The Last Kolovsky Playboy

by Carol Marinelli

  Only tears were so appallingly close, Kate realised with horror, that she couldn’t do it right now.

  Couldn’t be brave at this second.

  ‘Hi, there!’ It was Aleksi who filled the crushing silence as Georgie climbed out of the car. ‘How was school?’

  ‘I hate it,’ Georgie said, and then promptly burst into tears. ‘I hate it and I’m never going back!’

  Oh, yes, the trouble with being a parent was that even when you had a top-notch nanny children still wanted their mother—even when there wasn’t a single bit of you left to give, still they demanded that you produce it.

  ‘What happened?’

  They were somehow in the kitchen. Aleksi got a juice box from the fridge and Kate thought Georgie might push it away, but she actually took it and then, when Aleksi left them to it, she gulped it down before speaking.

  ‘I don’t like it there,’ Georgie sobbed. ‘Tell me I don’t have to go back.’

  ‘Not till you tell me what happened!’ Kate repeated. She knew she wasn’t handling this well, knew she should wait for her to open up, but her nerves were so taut they were close to snapping. She wanted it out now and sorted, so she could get on with her own pain. She didn’t want Georgie’s drama today. Tomorrow, yes, and the next day, and the next too—but not today, when her own heart was bleeding and breaking. Except she was a mother, so she didn’t get to choose. ‘Talk to me, Georgie.’

  ‘I just don’t like it,’ she said. ‘The other girls are mean.’

  ‘What did they say?’ Kate asked, and she could hear the shrill note in her own voice that undid all the good of the cool juice and made Georgie cry just a bit harder.

  ‘Why don’t you have a swim?’

  It was Aleksi who came in, and even though Kate loathed him, even though she knew she would be far, far better off without him, she was actually relieved when he took over the reins. She was so used to holding them alone it felt different as he steered things a little—perhaps not in the direction she would have, but maybe another route was called for.

  ‘Have a swim, I’ll get some snacks brought out, and then when you’ve cooled down maybe you can tell your mum what’s going on.’

  ‘Will you swim too?’ Georgie’s eyes swung to her mother’s.

  ‘Sure,’ Kate said, though it was absolutely the last thing she wanted.

  ‘And you?’ Georgie’s eyes narrowed at Aleksi, and Kate couldn’t help but sense a small challenge coming from her daughter. ‘Will you swim, too?’

  ‘Of course,’ he responded immediately.

  Kate took for ever to reluctantly haul on her bikini, although Georgie had changed in less than a second. Aleksi was out there, and she really couldn’t face this…

  Her face started to crumple as she heard the laughter from her daughter, and she looked out as Aleksi threw a ball and realised what she had to tell the little girl.

  That they were moving again. That Aleksi and her mum’s relationship was over. That her dad had gone to Bali, permanently…

  ‘Catch me!’

  Georgie’s voice soared through the late-afternoon sky and Kate’s throat tightened on a shout of warning as she saw Georgie run. Aleksi was turning to get the ball, too far from the little girl who ran to the edge. She slipped, soaring through the air, and Kate’s heart was in her mouth as the world moved in slow motion—she was too close to the edge, and would surely crack her head! Only Aleksi moved like lightning, stretching though the water and pulling Georgie back with millimetres to spare. He caught her. Oh, there was a splash, and they both went under, and Georgie had a mouth and nose full of water, but somehow he caught her.

  ‘Never do that again.’ Aleksi’s voice was close to a shout, and real fear was on his features by the time Kate had dashed through the house and out to the pool. ‘You could have had an accident.’

  ‘You caught me, though.’

  ‘I might not have…’ Aleksi sat her down at the pool’s edge and Kate could see that beneath his tan he was pale. ‘I almost didn’t!’

  ‘But you did!’ Georgie said simply.

  ‘Georgie…’ Kate realised her voice was shaking. ‘You warn people properly. You don’t just jump. You slipped and might have really hurt yourself.’

  ‘He caught me, though,’ Georgie insisted, but her face was working up to tears.

  ‘Leave it,’ Aleksi said gruffly. ‘You’re fine—you’re safe. I’m only upset because…’ He was helpless at her tears. ‘Because I care about you.’

  ‘No, Aleksi, you don’t!’ she snarled, and then she turned and challenged her mother. ‘Everyone at school knows it’s just pretend. Lucy’s nanny is a friend of Sophie…’ She stared accusingly at Kate. ‘She heard them talking, and she said that soon he’s getting rid of us!’

  ‘Nobody’s getting rid of you!’ Aleksi’s voice was a husk of breath.

  ‘But it is going to end,’ Georgie said. ‘I could hear you rowing.’

  ‘Grown-ups argue sometimes,’ Aleksi explained, still stunned.

  ‘When are we going home?’

  Georgie’s voice was shrill and Kate felt sick. ‘We’re getting a new home darling.’ She tried to smile, tried to sound positive, tried to make it sound idyllic as she crushed her own daughter’s heart. ‘Near your new school.’

  ‘So it’s true, then?’

  Georgie was too proud to crumple there and then, but with a sob she ran up to her bedroom, leaving Kate with the guilt she had always known would come since she’d embarked on this dangerous game—only she had never anticipated how devastating it would be.

  ‘Kate!’ Aleksi called her back as she rushed to follow her daughter, but she ignored him, so he barred the door with his body. ‘You’ve done nothing wrong. She’ll be okay once you are in your home, once she’s really settled in her new school…’

  ‘You don’t get it, do you?’ Kate choked. ‘You think it’s about the house and the nice cars and the pool and the posh school…’ God, she truly hated him in that moment. ‘She doesn’t give a stuff about all that. She loved you, she loved our little family, she actually believed that you loved us too…’

  And not even Aleksi could halt her, so desperate was she to get to her daughter, so he didn’t even try. He stood aside and listened to Kate somehow not pound up the steps but calmly walk, blowing her nose as she did so. Then he heard the gentle knock on Georgie’s bedroom door.

  Walking had been painful for Aleksi since the accident, but it was sheer agony today as he forced himself, physically forced himself, to take each step. Every instinct told him to turn, to run away, yet he made himself undertake the most daunting walk of his life.

  ‘Why doesn’t he love us?’

  He heard Georgie’s sobs and he could feel the sweat beading on his forehead. He so badly wanted to fling open her door, to counter Kate’s words, yet he did what Kate had so rightly accused him of.

  He held back.

  ‘Aleksi has a lot going on in his life.’ He heard her trying to sound calm and assured. ‘Lots of difficult things are happening with his family right now. There are going to be lots of rows and arguments and he doesn’t want us to get mixed up in at all…’

  ‘But we could help him,’ Georgie begged. ‘We could be nice to him when they are all being mean.’

  ‘It’s not that simple, darling.’

  Aleksi closed his eyes as he listened to Kate attempt to soothe her daughter.

  ‘Aleksi isn’t sure what’s going to happen with his work with his home…’

  ‘Why can’t he live with us in our new home?’ Georgie reasoned. ‘You said we’re getting a nice new home near the school.’

  ‘We are, but…’

  ‘So why can’t he live with us there?’

  ‘It’s not going to be what Aleksi’s used to,’ Kate said, and she couldn’t gloss it up any more.

  Defeated, she sat on the bed where her daughter lay sobbing and stroked her shoulder, tried to comfort her, and wished someone could comfort her too—be
cause all Georgie’s arguments had done was ram home the cruel truth. Aleksi didn’t want them. Yes, he cared, and had ensured they would be looked after, but their little world wasn’t one that was for him. Soon he would be healed, back to his playground world. Aleksi would build himself up again—and it wouldn’t be with her.

  He had told her that from the start. She had gambled her heart and had thought she knew the odds, that the prize of an education and security for her daughter was worth the risk. But sitting on the bed, realising her future was without the man she loved, thinking of the pain she had caused Georgie, suddenly Kate was angry. The glimpses of his love, the tastes of what he could never sustain—surely it would have been better without that? Better to live not knowing what she was missing?

  ‘I thought he loved us…’ Georgie sobbed into her pillow. ‘I told all the girls that I had a new daddy…’

  Maybe she shouldn’t have, Kate thought to herself, but who could blame her? Just as she had played dress-up as a little girl, who could blame Georgie for wanting what so many other children had? Kate wanted to give in then—just wanted to stop being brave and strong and sensible. She wanted to lie down on the bed with her daughter and wail, and bemoan how unfair it all was sometimes, but she wouldn’t allow herself. For a second she wavered, felt the swell of tears in her throat, and then she felt his hand on her shoulder, comforting her as she comforted her daughter, and Kate held her breath.

  ‘Georgie…’ Aleksi’s usually curt voice was soft, but unwavering. ‘Nothing would make me more proud than to be your father.’

  ‘So why are you sending us away?’ Her pinched, angry and tired little face swung around to confront him.

  Yes, she was tired, Kate realised, and her heart twisted in on itself. The journey that was so hard for her at times was hard on Georgie too. No matter how she tried to shield her, no matter how she tried to protect her, her little girl was tired and confused too.

  ‘I am not sending you away,’ Aleksi explained. ‘Part of me wants you and your mother to leave because I think it might be easier on you both.’

  ‘How?’

  Georgie sat up as Aleksi sat down.

  ‘Your mother told you that things might be difficult if you stay.’

  ‘I don’t care about that.’

  ‘I see that now,’ Aleksi said. ‘Georgie, I have lived a complicated life…’ He caught Kate’s eyes in a silent plea for help.

  ‘Aleksi isn’t the settling down type,’ Kate tried.

  ‘I wasn’t,’ Aleksi corrected. ‘Never did I consider marrying, and especially not being a parent.’

  ‘Why?’ The perpetual question came from Georgie, and Kate was glad for it.

  ‘I did not think I would be very good at it,’ Aleksi admitted. ‘I was brought up to trust no one and I didn’t—not anyone,’ he elaborated, ‘not even myself.’ Georgie’s tears had stopped. ‘I see my brothers with their children and I wonder how they can be so sure they are doing the right thing by them, making the right decisions for them…’

  He didn’t know what else to say, so Kate stepped in then.

  ‘Being a parent is a huge responsibility, Georgie, and Aleksi isn’t sure…’ She stopped as she felt his hand tighten on her shoulder.

  ‘I’m not sure that I’ll be the best father, but I will try…’

  Kate could feel the blood pounding in her ears.

  ‘I will do everything I can to look after you and your mother. I have a new brother, and I want to do the right thing by him too—but you, Georgie, and your mother come first. I will fight for what is mine—hopefully with honour.’

  Georgie didn’t understand, so Aleksi explained.

  ‘Zakahr is my eldest brother—he has a right to the House of Kolovsky. But I will have a wife and daughter to look after…’

  ‘We don’t care about the money,’ Georgie said. ‘So long as we can have lots of channels on our television!’

  ‘You deserve the very best in life.’ Aleksi actually managed a smile as he spoke. ‘And now I have someone to work for…’ He did. All the years—the gambling, the searching, the reckless times—just melted away, because here before him was what really mattered.

  ‘Us?’ Georgie checked and Aleksi nodded.

  ‘You two.’

  ‘So I can tell the girls at school…’

  ‘Tell them you are going to be a bridesmaid.’

  Aleksi smiled, and Kate paled. ‘You’re supposed to ask me first.’

  ‘Are you going to refuse?’

  She looked at Georgie, and then at Aleksi, and then she looked into her own heart and she absolutely wouldn’t dare refuse the gift she was staring at now—the gift of his love. There was, Kate realised, no greater love than that of a bad boy made good—it was there for the taking, a future with him, and all she had to do was say yes.

  ‘I love you, Kate.’

  He said it for the first time in front of Georgie—and Kate knew that he meant it. Because he might be reckless with his own heart at times, and even with hers, but always, always he had taken Georgie’s welfare seriously—at the hospital, with her education. Always he had made sure that she was okay, and he wouldn’t let her down now. So, whether he trusted himself or not, Kate did.

  ‘Yuck,’ Georgie said as it was sealed with a kiss.

  ‘And now,’ Aleksi said, quickly getting a handle on being a father, ‘you can go to your room and play for a while.’

  ‘I’m in my room.’ Georgie pointed out.

  So she was!

  So they went to his.

  ‘Ours,’ he corrected, and then he thought of this house that was all tied up in Kolovsky. ‘I will speak with Zakahr,’ Aleksi promised. ‘When I gave it all away I was only thinking of me…’ She opened her mouth to speak, but he overrode her. ‘You deserve something too.’

  ‘I’ve got everything,’ Kate said. ‘I’ve never been more proud of you than when you handed it back to him. He’s your brother.’ She watched him screw up his eyes, and then he opened them again—to the woman who was going to be his wife. And he knew, finally knew, he could trust someone.

  ‘Will you be there when I tell my mother?’ Aleksi asked, and Kate didn’t hesitate.

  ‘I’ll always be there.’

  ‘She won’t fit—there is not enough fabric…’

  It had been Nina’s response to the news of the wedding the following day. Her tears had soon dried and it was back to the pointed catty remarks as usual—this time about Kate’s wedding dress.

  And the planning for the wedding of the year had started in her next sentence!

  The pleading too.

  ‘Iosef is your twin—of course he must be your best man…’

  ‘I love Iosef, but I have already discussed this with him.’ Aleksi was pale—not that his mother noticed. Aleksi was bleeding inside now that the moment of truth had arrived. ‘Iosef agrees this is the right thing to do—Zakahr is to be my best man.’

  ‘Zakahr?’ Nina frowned. ‘Zakahr? Why on earth would you choose a stranger? He’s not even a colleague…’

  ‘I thought he was your new best friend,’ Aleksi taunted, ‘as you’ve been singing his praises for months.’

  ‘He helps with our charity. It is just business, Aleksi.’

  ‘You really thought he liked you?’ Aleksi said, gaining momentum now. ‘You really thought he had the House of Kolovsky’s best interests at heart?’ He stared at his mother with utter contempt. ‘You fool.’

  ‘Don’t you dare speak to me like that,’ Nina retaliated. ‘I am your mother!’

  ‘And Zakahr is your son.’

  Kate had never imagined she might feel sorry for Nina, never thought she could feel sympathy for a woman who had stood back and watched her son be beaten, who had denied him treatment for the sake of her reputation, who had abandoned her own flesh and blood in an orphanage and who had humiliated Kate at every turn. But watching the colour drain from Nina’s well made-up face, watching her stumble, watching hands that, unlike h
er face, looked every bit her age hold onto the desk as her legs gave way, she felt sympathy override satisfaction and Kate found her a chair, helping Nina into it before she slipped to the floor.

  ‘Riminic!’ Nina sobbed the word out, and Kate realised then that she must have said it to herself every day.

  ‘Remember Zakahr’s words at your charity ball?’ Aleksi was merciless. ‘Remember how he prostituted himself to survive? How that boy, your son, was forced to beg, to steal, to…?’

  ‘Stop!’ It was Kate who halted him as Nina was gagging now. ‘Aleksi, stop. She’s heard enough.’

  ‘She can’t stand to hear it,’ Aleksi said contemptuously. ‘Zakahr lived it.’

  ‘Forgive me!’ Nina screamed, so loudly that even Lavinia came running, her bony legs struggling on sixinch heels as Nina sobbed louder. ‘Forgive me, Aleksi.’

  ‘It’s not me who needs to forgive you,’ Aleksi said. ‘It’s my brother—your son.’

  ‘Leave it, Aleksi,’ Kate said, and she was crying for both of them, for all of them, because there was no victory to be had here—just a whole lot of healing to take place.

  So they left Lavinia comforting Nina, walked out of the golden doors and stood on the steps of Kolovsky as Aleksi took a deep breath, and then another one. The sun was shining and the world was waiting, and Kate knew they’d be okay because instead of walking on ahead Aleksi stopped and took her hand.

  ‘Are you sure you want to be a Kolovsky?’ he checked, and somehow, on the worst day, he made her laugh.

  ‘Quite sure,’ Kate assured him, and they looked over to the church across the road.

  If they’d had a licence, she’d have married him there and then, but instead they walked over hand in hand and booked the date.

  Epilogue

  IT WAS the most beautiful dress in the world—at least it was to Kate.