Perspective (An Exposure Series Novella): Exposure Series Book Four (6 page)

“
M
y father is going
to visit us this week,” Asher said.

I groaned. Not that I minded Sergei coming to visit, but I dreaded it because he was so enamored of my mother. And my mother was actually flattered by his attentions. It was the weirdest thing – Sergei was a retired mafia Don from Russia, and my mother was just a working-class Italian from Brooklyn, but the two of them actually got along famously when they finally met six months earlier. My mother was prepared to hate him, of course, and tell him off, but she was off-put by his charm.

That was the last thing that I wanted for my mother, though, especially since she and Clint were still an item. And Clint was my actual father. If my mother and Sergei hit it off and got married, I thought ruefully, that would mean that I would technically be married to my stepbrother. That would seem weird, to say the very least.

I discouraged their friendship for those reasons, but I needn’t have bothered. Sergei apparently just took a Russian bride 20 years his junior, and was enjoying his retirement years with her. My mom might have been jealous about that turn of events, but she didn’t need to be. Clint really loved her, and, one month ago, he popped the question and she said yes.

“Is your father going to bring Svetlana?” I asked Asher. I hadn’t met this woman, but I understood that she was stunning. As if a guy like Sergei would demand anything less but physical perfection from his bride.

“I think so. He wants us to meet her, so I would imagine she’s going to be with him.”

At that, I heard Ariela crying in the next room. She was just a few months old, and Asher and I were totally, head over heels, in love with her. I never thought that I could feel love like that. She was a handful, though. Even so, I was already ready to go again and have another one. My job was so good about giving me maternity leave, so I was grateful for that.

And I was thriving at my job. I was really starting to come into my own, and I was feeling more and more confident in my talents and abilities. I couldn’t believe that I ever wasted my talents on chasing down celebrities. I was now a real photojournalist, changing the world, one picture at a time. I hoped that I could pass my passions down to my child. I wanted her to be whatever she wanted to be, but, if she showed artistic ability, I knew that I was going to have to nurture that.

I came back in with Ariela, and breast fed her. She sucked on me hungrily, and I sighed. Asher smiled at me and came over to kiss me on the forehead. “Mommy,” he said. “You’re an amazing mother. Have I told you that?”

“Every day,” I said with a smile.

There was no doubt about it – we were doing well. Asher managed to get through the brief crisis with his business contracts, and was able to not only keep the contracts he had, but add more. His business also was penetrating more and more markets, including wealthy markets in the Middle East, the Far East and Africa. He was most proud of his work in Africa, which was a continent that he previously had little business with. But he was able to provide cheap energy to that continent and clean drinking water, so he was credited with saving many lives. Because of this, the President was going to give him a humanitarian award at the end of the month. He was a controversial choice, of course, because of his past life, but the President didn’t care. All that he cared about was the good that Asher was doing in the world, so he silenced Asher’s critics.

The fallout from his revelation of his past was not without incident, of course. Pundits debated the ethics of the United States Government doing business with him, and sordid details of what he did for the mob was splashed all over the 24-hour news channels non-stop for about a week. We had to hide for awhile, but it all blew over soon enough, as big stories always do. After the furor died down, we were able to move on with our lives.

And Asher was right about one thing – the most serious revelations never came to light. There was never any proof offered to any journalists that Asher actually killed people while he was in the mob. There were rumors about it, of course. The tabloids breathlessly speculated about Asher being a ruthless killer. But nothing was ever substantiated, so those stories soon died down as well.

The clouds had finally parted, and we were in a peaceful time. Sophie was no longer a threat. She gave her child to Oksana and Viktor, and she stopped threatening me. She knew that she couldn’t get to me as long as I was married to Asher, so she didn’t even try. And I think that Sergei had a talk with her, which was another reason why she chose to back off.

As for Scarlett, she found a good guy, finally, and they had been happily dating for the past few months. Sometimes the four of us went out together, and we always had a good time. Scarlett confided in me that she thought that he was the one. I prayed that she was right about that, because, if anyone deserved to be happy, it was Scarlett.

Natalia had assimilated in America and was doing well, too. She found a guy, which was a surprise for Asher, because he thought that she liked girls, but she simply said “sometimes I like girls, sometimes I like boys. I try not to limit myself.” Natalia was nothing if not a thoroughly modern woman, and she was having the time of her life in New York City.

All in all, I felt like a lucky woman.

A very lucky woman.