That Summer In The Country

Forty-two:

Forty-two:

Alina was trying to be calm. The fact was, being lost the other night had scared her. Worse, seeing Zoya had startled her too. Zoya was the girl before her. The one that had walked away from Aleksander and Mal and ended up pregnant with some other person's kid. Alina couldn't imagine a future without either of them, but Zoya was that future. She seemed happy enough, but how badly had Aleksander wrecked her?

Now, they were waiting for Genya to bring her illegitimate child to the vacation house. Alina had to babysit the child with Aleksander. The last thing that she needed to do was to be around him. She wanted to be alone. But since she couldn't be alone, at least they would have the kid to distract the two of them. Alina was in the foyer pacing back and forth as Aleksander sat on the couch in the living room. There wasn't a single thing that she liked about what they were doing.

"Will you sit down?" Aleksander asked her, looking up from the newspaper that he was reading.

Alina glared at him. "How can you be so calm about this? We're lying to your brother!"

Aleksander shook his head. "Part of being a Morozova, Alina, is learning that eventually you will be lied to. This world affords a lot of luxuries. But there are prices that you have to pay. One of them is deciding which secrets that you can live with. If you want out, I will let you get out. But once you walk away from us, you can never come back. I won't watch you fall in love with someone else, Alina."

Alina exhaled. "I don't want out. But I don't like lying to Mal. I'm supposed to be his fake girlfriend, and I'm his real friend. Mal was there for me when I lost my parents. Genya was a huge part of his life. It feels wrong that he doesn't know something big and terrible that happened to her that was the reason for their breakup. He should----"

Aleksander sat up from the couch where he was reading. "No, Alina. Mal can never know. If he found out the truth, it would spell disaster. He would try to ruin Petyr Lantsov. And Petyr Lantsov would destroy him. I'm not letting my brother pay for someone else's mistakes. And I'm not letting Petyr find out that he has a son. He's the last person that should be a father."

"Isn't he already a father?" Alina said.

"Hardly," said Aleksander, "everyone believes that Nikolai is the product of an affair. The only reason he acknowledges Nikolai as his is because he doesn't have anyone else to inherit. And he refuses to have it go to any of his extended family because he's a complete and total asshole."

"Do you really think Petyr Lantsov is that selfish that he would take Genya's son away from her?" Alina asked.

"He's a monster," said Aleksander, "we have to do what we can do to keep Genya safe from him. Even if it means lying to Mal."

Alina's stomach was cramping. "Your world is complicated."

"Very," he said, but he placed his hands on her shoulders, "but you really do have to admit, the perks are sublime. Where else are you going to let yourself get fucked by two men that are completely in love with you? You're only young and wild once."

Alina smiled. "I hate that you..."

"Hate that I what?" he asked.

"I hate that you make me forget everything and everyone. I've been so mad at you since last night. All I wanted to do was leave."

Aleksander raised an eyebrow. "I can arrange that if you---"

She stood on tip toe, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him deeply. "I don't want to leave. I want to stay here with you. It's a complete mess, but I can't imagine my life without either you or Mal."

"Good," he said, "then we make it through this afternoon, and you'll get to keep me and Mal."

The doorbell rang then.

"And that will be Genya," he said.