She kept the careful inventory. He thought he was the husband who heard.
For two years, marine biologist Hannah Vasilieva has been keeping a list. Not on paper. In her chest. Every birthday her husband missed because he was on the road. Every fever night she handled alone. The Tuesday she sat on the bathroom floor for forty minutes and her four-year-old son brought her his blanket because she couldn't get up.
She has not, in two years, told her husband about any of it.
Yuri Vasiliev — the youngest of the four Vasiliev brothers, the gentlest, the music producer whose career is finally blooming after a decade of work — has been listening to his wife say everything is fine on phone calls from twelve cities. He has heard her break in pieces. He has not asked. He has put it into records instead, one per tour, sending them home like love letters he is too afraid to write.
When the seventh record arrives at the renovated barn-studio in Falmouth with Hannah's own voice looped into the bass line, she finally understands he has been hearing her the whole time. And when her department chair puts her on a four-week leave and gives her the deep-water research project she has been waiting fourteen years to lead, Hannah has a decision to make about whether her marriage can survive being told the truth.
Yuri has a decision of his own. Two years of being the husband who listened without asking is, by his older brother Lev's count, the Yuri-version of the savage-mercy. He has been carrying the Vasiliev family architecture in silence for thirty-two years. He is, finally, ready to put it down.
What follows is a four-week road trip up the New England coast in a renovated van, three small children in the back, every careful inventory finally on the table, every brother on the phone, and a midnight on three hundred and twelve feet of deepest water where two people who have been married for five years finally see each other for the first time.
His Patient Vow is a slow-burn marriage-in-crisis Bratva romance about the cost of carrying things in silence, the gift of being asked, and the kind of vow that is only kept by the kind of patience that, in its own time, in its own way, becomes the marriage you were always going to have.
READER NOTE:
This is the fourth book in the Vasiliev Reign series and is fully readable as a standalone. Dual POV. Established marriage. Three children. Marriage-in-crisis to marriage-restored. Slow burn after a long dry spell. Surprise pregnancy in the epilogue. Guaranteed HEA.
TROPES:
Marriage in crisis · Established couple · Touring rockstar / scientist wife · Forced proximity (the van) · Slow burn after a dry spell · Dual POV · Found family · Three small children on page · Brothers · Coastal Maine · Surprise pregnancy in epilogue · Guaranteed HEA
CONTENT NOTES:
On-page explicit scenes between MMC and FMC. Mentions of past parental absence and isolation, a portrayed mental-health-low moment (recovered from on-page), references to Bratva business off-page. No cheating, no OW/OM drama, no separation. The marriage stays on the page.
For two years, marine biologist Hannah Vasilieva has been keeping a list. Not on paper. In her chest. Every birthday her husband missed because he was on the road. Every fever night she handled alone. The Tuesday she sat on the bathroom floor for forty minutes and her four-year-old son brought her his blanket because she couldn't get up.
She has not, in two years, told her husband about any of it.
Yuri Vasiliev — the youngest of the four Vasiliev brothers, the gentlest, the music producer whose career is finally blooming after a decade of work — has been listening to his wife say everything is fine on phone calls from twelve cities. He has heard her break in pieces. He has not asked. He has put it into records instead, one per tour, sending them home like love letters he is too afraid to write.
When the seventh record arrives at the renovated barn-studio in Falmouth with Hannah's own voice looped into the bass line, she finally understands he has been hearing her the whole time. And when her department chair puts her on a four-week leave and gives her the deep-water research project she has been waiting fourteen years to lead, Hannah has a decision to make about whether her marriage can survive being told the truth.
Yuri has a decision of his own. Two years of being the husband who listened without asking is, by his older brother Lev's count, the Yuri-version of the savage-mercy. He has been carrying the Vasiliev family architecture in silence for thirty-two years. He is, finally, ready to put it down.
What follows is a four-week road trip up the New England coast in a renovated van, three small children in the back, every careful inventory finally on the table, every brother on the phone, and a midnight on three hundred and twelve feet of deepest water where two people who have been married for five years finally see each other for the first time.
His Patient Vow is a slow-burn marriage-in-crisis Bratva romance about the cost of carrying things in silence, the gift of being asked, and the kind of vow that is only kept by the kind of patience that, in its own time, in its own way, becomes the marriage you were always going to have.
READER NOTE:
This is the fourth book in the Vasiliev Reign series and is fully readable as a standalone. Dual POV. Established marriage. Three children. Marriage-in-crisis to marriage-restored. Slow burn after a long dry spell. Surprise pregnancy in the epilogue. Guaranteed HEA.
TROPES:
Marriage in crisis · Established couple · Touring rockstar / scientist wife · Forced proximity (the van) · Slow burn after a dry spell · Dual POV · Found family · Three small children on page · Brothers · Coastal Maine · Surprise pregnancy in epilogue · Guaranteed HEA
CONTENT NOTES:
On-page explicit scenes between MMC and FMC. Mentions of past parental absence and isolation, a portrayed mental-health-low moment (recovered from on-page), references to Bratva business off-page. No cheating, no OW/OM drama, no separation. The marriage stays on the page.
Used availability for Cora J Riley's His Patient Vow