The Marriage Ultimatum (City of Dreams Series) (17 page)

Life as a college student had been exciting and a bit scary for Sabrina, and she had been too self-absorbed to pay much attention to her mom’s equally busy life until her mother told her she was pregnant. As always, Lily tried to be upbeat and told Sabrina that she could only hope that the new baby would bring as much joy to them as Sabrina had to her.

Lily hadn’t realized she was expecting Alex at first. When she did, she was four months along, and she’d contacted the baby’s father. Lily said he traveled a lot for his job but that he would be back in New York very soon. Very soon turned out to be never.

And Lily had just gone on as she always had. Few things got her mother’s spirit down but the weeks leading up to Alex’s birth had been difficult. Lily tried her best to remain positive in the face of no word from her boyfriend and the necessity to figure out how best to support her family.

Ever since she could get working papers, Sabrina had held a part time job somewhere after school hours and during summers, but there was no way her mom would hear of her leaving school to take up a full time position to help meet their expenses. Completing her college degree was non-negotiable and Sabrina was in truth happy to stay in school, even pursuing the graphic design degree. So she had enrolled in her sophomore year at city college, and they juggled the childcare after Lily’s all-too-brief maternity leave had run out. Lily had embraced the challenge and they both welcomed her little Alex into their world.

The most obscene part of losing her mom the way she had, was the suddenness of it. In the busy fullness of their lives, it always seemed there’d be time for everything they wanted to do, time to say everything they needed to say.

But time ran out.

Alex was nine months old and being cared for by their babysitter Cecelia, a neighbor in their old apartment building in the village. Cecelia was a young widow who had been only too pleased to come up to their apartment when Lily had an apartment to show. Otherwise, Lily had arranged to make all of her calls and do all of her other work online from home. The arrangement was complex but they managed.

Sabrina had been called out of class that day. Her advisor told her that Lily had been in an accident, and gave her the name of the hospital Lily had been rushed to. In a panicked daze she had taken the subway to the ER, only to be met there by uniformed cops. A hit and run accident they’d told her.

Lily had been lying on a gurney, already gone. The shock of that moment went so deep Sabrina didn’t know if she would ever again choose to take it out and experience all the feelings it produced. She wanted to keep them buried. Because, at the end of the day, she didn’t want to think about any of it. Her mom was dead. Her mom was gone and thinking about it hurt too much.

She tried her very best to be everything to Alex since that day. He had been so little, so helpless but he’d grown from a nine-month roly-poly infant into a happy if sometimes inscrutable toddler.

From the outset, she feared, no she
knew
, that Alex could be taken from her just as suddenly as her mom had been. People she cared for disappeared routinely it seemed, first her father, then her mother. And there had been so few chances to make lasting friends with their frequent moves around the city, always one step ahead a landlord, or chasing that stepping stone job.

In the crazy haze of the days that followed the accident, Sabrina decided that she would present herself to the world as Alex’s mother. Without Lily’s income, and meager savings, they soon had to move into a smaller, cheaper place on the outskirts of Brooklyn.

Sabrina’s part time job at VGI became full time and college put on the back burner. But she met Mrs. Egan and a few good people in her new neighborhood. Everyone took Sabrina for Alex’s mom just as she planned.

There were just the two of them now and she would do anything before she would let the authorities separate them. So, she had put one foot in front of the other and tried to move forward. There was no time for grief. Little for reflection.

She picked up the wallet photo; she would keep it. She turned it over and on the back, in Lily’s rolling scrawl, she read: ‘My Love, I am Yours Always, Lily.’

It was dated seven months before Alex was born.

Her mother’s picture with a handwritten love note on the back of it?

In Vlad’s desk?

Vlad and her mom?

Vlad and her mom.

Her mind raced toward the inevitable, sickening conclusion.

Was Alex Vlad’s son? Had the media stumbled on the truth?

No. There was a logical explanation for the presence of that photo in Vlad’s desk. Wasn’t there?

Sabrina took in a couple of deep breaths, but it only made it worse. She made it to her bathroom just in time to be violently ill.

Even after she puked up her guts, her head pounded and she sat doubled over on a chair in her room, squeezing her waist to make the nausea go away.

She racked her brain for the tidbits of information her mother had dropped about Alex’s father. He was handsome, she’d said, and she’d met him through work. He traveled a lot. He was carefree, fun to be with. He was going to come back to settle in New York. Everything would be fine.

He hadn’t visited their old apartment, at least not while Sabrina had been home.

Sabrina stumbled out of her bedroom straight into Mrs. Field. Out of Sabrina’s dry mouth emerged one word ‘sick’ and the woman took one look at her and knew it to be true.

“Go on and get into bed. Maybe you picked up something from one of the kids at Alex’s school. I’ll keep an eye on him. And I’ll bring you some broth in a bit.” The older lady shooed her back into her bedroom.

“Oh, no. No food.” Just the thought of food was sickening. Sabrina shook her head and even that slight movement caused an instant pounding in her temples. “I’ll just rest for a little.” She closed her eyes, but the pictures in her head were all of Alex and Vlad. And Vlad and her mother.

Her heart and her gut refused to believe what her brain was telling her. Even Mrs. Egan had commented on the similarity in their coloring. Alex’s hair was the same raven black as Vlad’s, his eyes the exact indigo. Why had she not seen it before?

She had known the tabloid story was false. But she never really examined why people had been so willing to believe it. The resemblance was there. But Sabrina hadn’t wanted to look, she had been so angry at the false accusations Vlad had leveled at her. One media outlet had even published a split photo of Alex’s toddler face and Vlad’s, and in her mind’s eye she saw the photo again, this time with new eyes. She could see the strong nose they both possessed and the straight brows.

There really was nothing obviously of Lily in Alex, just as Sabrina had inherited few of her mom’s looks. She had her father’s russet hair and grayish eyes rather than Lily’s chocolate hair and matching eyes.

Was it true?

Could it be true?

And how to find out? Her mom was the only one who could say definitely who Alex’s father was.

Chapter 13

Reality Bites

Sabrina ducked Vlad’s calls. She texted him that she had a bug and was trying to rest.

—
Call when you have rested
—he had responded.

Sabrina didn’t call. Mrs. Field gave him updates on her condition and, of course, Sabrina didn’t have the flu. But she stayed in her bedroom, hiding, for a complete twenty-four hours, heavy-eyed and listless. She barely slept and managed to eat only one of the three meals Mrs. Field prepared for her and Alex.

When Sabrina dragged herself out of bed and into the kitchen the next morning to bring Alex to preschool, Mrs. Field sent her back to her bed.

“Mr. Grigory said he will take Alex, no worries.”

Sabrina’s mouth twisted with snark at the thought of what a treat that would be for the toned and tanned preschool mommies and even some of the daddies she’d bet, who hadn’t seen Vlad since day one.

Later, when, as usual, Alex haltingly told her about his morning in school, the biggest news was that he had gone to school with Vlad and clearly that had helped Alex feel just a bit more grown up among his schoolmates. He was starting to gain confidence as a result of his interaction with other kids his age. Preschool was doing him good, she knew. He was definitely speaking more and he was always eager to go to see his friends in the morning. There was no clinging to her or crying. He was finding his way.

Her bargain with Vlad was paying off big time in its positive effect on her brother. As wonderful as that was for Alex, wouldn’t it be even better for both of them to know they were father and son? And could she in all conscience keep it from them? She couldn’t bear to think about it. Was she jealous of her own mother? The answer was yes. Nausea was her constant companion, and she knew that sick feeling would live inside until she found the nerve to resolve this issue.

She fought with herself. What did that picture prove anyway? There could be other reasons for such a photo to be there, couldn’t there?

Oh, c’mon, stop it, Sabrina.
The obvious reason was that her mom had a relationship with Vlad and Alex was the result.

That conclusion brought a renewed bout of nausea and with it a memory of Vlad’s harsh criticism of her. That she was such a tramp that she didn’t know who Alex’s father was. She had been unable to tell her truth then, that she was Alex’s sister. Now she had no choice but to tell the truth of her relationship with Alex. Confront Vlad about his likely liaison with her mother and the product of their affair. She closed her eyes. She had never thought herself a coward, she had faced up to many harsh realities in her life, but she just knew she wasn’t ready to face up to the possibility of any conversation on that topic.

How in hell was she supposed to get through the next couple of days?

****

The final fitting for her wedding dress and the full-out, girlie hair and spa day she had scheduled had gone from an indulgence to pure necessity. Sabrina never had the time or the money to really pamper herself in the past, and she barely gave such things a thought in her former life. And yet, if she were honest, she secretly knew she would enjoy the experience of being fussed over to the max. Had looked forward to it even, before the revelation of the last couple of days.

But one look in the mirror told her that her every worry and fear about Alex and Vlad’s true relationship showed in her face. The prospect that their guests and the full force of the media at their wedding would see her at her absolute worst galvanized Sabrina into action. She went in like a knight girding up for battle in her suit of armor, a self-protective measure, a thin layer of confidence against the paparazzi she would face the next day. She had her spa day, but with all of the fun and relaxation sucked out of it.

****

Sabrina shivered as she stood alone outside the enormous carved doors waiting for the music to begin, relieved that Vlad had not organized a church wedding. She thought it would be the hypocritical icing on the public relations cake to ask God to bless their union. Apparently, Vlad saw it the same way.

The room was nearly as gorgeous as Tomas, the wedding planner, had predicted in his hyperbolic description. Waist-high marble planters held an overflowing abundance of pale peonies and curling ivy, all flower designs by Lacey, at the head and foot of the long aisle that ran the length of the largest reception room at the Pierre, and in strategic positions around the perimeter. Their guests sat on either side of the aisle and when a low guitar started a mellow Russian classical number, Sabrina began her lone walk up the aisle.

Her long, ivory satin column gown was traditional, but she wore no veil, only a thin twine of pearls and tiny lily of the valley coiled through the low chignon of her hair.

She wore the emerald riviere necklace Vlad had sent to the apartment last night, and the jewels at her neck glittered and shone into every corner of the enormous mirrored ballroom. She knew the stones stood in stark contrast to the pallid color her skin in her off-the-shoulder gown.

His eyes met hers and his were somber and clear. Meeting his gaze, Sabrina’s step faltered a bit, the hands holding the bouquet of gardenia and jasmine shaking before she jammed her hands into the center of her waist as Tomas had instructed.

“You want to be graceful, Sabrina. Walk like a princess. Stand tall. You will do this!”

Sabrina’s eyes crinkled up as she remembered his words and she gave Tomas a little nod as he stood in the far corner of the ballroom, clipboard and earpiece in place, as she completed her solitary walk up the aisle. No amount of wisdom from Tomas would help her at this moment, Sabrina knew. Vlad looked stunning in his Tom Ford evening suit and she couldn’t take her eyes off the height and breadth of him after a deficit of three weeks.

Even after all she had so recently come to suspect about him, he still had the power to pull her in as no one else ever had or probably ever would. She was disgusted at herself; she hadn’t slept and had barely eaten for two nights because all she could think of was her mother and Vlad as lovers. After the ceremony, when they had a moment alone, she would speak to him and tell him what she knew. He would probably be accepting of the situation, because he had saddled himself to them anyway. But the intimacy they had shared would be over. She knew that. Even though she still thought he was the hottest thing on two legs, she couldn’t imagine ever being with him again in a sexual way. She welcomed the concept of their long distance marriage now. But then she realized as Alex’s father, Vlad would probably want to see Alex on a regular basis. She would have to make sure she was absent on those occasions he visited. Otherwise, how would she survive seeing him and not having him? Disgusted with herself all over again, Sabrina refocused on the present and realized she had reached the head of the aisle.

The ceremony was a modern recitation of vows so when the time came, Sabrina was surprised to see Vlad take a ring from his best man. It was an intricate affair, three circles of hammered gold intertwined. One ring was yellow gold; the others were red gold and white gold.