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As useful as that knowledge was, it probably wasn't appropriate for an eight-year-old.

“I don’t know if I ever really want kids.” I bit my lip, and he laughed. Actually laughed at me.

“You know, sometimes I wonder if you’re the reincarnated version of her.”

“Her?” I lifted a brow.

“Moy Oduvanchik. She was terrified of getting pregnant and having kids, too. But she would have been a great mother, and you would be, too. You just have to give Aurora a chance.”

I flinched.

And blinked twice.

Fuck, I was acting far too much like Xeniya, and if I didn’t get myself together soon, he would realize it.

And I wasn’t ready for that.

Chapter Fourteen

Xeniya Morozova

Age 20

Fifteen Years Ago

Iwas going to kill him. No, her? I was going to kill him and her.

Severin Volkov was paddling a kayak on Vale Hollow Lake when that bitch, Polina Belova, deliberately rammed her kayak into his and openly flirted with him.

And I was having none of it.

Severin Volkov would not touch another woman while he was dating me.

Dating?

I didn’t fucking know. He took every chance he got to pull me into secret corners to kiss me, and every week, he snuck into my sorority house to go down on me and cuddle me to sleep.

He was my… something.

But he still hadn’t fucked me, even after four months.

He’d fuck my face, and I struggled to hide how much I enjoyed that, but he never fucked me. I was patient, but not this fucking patient, and I was starting to think there was something wrong with me.

Why would he fuck all those other girls so easily, but not me?

My eyes flashed up as Polina rammed her kayak into Severin’s again, giggling like a schoolgirl as she shamelessly flirted.

The urge to hit her over the head with my paddle was getting harder to resist.

Severin scowled, looking ready to tip her boat over.

But I didn’t care if she was a Chicago mafia princess. If she touched him again, I was going to kill her.

Was that too much?

Probably, but it didn’t keep me from ramming my kayak into hers. Hard.

“Oh, gosh, I’m so sorry. These things are so hard to navigate,” I said in the fakest nice-girl voice I could conjure.