Chapter 174 Chapter 174 Family Chaos
“So… you’re telling me you let my little man and Ivan go to Spain alone…” Gemma says, tilting her head, clearly questioning my sanity. “…the Spain trip where the Pavlovs invite random girls too?”
“They haven’t done that since Dimitri brought me the first time. Now it’s family only,” I say, defending myself.
“But you are family. Why didn’t you go?” Tiana asks, her confusion written all over her face.
All my girls are here, visiting. We’re sitting in the hot springs, submerged up to our shoulders, steam curling around our faces while snow blankets everything around us. It’s unreal—quiet, beautiful, a complete contrast to the chaos I use to live in.
It’s a girls’ trip. No men.
Even Gemma is respecting that rule—for once. Alek and Sergey are in Moscow visiting their parents. Tish is having the hardest time; it’s her first time away from her baby girl, and last night she cried herself to sleep. This is also the first time Constantine has been away from me.
I made this decision on purpose.
To open things up again. To let people back in. Even the chaos.
I can’t hide up here forever. I need to learn how to exist in the real world again.
But how do I explain to them—to the people who love me the most—that I don’t feel like I belong with the Pavlovs?
“I don’t belong there,” I say simply. “I’m not a Pavlov.”
I keep it light, hoping they won’t look too closely.
Mia narrows her eyes at me. “You and Ivan are… what now? No labels?”
I dip under the water, letting the heat swallow me for a second before I come back up.
“We should go sit by the fireplace and have more rakia,” I say with a smile, trying to dodge the question.
“Answer, Elle!” Erika snaps.
I groan, covering my face for a second. “We haven’t talked about it, okay? We’ve just been… sleeping together. A few times a week.”
I can feel the heat rise to my cheeks.
They have no idea what he looks like now. He stopped shaving—completely—and he looks like some kind of mountain man. His beard is… yeah. And apparently, he waxes most of his body because otherwise he’s hairy as hell.
The image alone sends a wave of heat straight through me.
I close my eyes, trying to steady myself.
I fell hard.
Face first.
And this time… I don’t think I’ll recover if it all falls apart again.
“Do we trust him in Spain?” Yesenia asks. “Or at all?”
“I choose to trust him,” I say, inhaling sharply, because even saying it out loud feels risky. “Even if it’s hard.”
“We got married.”
Tiana blurts it out so fast and squeaky we almost miss it.
But we don’t.
“What?” we all say at once, turning toward her.
She covers her face, laughing nervously.
She and my cousin got married.
And just like that, the attention shifts.
We fire questions at her like a damn interrogation. She tells us it was just the two of them, my uncle, and her mom—a quick Vegas wedding. Stanislav didn’t want a big show.
Honestly… that tracks.
If they can make it work…
Then maybe Ivan and I can too.
Stanislav has always been a no-labels guy, juggling multiple women who all knew about each other. But when he met Tiana, something changed. I saw it happen. She was it for him.
Even then, he dragged his feet—like he was scared of getting hurt.
Yesenia immediately jumps to kids.
Right now, it’s me, Yesenia, and Tish—we’re the only ones with children. Erika and Gemma have already declared themselves the “cool aunts.” Mia is seeing some soccer player from the English Premier League—long distance, messy, but working for now.
Tiana tells us they love to travel so they are still unsure about having children. He is still looking to open more clubs, he is hands on. Maybe in the future.
She presses how much better it is to have kids earlier than later, for your body, your mind....blah blah, we all tell her stop.
Yesenia’s husband is a CEO of a health food company, and she’s fully leaned into the lifestyle—stay-at-home, organic everything, two toddlers in tow. We love her, but lately… she’s a lot.
She loves it here, though. The air, the food, the quiet.
I should invite them back in the summer. Let them see how beautiful this place really is.
The only problem is space.
I can’t host everyone at once.
Maybe I need to build a cottage or two.
We eventually climb out of the springs, wrapping ourselves up and sprinting toward the house, laughing as the cold hits our skin.
After we clean up, we gather in the living room, dropping onto the couches and rugs around the fireplace. Tiana helps me bring out snacks—dried meats, cheeses, fruits, fresh bread.
Gemma pours wine for herself and Tish, while the rest of us sip on rakia.
The night stretches on—drinks, stories, laughter.
All seven of us.
And somewhere in the middle of it, something in my chest softens.
Warms.
These girls… they’re my family.
Chosen. Chaotic. Loyal.
No matter where life takes us, no matter what kind of drama we drag behind us—we always find our way back to each other.
“Why are you crying, Elle?” Gemma asks suddenly.
I blink, reaching up, surprised to find tears on my face.
“I just… love you guys,” I say, my voice breaking as more tears spill over. “You’re my family.”
“We love you too!” they all shout back at once.
And then we’re all crying.
Laughing.
A mess.
Probably because we’re drunk.
But also because we mean every word.
Then Gemma, in true Gemma fashion, opens her mouth and shatters the moment.
“So… when are you going to tell Ivan about the Mason thing?” she asks. “Does he even know?”
I take a slow, steady breath.
And just like that—the chaos is back.