi.’
‘It’s not me who needs to forgive you,’ Aleksi said. ‘It’s my brother—your son.’
‘Leave it, Aleksi,’ Kate said, and she was crying for both of them, for all of them, because there was no victory to be had here—just a whole lot of healing to take place.
So they left Lavinia comforting Nina, walked out of the golden doors and stood on the steps of Kolovsky as
Aleksi took a deep breath, and then another one. The sun was shining and the world was waiting, and Kate knew they’d be okay because instead of walking on ahead Aleksi stopped and took her hand.
‘Are you sure you want to be a Kolovsky?’ he checked, and somehow, on the worst day, he made her laugh.
‘Quite sure,’ Kate assured him, and they looked over to the church across the road.
If they’d had a licence, she’d have married him there and then, but instead they walked over hand in hand and booked the date.
I
T
WAS
the most beautiful dress in the world—at least it was to Kate.
As soft as petals it clung to her curves, and there was a hint of daring too.
It was a Kolovsky gown, but not
the
Kolovsky gown—because Kate didn’t want it either.
‘Do I look like a princess?’ Georgie asked for the hundredth time as the Kolovsky dressers fussed with her mother.
‘You do…’ Kate said through chattering teeth, hardly able to stand the thought of so many eyes on her. It was more soothing to gaze at her daughter.
Her dress was simple yet stunning: silk, a shade pinker than her mother’s. She had flowers on her head and her eyes were shining—clever and gifted, yes, but just a little girl who was dressed up today when, even better, all her little friends would see.
Even the one who had once pinched her!
Georgie’s dress, though simple, was filled with tradition.
A new tradition—a new order.
Aleksi’s gift to his new daughter had been jewels—
jewels Georgie did not even know existed. They had been sewn into the hem of her dress. Jewels that would never see the light of day unless they were needed at some point in the future.
His way of saying that, come what might, with the House of Kolovsky, Aleksi’s girls would always be safe.
It was a fairly low-key wedding, but that didn’t stop the press clamouring—just who
was
Zakahr Belenki? Add to that the news that Nina Kolovsky was
resting
in a private hospital and might not make the wedding and it had them hanging from the trees.
But she made it.
Kate stood at the entrance to the church and was curiously proud of the woman she loathed.
A woman who stood tiny, shaky but straight, plastered in make-up, leaning a touch on Lavinia and trying very hard to smile.
Kate was proud of Nina’s sons and daughter too.
Of Levander, who had flown his family from the UK…As she walked down the aisle she could see Dimitri smile and turn, and it made Kate smile too.
Of Iosef, who
was
Aleksi’s best man—just not for today.
And Annika, who had looked out for Georgie in all of this.
She couldn’t look at her husband-to-be as she walked, or she’d have started to cry—which she did when Zakahr turned around and nudged his new brother and smiled.
How did Zakahr do it?
How could he stand to be in the same room as all of them?
How did you start to forgive such betrayal?
And then she saw Aleksi, and nothing else mattered.
He kissed his bride, and then he did the nicest thing: he went over and kissed a very proud Georgie before going back to Kate’s side.
Back to his
krasavitsa.
All the characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author, and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all the incidents are pure invention.
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First published in Great Britain 2010
Harlequin Mills & Boon Limited,
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR
© Carol Marinelli 2010
ISBN: 978-1-408-91918-7