A/N:
If at any point during the continuation of this story you have questions, concerns, criticism, or ideas, please, please, please let me know!
In the mean time R&R!
Please review! It makes me very happy to hear what you all have to say!
Disclaimer: Everything belongs to Richelle Mead, except the story line or any new character(s) introduced.
Thank you to those who gave me name suggestions. I appreciate it. I'll definitely consider the names you gave me as well as the advice about how I should go about thinking of names. Thank you. For those of you who didn't get the chance to submit names I'm still taking suggestions!
By the way, this is the longest chapter so far. It came to a total of thirteen pages!
I turned to my right and gave my undivided attention to the person sitting beside me. "I thought you were still in Russia," I said. "When did you get here?"
"Rose, who are you talkin—"
A voice cut Lissa off. "We finished our sight seeing so we decided to make an early return." The voice was laced with a Turkish accent. My father, Ibrahim Mazur, stood in the doorway.
I turned in my chair again, but this time to face Abe. "Old man, you could have called us and given us a heads up."
He walked into the room with an air that said I'm such a tough mobster guy. He took the first empty seat available. "I didn't know I had to inform my daughter of my whereabouts and comings and goings." He smirked at me and took a piece of sausage off my breakfast plate and popped it in his mouth. Between chews he managed to get out, "We wanted to surprise you."
"We," Christian asked, looking at Abe as if he's crazy. "Did you by some chance pick up a virus or illness over in Russia because I don't see anyone else?"
Shockingly, Abe took Christian's mockery wholeheartedly. He let out a laugh and pointed to the chair beside me. "Alright you little monster, come out and greet everyone now," he says lovingly.
That caught me by surprise. I didn't know the old man could be loving, let alone summon a loving tone. He's more of the I'm going to break your knee caps kind of guy. They seem more into…well…breaking things than loving.
"Я не маленький монстр черт побери!" A little angry voice yelled beside me.
Christian's guardian, Maxium Ortoff, let out a throaty laugh. He was laughing so hard he had to grip the table to keep from falling out of his chair and onto his butt. He was the only person in the room besides the speaker of that last comment who spoke fluent Russian.
Maxium, who we all just call Max, was born in Novosibirsk, Russia. He didn't move to the states until he was assigned to guard Christian. However, when we first met him he already spoke English. He learned the language while he attended St. Basil's Academy.
That's the same vampire academy Dimitri attended, and ironically enough, Max is seven years older than me. Needless to say, he and Dimitri went to school together, and considering their godly good looks, they probably competed for the same girls.
Max doesn't have Dimitri's height, but he definitely has his looks. He stands about six two with strawberry blonde hair that barley reaches the nape of his neck and stunning blue eyes the color of ocean waves.
A few months after meeting him I found that his eyes had nearly the same effect on me that Dimitri's had. Dimitri's chocolate brown eyes were so deep that I would get lost in them and I felt as if he could see right through to my soul. When I look into Max's ocean blue eyes all of my common sense and inhibitions wash away.
When Max finally gathered himself and his laughing ceased he finally spoke. The only evidence of his laughing fit was the smile plastered across his face. "I don't think Rose is going to be too pleased if you taught her how to say that." That was directed at Abe.
My eyes narrowed as I looked at Abe. He narrowed his eyes in return and our battle of the glares commenced.
"I've got my money on Abe," I heard Christian say.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Ryan incline his head in my direction, indicating who he was betting on. Lissa shook her head at the boy's antics and broke the silence as well as my and Abe's glaring contest. "Max, what did she say?" Her voice held every bit of the curiosity I harbored.
His lips turned up into a smile like he wanted to burst out laughing again. With visible restraint he refrained from erupting into hysterics. After finishing the piece of bacon in his hand he finally said, "She said, and I quote, 'I'm not a little monster'."
Abe and I shared a frown. "Is that all," we asked in unison.
"No," he said, attempting but failing to fetter more laughter. "Her vocabulary is very pronounced. The sentence ended with 'damn it'."
Eddie's head fell onto his plate of food making his laughs sound strangled. Lissa was laughing so hard she was clutching her stomach and trying to draw in oxygen that might as well have been nonexistent. Ryan and Max griped the table to keep from falling to the floor. Christian actually did fall out of his chair and hit the floor. When he began rolling around and snorting like a pig Ryan and Max fell out of their seats laughing at him. That made Lissa begin laughing so hard she began to turn a nasty shade of blue due to her lack of oxygen intake and Eddie was banging his head on the table imitating Christian's snorting.
I rounded on Abe. "You taught my three year old daughter how to curse," I yelled at the top of my lungs.
"I didn't teach her that," he yelled back.
"Well, I sure as hell didn't," I retort.
He gave me an incredulous look. "Purposely, no. Inadvertently, yes."
"What are you trying to say, old man. I hope you aren't accusing me of teaching that to my daughter." I didn't like being accused of anything, especially something as ridiculous and irresponsible as this.
Christian began to point at me and his laughing, if you could call it that, got louder. "…'I…sure…as…hell…didn't'," he said in between fits of laughter and snorts.
It took me a few moments to realize Christian was recapitulating my earlier statement. I sure as hell didn't, I had said. My mind then shifted to what Abe said to me. Purposely, no. Inadvertently, yes. I didn't want to admit to Abe that he was right. He was too much like me, or I was too much like him seeing as he helped my mother bring me into existence. He is arrogant and cocky. Me telling him he's right would only inflate his already large ego. I couldn't do that. I wouldn't do that.
So instead I opted for, "Well, she had to learn it from somewhere, and it surely wasn't from me. What were you teaching my daughter over in Russia, old man?" I ignored Christian's incessant boisterous laughter. His snorting was beginning to give me a headache. Although I'm sure my head doesn't hurt as much as Eddie's will be in a few hours. With the way his head was continuously hitting his plate I'd be surprised if he didn't have a few skull fractures.
"Not Russian swear words considering the fact I don't speak the language," Abe said. A smirk was slowly spreading across his face. "If she had spoken the statement in Turkish then maybe you would have grounds to worry that I was corrupting my sweet granddaughter." The sneaky gleam in his eyes—that reminded me of why people called him Zmey, which is Russian for snake—told me he wasn't above teaching his 'sweet granddaughter' Turkish swear words.
"You may not speak the language, but I'm sure you picked up a few words and phrases during your many dealings in Russia." The side of Abe's mouth quirked up in defying amusement at the word 'dealings'. I think it had to do with the way I said the word more so than me questioning his line of work. The way I said 'dealings' made it obvious I believed he engaged in illegal activities. "However," I said, earning a curious glance from him, "if you had been the one to teach her how to use that type of vocabulary, you would gladly admit to doing so."
Abe took another piece of sausage from my plate as I stared at him in utter disbelief. "It's nice to know you have such confidence in me, Rosemarie." I didn't like being addressed by my full name and Abe knew it.
In an attempt to ignore my father, I once again turned my attention to my daughter. Sometime during my war of words with Abe she had climbed onto my lap without my noticing. As I looked down at her I was met with her shoulder length brown hair. Her back was to me. I ran a hand through her hair and called her name. "Sasha." My voice didn't come out as angry as I had hoped. I had planed on reprimanding her for her improper use of language, but my tone came out amused.
She turned around to face me and I was met with chocolate brown eyes. I took a few napkins off the table and began to scrub her face. It seems as if Abe wasn't the only one mooching off my food. She had strawberry syrup covering her beautiful face and all of my pancakes were gone. I lightly shook my head and stared into her eyes so much like her father's as I finished my task leaving her face spotless. "Sasha, you understand that what you said was wrong don't you." This time my disapproval rang through as clear as day.
When I began speaking to her she had dropped her head. Now she looked back up at me with eyes glazed over with unshed tears. Her bottom lip began to quiver. "But mom, he called me a little monster." She pointed her little index finger in her grandfather's direction. A tear fell down her cheek and I quickly wiped it away. I hated to see my little girl saddened and crying. It tore my heart to pieces. Honestly, I just think it's in a mother's nature. Our need to protect our children runs so deep that we hate to see them hurting even when they are in the wrong. It's what makes our children seemingly perfect. It's why they can do no wrong in our eyes.
By now the rest of the room had returned from planet Looney and rejoined me on Earth. "Sweetheart, I know it angered you when he said it, but you can't use that kind of language. It's not befitting for someone your age, or any age really." That was Lissa. She loved my daughter almost as much as I did. Sasha was like the daughter Lissa wished to have.
"But, Aunt Lissa, Uncle Christian says stuff like that all the time." Christian looked around the room as if he would find another person sitting at the breakfast table by the name of Christian.
When he found no one he turned his gaze to me. "Rose says stuff like that all the time too," he said in an attempt to shift the blame to me. Satisfied with himself, he cut into his pancakes and took a huge victory bite.
His victory was short lived. "Actually, Rose cut back on her use of curse words after Sasha was born." That was Eddie coming to my defense. His face was sticky with syrup and it was covered in little pieces of pancakes and bits of eggs and bacon. He had cleared his plate of sausage before my daughter decided to curse at Abe and send him into a laughing head banging fit. The sight of him nearly sent me into a fit of giggles. Nearly.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Abe narrow his eyes in thought.
"Christian, you do use a lot of swear words," came Max's deep Russian accented voice.
Sasha's eyes instantly dried up. She loved Max. She had actually plotted with Lissa once to fix me up with him. She and Lissa both wanted me to start dating.
I remember Sasha's third birthday party. Lissa had the hugest cake I had ever laid eyes on made for Sasha's birthday. It was shaped like a giant stake—Sasha loved stakes, what can I say, she takes after her parents. She was standing on the dinning room table underneath the dragon chandelier because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to reach the cake to blow out her three birthday candles. After she blew out all the candles and we all clapped and cheered she jumped off the table and into my arms.
"I love you, mommy," she had said to me. She only called me mommy when she was feeling particularly affectionate toward me. She was like her father in that way. He had only called me by my nickname when he was feeling strong affection for me. She was like her father in so many ways that most of the time it seemed as if he had never left. Sasha fills the place in my heart he once held.
I proceeded to run my fingers through her hair that reminded me so much of her father. "I love you too, Sash." Sash was my term of endearment for her. It was the moniker I had given her nickname, Sasha. Her full name is Alexandra Valentina Hathaway.
Sasha is the Russian nickname for Alexandra. It was Lissa's idea to give Sasha some kind of link to her father. She felt that if I wouldn't give Sasha his last name then I should at least give her a name that would provide her with some form of connection to him. I gave into Lissa's demand without a fight because I was just content to have her speaking to me again.
After Dimitri departed campus to go work for his new charge I felt obligated to tell Lissa everything. Since he was no longer at the Academy and no longer assigned to guard Lissa, I figured there would be no harm in letting Lissa in on my feelings for him. Plus, with Dimitri gone, Lissa was the only person I had to confide in, so I told her the secret I had been hiding from her since we returned to St. Vladimirs.
"Liss," I had said to her.
Through the bond I could tell she was worried about me and anxious to hear what I had to say. Without me knowing, my voice had come out hesitant and that raised Lissa's red flags. She knew I was about to tell her something huge. "Yeah, Rose, what is it?" Her voice was calm. Encouraging.
I shook my head afraid of her reaction. She placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder and I felt a blast of encouragement through the bond. I also felt longing. She longed for the bond to be two ways so she could just get into my head and figure out what I was so hesitant to tell her. I'm happy the bond isn't two ways. If it was she would have killed me by now. Actually, she wouldn't have done anything that drastic because she was too kind for that, but I have no doubts she'd be pissed. Pissed enough to kick me out of her room.
Finally gathering enough courage to say what I had to say I blurted out the truth. "Dimitri left me."
At first she didn't understand what I was attempting to tell her. "Rose, he was just your mentor. The school can find you another one."
I remained silent. I didn't say or do anything. Through the bond I could feel Lissa assessing my demeanor, my face, and my tone of voice when I said Dimitri left me. My voice had been laced with hurt. More hurt than I should have harbored if he had just been my mentor. Then she reconsidered her words. Rose, he was just your mentor.
Then understanding clicked in. Comments I had made…ways we had acted around one another. She finally got it. The information burned in her. She understood that what I felt for Dimitri was deeper than a student caring for her mentor. She finally understood what she had been too blind to notice before.
"You loved him," she breathed in disbelief. "Why didn't…," she swallowed. "Why didn't you…," she hesitated again. When she spoke again her voice was stronger. It was encompassed with hurt that I didn't tell her and betrayal that I didn't trust her enough to tell her, but it was definitely stronger. "Why didn't you tell me!" She shouted.
I was so shocked I couldn't say anything. Lissa rarely ever lost her cool, but when she did she really lost it. Like the time she repaid Ralf with torture for torture after he and his friends tried to trick her into joining their club. When Lissa was angered she really got angry. That's how I knew this wasn't going to be good for me.
"Why. Didn't. You. Tell. Me!" She shouted again, this time putting more force behind her words.
"I couldn't," I said. I felt horrible. I was hurting and now I was hurting Lissa.
"I feel as though you don't trust me." Her voice had leveled off some. She was definitely still angry, but she was no longer yelling at me. That was a relief. "Why…did," she fumbled for the question her mind had already formed. "Did he feel the same way?" She finally managed to say.
I addressed her first statement first. "It's not that I didn't trust you because I do. I trust you more than anyone else." Besides Dimitri. But I didn't voice that. "It's just…well…Dimitri used to say that by us both being your guardians we would be more worried about protecting each other than protecting you. That's why we tried to deny the attraction," I said, answering her question. Guilt coursed through to me from the bond but she didn't say anything as I continued to speak. "If we were to get too invested in each other that could have very well put your life in danger."
She felt guilty that she had been the reason that kept us apart, but she was still angry with me for not telling her. She turned her brilliant jade green eyes on me and her platinum blonde hair fell out of her face. "We could have worked something out…surely there was a way for you two to stay together and still guard me…if you had told me…I could have figured something out!" Her anger was trumping her guilt and her voice was slowly rising. "Rose, you're like a sister to me. I would have figured something out eventually…before he left." When she finished her voice was back to normal. It still carried a trace of her anger, but it was normal again. Her green eyes turned weary as another question formed in her mind.
I answered her question before she had the opportunity to voice it. "Yes, Liss. Yes, we did have sex." She narrowed her eyes at me. She hated the fact that I could read her mind through the bond. But she hated it more that I hadn't thought to tell her I had lost my virginity to the man I loved—to the man she had no idea I held feelings for.
She felt like she didn't know me anymore, and really I couldn't blame her. I had kept from her important aspects of my life. She didn't have the luxury of keeping things from me with the bond we shared. If she decided not to tell me something I would find out eventually. She felt bitter about that. "Is there anything else you've been keeping from me," she snapped, causing me to jerk back from the harshness of her tone.
I looked her directly in the eyes and shook my head. "No. I'm not keeping anything else from you."
Once again she narrowed her green eyes at me. She was studying me. Assessing my face, my tone of voice, everything. She thought I was lying to her. And she had good reason to think that. I withheld the truth from her for months and didn't tell her until I felt I had no other choice. She had every right to not believe anything that came out of my mouth. That didn't mean her lack of faith in me didn't hurt. Because it did. It was now that I wished the bond worked two ways. She would know I wasn't lying to her now. It would have saved me all of this trouble because she would have been able to retrieve the information from my head as everything between Dimitri and I was happening.
When she was satisfied I was telling her the truth she moved to the door with dexterity and speed I didn't know she possessed. She flung the door open and turned to face me. When she did a flash of anger and hurt, in both her feelings and eyes, hit me. "Get out," she said to me, voice cold. She hated that I hadn't told her. It hurt her to think I didn't trust her. But what hurt her most of all was that Viktor, our worst living enemy, knew. He knew. He knew! He said as much…during his trial…but…I didn't want…I didn't think…I didn't want to believe it…I didn't think it was true. Lissa's thought sang to me across the bond. When I made no action to move she hardened her eyes and her voice was like ice when she spoke to me again. "Get out!" She hissed. Her voice was low and menacing.
I sprang into action and hustled to the door. I didn't want to add to her anger so I did as she commanded. As I approached her I opened my mouth to tell her how sorry I was for not confiding in her, but she held up a pale hand. She pointed with her index finger out into the hallway and told me one last time to get out.
This time I did as she said. I left. I turned around just in time to be met with her slamming the door in my face and a tear hitting the ground. Her tear.
With that I walked off feeling incomplete. I had lost Dimitri and Lissa both in the same day. There was no way my life could get any worse. The two people I cared about the most in the world had abandoned me.
A month later I found out I was pregnant with Dimitri's child. I also found out that Lissa had kept her mouth shut about the relationship Dimitri and I shared. I was grateful to her for that. The only person other than her who knew was Adrian, and he hadn't told a soul.
It was then that I made the decision to go see Lissa. She had been mad at me when I told her months after the fact I had been in a relationship with my hot older mentor. If I waited until my child was born to tell her I was having Dimitri's baby she would definitely be pissed. There would be no salvaging our friendship after that, so I headed over to her dorm room.
The bond told me that's where I would find her. Luckily Christian wasn't there. I wouldn't want to interrupt one of their little love fests. As I made my way over to her dorm room the wind blew my hair out behind me. It also cleared my mind.
I thought about how I was going to raise my child. My relationship with my own mother was rocky at best—although we had come a long way from me yelling at her in class and lashing out at her. I decided then and there that I wouldn't abandon my child. Her—I had a feeling I was having a girl—father had already done that. I wouldn't subject her to that kind of pain. I would raise my daughter while simultaneously fulfilling my duties as a guardian. There was no way I was going to let my child grow up resenting me the way I had my mother.
I entered the Moroi housing and climbed the steps one pain filled step at a time. I had no idea how Lissa was going to react to the news I was about to bring her, let alone how she would react to seeing me. We hadn't spoken since the day she kicked me out of her room. She had been content to ignore me and I had been content to be ignored, although I did miss her from time to time.
My footsteps halted as I reached her room. I could feel her presence on the other side of the door. Resisting the urge to turn around and return to my own room, I knocked. I couldn't turn away. I couldn't bear to lie to her again.
When her door opened shock registered through the bond, on her face, and in her eyes. She quickly covered her feelings and her face went as blank as a guardian's. I wasn't aware she could do that. I had the frame of mind to turn around and go back to my dorm, but I wasn't the type of person to back down from uncomfortable situations. Quite frankly, I was known for charging into them. So that's what I did now.
I was the first to break the silence. "Can I come in?" My voice betrayed none of what I was feeling inside—happiness at seeing her again, sadness at our not being on speaking terms, hurt at her not having forgiven me by now—or what I came to tell her.
She didn't say anything. She was still giving me the silent treatment. After a few seconds had gone by she gestured into her room inviting me in. Once the door was shut and she had turned to face me she still didn't say anything to me. I didn't let her see it, but her not talking to me was like a stab wound to the heart.
Normally when we were silent around each other it was a pleasant comfortable silence. This was anything but. It was awkward and unusual. I was the one to break it again. "I just found this out today…and I…um…didn't want to keep it from you."
She waved her hand in a motion that said for me to continue. She still wasn't speaking to me.
I took in a deep breath and prepared to deliver the news. I felt a little weak and nauseous. Those were hormones from my pregnancy no doubt. "I'm pregnant," I say, not waiting for her response I continue on. "The baby is Dimitri's. I don't know why or how. I just know it is. He's the only guy I've ever been with physically." Dimitri and I were both dhampirs and dhampirs can't have children with our own kind. That's why I was so shocked to find out I was pregnant.
During my confession I had lowered my head as not to look Lissa in the eyes. I was afraid of what I would find. Disgust. Loathing. Anger. I didn't know. Before I met her eyes I tried to gauge her thoughts through the bond. Only I couldn't. She was…blocking me. My head snapped up to find Lissa staring at me.
Or my growing belly to be more precise. It was proof that I was telling the truth. I was two months pregnant and I had begun to develop a little baby bump. It wasn't noticeable unless you were looking for it, but it was there.
She stared at me for a few seconds. Before I knew what was happening she had launched herself into my arms…squealing with…joy. "We're having a baby," she sang, dragging me across her room as she danced and jumped up and down. And like that our one month squabble was long forgotten.
With that Sasha had pulled me out of my thoughts when she said, "mommy, don't you want to know what I wished for?" She had a giant smile adorning her face. It was times like this—when she was genuinely happy and giving me a full smile—that she looked the most like Dimitri. Like her father, she rarely ever gave anyone a full smile, but when she did, it lit up her face and beautiful no longer adequately described her. I remember I used to call Dimitri a god. Well, Sasha was a goddess.
I brought myself from my thoughts and smiled back down at her. "If you tell me, then your wish won't come true," I stated matter-of-factly.
She frowned slightly at this and then just like that the frown was gone. Her deep brown eyes lit up. "If I tell you then you can make it come true," she said pleased with herself. I had to hand it to her. She was definitely the daughter of Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov. She had his looks. She had gotten her love for John Wayne movies, western novels and books in general, her indefinite patience, and calm demeanor from Dimitri. Although she inherited Dimitri's indefinite patience she had my temper when she got mad or annoyed. She got her lack of self control from the both of us, although Dimitri did a much better job at staying in control. Over the years I'd been able to master a façade of control. It was only a façade though. I still lost it from time to time. To me, Sasha's level of self control seemed somewhere between mine and Dimitri's. The one thing she got from me that I wished she hadn't was Rose logic, or more appropriately termed, Sasha logic.
I laughed at her roundabout way of trying to tell me what she wished for. Now I knew how Dimitri felt whenever I used Rose logic on him. I shook my head and let her think she was getting away with using Sasha logic on me. "Okay, Sash, what did you wish for?"
She gave me another brilliant smile that made me think of Dimitri. She moved her mouth to my ear, a maneuver made easy by her still being in my arms, and proceeded to tell me her wish. "I whished that you and Max would start dating and get married someday," she said innocently. A little bit too innocently. If it was one thing my daughter wasn't it was innocent. She was always getting into something. But she never did anything without thinking it through. That's how I knew she planned this, so I decided to play along.
"You do know that was two wishes don't you," I asked, a small smile spread across my lips.
She shook her tiny head and her brown hair flew through the air. Her hair was the same color as Dimitri's but it was as thick as mine. It was because of that I knew that someday her hair would grow to be as long as mine too. "No, it was only one wish. As long as I could put it all in one sentence, it was one wish." That made me laugh outright.
Sasha smiled at that, convinced she had me convinced she actually had made one wish. Content with her work she jumped from my arms and landed on her feet. I watched her as she ran over to Lissa and jumped in her arms. Lissa caught her effortlessly and they shared a knowing smile.
Later that night I cornered Lissa on the third floor hallway as she was on her way to bed. After a little coaxing on my part she finally confessed she and Sasha had plotted together to fix me and Max up.
Sasha found out the next morning and she scolded Lissa at the breakfast table for giving away their plan. The whole situation was quite funny. Even Lissa had to laugh.
"It was you!" Abe's accusatory voice snapped me out of my thoughts. When I came to he was glaring at Christian.
Christian paled under Abe's gaze and slid down in his chair. "What was me," he asked in a small voice, begging for someone to jump to his defense. He shot accusatory glances of his own at his guardians for not saying anything in his defense. Eddie didn't notice because he was too busy cleaning his breakfast off his face. Max just shrugged as if to say, what do you expect me to do?
Abe's eyes never left Christian. He paused as if to think about what he was about to say before he spoke. "You said yourself that Rose cursed almost as much as you do. That implies you curse a lot. Does it not?" Abe smiled a smile at Christian that I would hate to be on the receiving end of. It was wicked enough to scare any Strigoi. Christian didn't bother answering the question Abe posed. Everyone in the room knew it was rhetorical. "Your guardian even said you use a lot of swear words. That tells me you're the one who my darling granddaughter learned that awful language from." The tone he used to deliver the words 'awful language' demonstrated just how awful he thought that language was. Not awful at all. He even seemed appreciative of the fact Christian had taught my daughter how to swear in Russian. Like Lissa, Christian took Russian as a foreign language at St. Vladimir's Academy. Of course he of all people would learn the swear words.
I wasn't nearly as grateful. From the feelings flowing to me from the bond I could tell Lissa wasn't either. "Christian," she yelled. That grabbed the attention of everyone in the room. Lissa rarely ever yelled. When she did the situation was very serious and she had to practically be livid. This situation definitely constituted as serious. Her husband had taught the niece she thought of as a daughter how to use swear words.
"Aunt Lissa," Sasha said, grabbing hold of Lissa's arm with her tiny hand. "If I apologize to my grandfather will you calm down? I don't want Uncle Christian to get in trouble," she said. When her eyes began to water that was Lissa's downfall. All of her anger instantly diffused. No one in this house could refuse Sasha anything when she began to pout and cry, especially Lissa.
"Alright," said Lissa. Sasha's eyes dried up and she hopped from my lap to Lissa's. She wrapped her arms around Lissa's neck and kissed her check. When she was done and Lissa had kissed her back she situated herself back on my lap facing Abe.
"I'm sorry, Zmey," she said. She had learned that nickname when she was an infant. She heard me call Abe that once and she's called him that ever since.
Although Sasha had only given him a half apology he smiled and accepted it nonetheless. She apologized, but she didn't mean it, making it a half apology. I'm sure Abe didn't care considering the fact he wasn't opposed to her using swear words. He would have been ecstatic to hear her swear at him again. Some grandfather he was. This almost made me glad I didn't meet him until I was an adult.
I shook my head at Abe. "Sasha," I called, grabbing her attention. "You are never permitted to use curse words again." I gave her a stern look. She nodded her head to show she understood. "I love you," I said.
A ghost of a smile played across her lips and she kissed me on my right check. "I love you too, mom." With that she grabbed one of the two éclairs on my plate, bit into it, and hopped off my lap still chewing. She ran over to Max, who picked her up, so she could play with him. She didn't bother giving him a piece of her chocolate doughnut because when it came to food she had the same policy as me: share only when you need to, which is mostly never.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. From now on, I'm going to try my best to ensure that each chapter is about this long.
*******In case you haven't noticed, each chapter serves a purpose. The prologue was to start you guys off. The first chapter was an information chapter to provide info about where the story was headed: i.e. Miami and the private island. The second chapter was a description chapter. It described the mansion and some of the new characters. The first person to correctly guess what the theme of this chapter was will be given a sneak peak of the next chapter. I'll be sure to send it to you before I upload the next chapter. I will contact the winner via a private message and ask how you would like to receive your prize: via private message, your email service, etc. You may use as many words as you like to try to describe the theme. You may send me your thoughts in a review or in a private message.*******
As always, I apologize for any mistakes you may have encountered while reading this chapter.
R&R!
Oh, and may the first person win!