by Holly Rayner
him it wasn’t necessary, but he insisted. Oh! He gave me a full-time position too! I can pay off my student loans and finish my Master’s program now!”
“I’m so glad for you. I came by to apologize to you, Hayley.”
“Apologize? For what, Robyn?”
“This whole thing was my fault. It was my error with some of the advertising accounts. Until they took you out and you never came back… I didn’t realize it. I’m so sorry!”
“Oh Robyn. That was a simple error. You didn’t realize I’d be accused of stealing it…”
“No! No, I didn’t realize that, I promise you. I would never want someone else to pay for one of my mistakes. I just wanted to let you know that I’m so sorry for what you were put through.”
She hugged me tight. “I owe my job to you… and my new boyfriend,” she said with a grin.
“You and Gary?”
“Yes! Oh Robyn, I like him so much.”
“That’s great. Have you talked to him? He’s been so worried about you.”
“I just got off the phone with him before you came over.”
“Okay, good. I have to get to work now. I’ll see you there tomorrow?”
“Yes, for sure. Thank you for coming by.”
“Thank you, Hayley for everything.”
I left there feeling a little better. I went ahead and went into work then for the rest of the day. I was ready for life to return to normal. That evening, Aaron came back to my apartment as promised. I made us dinner and this time, we got to eat it. As we ate, he told me all that he’d done to fix my mess. I almost started crying again, but I held the tears at bay. After dinner we watched a movie and I fell asleep in his arms again. I still couldn’t imagine how I got so lucky.
The next few days passed in blissful normalcy. Friday evening, I got the call from Igor. I was with Aaron at his apartment and I put him on speaker phone once again.
“Hello baby!” I could tell by the look on Aaron’s face that he didn’t like that anymore than I did.
“Igor.”
“You have my money yet?”
Aaron nodded and I said, “Yes, I have it.”
“Good girl! You’re getting very good at this.”
“I don’t want to be good at this. This is wrong and I want nothing more to do with any of it.”
“We’ll see baby,” he said. “Meet me at the diner in the morning.”
I hung up and Aaron put his arms around me and hugged me tight. After a few minutes he said, “Where’s this diner at?”
“It’s on Fifty-seventh street. It’s called ‘Mauve’s’.”
Aaron got on his phone then. I heard him ask for the “Chief.” After a few minutes I heard him
say they had their mark and he told him the name of the diner and the street. When he hung up he said, “This will be the last time you have to see him.”
***
“Okay baby, this is it, are you ready?” Aaron and I were sitting a block away from the diner. He arranged for the police to meet us there and the INS. The police needed me to get Igor to say something about the money I gave him before and the money he expects me to give him today. They put a tiny little microphone in the bag I was carrying that was supposed to have the cash in it.
“I’m ready,” I told him. “I want this to be over with once and for all.”
He squeezed my hand and said, “Very soon.” Then he leaned over and kissed me. “I love you.”
Those three words filled me with a strength I had never known before every time he said them.
“I love you too!” I got out of the car and walked the block to the restaurant. When I got close, I could see Igor sitting by the window. The sight of him made me feel nauseated. I was tempted to turn and run in the other direction, but I pushed forward telling myself that I was going to be glad that I did when this was all over with.
I walked over to the table he was at and sat down. I tried not to look around the room. I knew there were undercover police in the restaurant but I didn’t want to be too obvious about it.
“Well hello there, gorgeous wife of mine.”
“I’m not your wife,” I said.
He ran his eyes over me and licked his lips. I felt like I needed a shower. “You don’t know what you’re missing not consummating this union of ours baby. Maybe that’s what I’ll ask for next time.”
“Over my dead body,” I said.
He laughed and said, “Your spunk only turns me on that much more my dear. Do you have my money?”
“This is it, Igor. This is the last time. How much do you think your so-called secret is worth?”
“It’s worth what I say it’s worth!” he said.
“I’ve already given you a lot of money.”
“Oh I don’t know, I was thinking I should have asked for more. Your boyfriend is a billionaire. He shouldn’t be so greedy that he won’t give you a little bit of money to keep me from spilling the beans about your past to the press.”
“He gave me seventy-five thousand dollars already and now...”
“Fifty,” he said, licking his lips. “Don’t worry; the seventy-five thousand you already gave me was put to good use. This fifty will be put to even better use. Now, may I have my money?”
“I don’t think so.” Aaron was sitting right behind him. I was shocked. I have no idea how he came in and did that without us seeing him. I looked past him then and saw the kitchen. There must be a door back there. Igor was glaring at him. He turned to glare at me then as well. “I thought since you were stealing my money, we should meet, face to face.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Igor said.
“Really? So Robyn’s not married to you and you’re not using that information to blackmail her? You’re not planning to sell the story to the media to ruin my reputation?”
He narrowed his eyes and stood up so that he was toe to toe with Aaron. Aaron was a lot taller than him, but Igor was beefier. “Yeah, I got your money and I’ll keep taking it unless you want her name and yours smeared all over the tabloids.”
“Igor Reznisky?” Igor turned towards the voice. It was two men, dressed in black shirts and jeans.
“Who the hell are you?”
One of them held open his wallet with his badge and I.D. inside and said, “I.N.S.”
“So, I’m a U.S. Citizen,” he said.
“So you told them when you filed for your citizenship, but there seems to be a problem.”
“What problem?”
“There’s just no record of this so-called marriage you listed… anywhere.”
“What the…?” He looked at Aaron then who was smiling. “You rich, arrogant, smug son of a bitch!” One of the INS agents was cuffing his hands behind his back. “What are you doing?”
“You’ll have to be sent home until we can sort this all out,” the agent told him.
“Igor Razinsky?”
“Who the fuck are you now?” Igor said to the new man that approached him.
That man showed him his I.D. and badge as well and said, “Detective Brady, NYPD. You’re under arrest for the crime of blackmail for monetary gain and grand larceny for the monies you’ve already received.” Igor looked livid, but he wasn’t a stupid man.
He looked at the INS agents and said, “Don’t you have first jurisdiction over me?”
One of them shrugged and said, “Well, we would but this marriage business might take a while to check out…”
“I’m not married,” he said. “It was a sham, okay. Send me home.”
Aaron and I watched all of this play out with fascination. Right up to the last minute Igor had gone for self-preservation and personal gain. Aaron had his arm around me and we watched as he was led out to the waiting police car. He wrapped me in a hug and I realized then that all of the other patrons in the diner had been cops.
“You cleaned out the diner?”
“The police did,” he said. Then he grinned and said, “I just bought a couple
hours of their time.”
“Thank you, for everything. I love you.”
He brought his sexy lips down and kissed mine with them. Then he said, “You want to go for a walk?”
“I’d love to,” I said.
As we walked along I asked him about the police and the INS and what would really happen to Igor.
“Well, the police and the D.A. are not going to want the headache of trying to prosecute him on the blackmail charges. Now that there is no trace of a marriage certificate he is no longer allowed to be here. INS will more than likely deport him before the police draw a case together. I also have the assurances of their Captains that not a word of this will be leaked. Everyone from the diner was sent home before he showed up. The people there were all cops, so there are no bystanders to report it. Igor will likely go home to Russia and thrive there in the mob. I can tell by his tattoos that he’s a part of it.”
“Wow, I married a mobster. I really am stupid.”
“You are not. I will be the first to admit that you made some stupid decisions, but who doesn’t when they’re feeling desperate. Just know that he is out of your life for good. He won’t be back and he has nothing to use against us now anyways.”
I hugged him again and said, “Thank you so much, for everything, but mostly for forgiving me for the deceit.”
“I do forgive you, but remember, no more secrets between us, okay?”
“No more,” I told him.
We walked along the sidewalk hand in hand and as I enjoyed his company I reveled in the fact that there were no more secrets between us, nothing but love and a bright future to look forward to. I suddenly saw a beautiful colored fountain in the middle of one of the squares where people sat around talking and playing music. I looked into it and saw that people had been using it as a wishing well, throwing in quarters or pennies. An idea struck and I reached into my jacket pocket pulling out Igor’s ring. I’d managed to forget that the offending item had lurked there since our previous fateful meeting in the diner. I closed my eyes and wished that I’d never be stupid enough again to let anyone convince me to lie to Aaron about anything. Beyond that, I had everything I wanted, all of my wishes and prayers had been answered.