Dmitry's Closet by Nelson, S. (read people like a book .txt) 📕

“Damn,” Dmitry sighed. “I didn’t know that you had any family.” It seemed that the murder was not very exciting to Dmitry. He brushed it off. “What happened to her? Your sister?”

“She killed herself a day after I killed him. She was pregnant at 12. We were only teenagers – barely that. She didn’t know any better. The cops couldn’t link me to it, but they did suspect my dead sister. Either way, I felt that I had avenged her.”

“And you did. Sometimes, what we do in this world is right but not legal and other times legal but not right. Plus, you will do anything for family, even when it makes no sense,” he reasoned, justifying her actions and secretely his.

“It doesn’t change that sometimes, I feel hollow inside. What I did won’t bring her back.”

“But your vengeance probably protected some other poor girl.”

“I miss her. My sister’s name was Chloe.” She said the name and for the first time felt the reminiscent feeling of family.

“I am truly sorry for you, Royal. If I could change it, I would. Unfortunately, death is sometimes a part of life – whether it comes fairly or unfairly is often not left for us to decide.”

“You sound like a fortune cookie,” she said wryly, trying to cut her emotions off. Royal didn’t want to talk anymore about her sister, not tonight during something so important in her life. She tried to move on. “What about you? What’s your secret?”

Dmitry smiled a mischievous smile, one of deceit and enjoyable trickery. “Anatoly is my biological son.”

There was a long silence before Royal replied. She continued rubbing through his hair and looking at the top of the canopy. “I get that. It’s his eyes, you know. They’re like ice, like yours.”

“You getthat, huh?” Dmitry expected her to be more shocked.

“Yep…sure do,” Royal said without looking at him.

“Well, besides the blonde hair, he looks just like his mother. So damned short,” he continued.

“He’s not short at all. You’re just tootall. How old is he, anyway. He looks thirty?”

“From hard life, I suppose. He’s only twenty. He’ll be twenty-one this year.”

“You had him early.”

“Yeah. I was on my way out of the country and stopped to see an old girl that I used to mess around with. He showed up in America three years ago. He was looking for work and new start. His mother had told him about me, and he used his last dime to get here.”

“No one knows?”

“Not a soul. And no one can ever know.”

“Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me.”

“Everything that I tell you is secret, Royal. You can never repeat one word,” he said, closing his eyes again.

Royal bit her lip, thinking about what he was demanding of her. Who would she tell? She didn’t know anyone.

“Just promise to always be as honest with me. I can handle a lot of things, especially considering the things that I’ve done and where I come from, but I can’t stomach a liar,” she said sternly. “That’s my stipulation to you before I take you.”

They both smiled.

“Lying is for people with no authority. I don’t lie. I can’t say that I’ll ever tell you everything, but what I do tell you will be the truth,” Dmitry said.

“So, it doesn’t bother you that I killed a man?”

“No,” Dmitry yawned. “You were just protective of what little family that you had, I suppose. I can understand that. Look at where I came from. I’m a gutter rat in nice clothing.”

“No, you’re far from that,” she said conversely. “You’re the best man that I’ve ever known.”

He laughed. “You don’t get out much, my love.”

“One more question, and then I’m going to bed?” Royal continued.

“What?”

“What did you mean by making a covenant?”

“When I was boy, my mother was whore. The only good thing I had in my entire life was church down the street from our shitty little apartment. The priest was like my father. I learned to play violin there, and he taught me about sacred bonds between man and woman, a marriage of sorts through a woman’s virginity. It is covenant between her, the man and God. The hymen is sacred – only to be broken by husband. It’s ironclad. What we did is ironclad. No man or woman can take it away.”

“So, I have you forever then?” She asked smiling.

“Yes…forever.”

“Like we’re married without the papers.”

“For now, it is all that I can give you.”

“Wait. Are you saying that you can’t marry?” The thought disturbed her. “But I want to get married one day. I don’t want to stay single or shacked up my whole life. It’s so incomplete.”

Dmitry could hear the sudden worry in her voice. He didn’t want to ruin their night together by explaining all the complications in his life. It was clear that she would not understand.

“There is no other woman involved, if that’s what you mean. It’s just not as easy for me as it is for most. We’ll save that conversation for another time, when you’re sure that you want to marry me in the first place.”

Royal sat back in the bed quietly. She did know.

“But it doesn’t mean that I don’t love you. I do…love you.” Dmitry pulled her hair from her face and kissed her. “Let me show you how much I love you, now.”

∞♥∞

Nine o’clock had passed, and Royal lay in Dmitry’s dress shirt slumbering in the comfort of her bed. She had been permitted to rest only a few hours, because Dmitry, in his cunning manner, had smuggled one more love session out of her, before he rocked her to sleep. She had gone to bed a little frantic of the hour, scared that she would oversleep. But Dmitry had assured her that he would take care of everything.

The staff arrived just a few minutes before nine and was greeted by Dmitry. When they came in the back of the store, he was sitting behind the credenza reading The New York Times. While