Maria and the Russian Soldier: A Trail from Ukrainian Holodomor (Legman)

When celebrated author and lecturer Maria Kovalenko receives an invitation to speak at a charity function in Chicago from Leonid Kozlov, whom she hasn't seen since he abandoned her 4 years ago, the past grips her. Leonid is now a wealthy man and a criminal boss. She shouldn't go. She has to see him. Their love story began years ago in Ukraine under the Russian oppression and man-made famine.

He was a hero lost in an evil cause. And I was a female dying in that cause. Despite his training or allegiance to carry out his orders, he had a primal instinct to protect a woman. The sight of me, not quite eighteen, sparked that instinct. In my eyes he saw himself for what he was and for what he was doing and just broke.

But the occupation is more than the famine, and allegiances to our respective countries would force a choice. And there is another woman. No one protected her. She wants to destroy us both.

The auction is not what it seems. Histories and long-held vengeance spill over from the past onto the present in a scalding manner.