by Kay Loren
Nikolai could not believe his good fortune. He had mentioned Michael to Emma once -the morning after she had stayed at his place- while they were having breakfast and to his surprise she knew Michael all too well.
He had visited Tommy once when Tommy didn’t have the money he was promised and when Tommy offered Emma up as a ‘deal’ Michael was disgusted. He slapped her and threw her to the side when Tommy had pushed her onto him. Then Tommy beat her while Michael watched.
Nikolai vowed to Emma that no one would ever harm her again but now she was putting herself in danger by following him. He was conflicted. He didn’t want her to follow Michael, but he needed to know where Audrina and Alek were.
“Where are you now?” he asked as he got into the drivers seat of the car and motioned for Sergei and Vanya to follow him as he started up the engine and pulled it back onto the road.
Chapter Thirty- Six
Seeing the cold hard eyes of Michael again, knowing who he was now and seeing him again subdued Audrina into silence. The doctor had left her alone with Michael and she was scared beyond belief seeing his plastered smile and hidden rage.
“How are you feeling mi amore?” he asked sweetly, taking the seat near the side of the bed and placing his hand on her forehead.
She couldn’t answer. Her words were stuck in her throat.
Michael sighed and leaned close to her face, picking up a lock of her dark hair and inhaling. If it were any more possible, his dark eyes went pitch black as he yanked the piece of hair in his hand. She gasped and placed her hand on his arm but he only maintained the grip on her hair even more. “I can still smell him on you… but don’t worry mi amore. I will give you the chance to explain yourself. For now, you go along with everything. That is if you want, what is his name, Alek, to live another hour.”
“Please don’t hurt him Michael,” she whispered with tears in her eyes as she thought about Konstantin’s cheerful face when Alek held him close.
The door to the room turned and he smoothed her hair and gave her a kiss to the head. Dr. Cruz walked in and smiled seeing Michael gentle and loving with her as if he did not just hurt her moments before.
“Are those happy tears?” the doctor smiled gently seeing Audrina’s tearful face and plastered smile.
Audrina nodded to everything the doctor said while Michael held her hand, applying pressure every time she did not answer to his liking or if she refused the meds the doctor wanted to prescribe her. Somehow Michael charmed the doctor into giving Audrina something strong to dull her ‘pain’ before they were released. She did not know what it was but it made her feel drowsy and incoherent.
All she could remember was Michael putting her into the car and the driving off as he told her how disgusted he was with her and if it wasn’t for the baby in her belly -and who she was- he’d have put a bullet in her head.
Who am I, she asked herself just before her eyes closed.
A gentle nudge to her hip jolted her awake. She looked around the bright room taking in the deep green walls and yellow tiled floor. The picture of the macaw bird hanging above the white towels caught her attention for a moment before she felt another nudge.
She looked down and the bloodied head resting near her lap and gasped.
Alek!
Hot tears ran down her cheeks, seeing one side of his face covered in blood and one eye swollen shut with a blue tinge surrounding it. A rag was tied over his mouth so he could not speak but it seemed as though he tried to give her a reassuring gesture as he struggled up to a sitting position even though his hands were bound behind him.
Audrina struggled to put her hands forward but felt the rope bite into her wrists. She gasped in pain and then groaned when she could not pull herself free.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to Alek. “This is all my fault.”
Alek shook his head to the side lightly. His breathing was ragged and slow and it pained Audrina to see him in the state he was in. She had to make sure he lived for his little son.
The door swung open and in walked Tatiana. Her face was scratched and a slight bruise formed under her right eye. She glared at Audrina before she turned to Alek and kicked him repeatedly with her boot in his stomach.
“Stop it!” Audrina screamed and kicked her foot up into Tatiana’s thigh. Tatiana buckled backward and then leaned down, grabbing Audrina by the hair and sneering close to her face, “I kick him because I can’t kick you! Whore!”
She pushed Audrina’s face to the side and stood when she heard the familiar sounds of shoes coming towards the bathroom. Michael appeared in the door way and looked down at Alek with a smirk and then to Audrina with a cloud of darkness over his eyes.
He looked like the devil himself in that moment.
He glanced at Tatiana who regained her composure and stood with her arms crossed, glaring at Alek and Audrina both.
“Pick her up,” he said and then added with an arched brow, “Gently.”
Tatiana huffed and picked Audrina up, digging her nails painfully into her arm as she led her out of the bathroom, down the hall and into the dim living room. Audrina gasped when she saw the familiar hard glare of Giuseppe, Gino’s brother. He stood with his thick, strong arms over his puffed out chest and continued to glare at Audrina as Tatiana pushed her onto the soft, plush couch.
Another man who Audrina did not recognize until he came closer emerged from down the hall dragging Alek by the back of his hair into the room. Bruno kicked him with a large boot before he left him by Michael’s chair. Michael lit a cigarette and placed his shoe onto Alek’s side, pinning him to the beige carpet and let the ash from his cigarette fall onto Alek’s exposed arm and face. Audrina could only watch as Alek struggled against the bite of the ash and flame.
“Why are you doing this Michael?” Audrina whimpered. “Let him go, he didn’t do anything.”
Michael glanced at her as he exhaled a cloud of smoke. He pointed at her with a narrowed glare. “You don’t ask the fucking questions. You just give the answers.”
“I’ll do anything you want me to do,” she swore. “Just let him go! Please!”
Michael glanced down at Alek and then put out his cigarette on his neck. Alek grunted and withered in pain as the cigarette was pressed down into his skin. Audrina stood up to lunge at Michael with whatever force she could muster up, but two hands grabbed her by the shoulders and pressed her back into the couch.
“No stress for the baby,” Tatiana sneered into her ear. “Poor baby has no chance with a mother like you.”
Audrina tried to head-butt Tatiana but she was quick to move. While she laughed at Audrina’s attempt, Audrina spit at her. Tatiana wiped the spit from her face and then pressed her gun to the side of Audrina’s temple.
“Enough,” Michael waved his hand to Tatiana and then looked at Audrina with and amused expression. “I would like to think that you are protecting my baby in there at all costs. Such a fiery spirit. But then I think, you’re only protecting this sorry sack of shit since he’s so close to your lover.”
The color rushed from Audrina’s face. She glanced at Tatiana and her smirk confirmed that she had told Michael about her and Nikolai. Everything. Their affair and the fact that she was staying with him.
“Unless you’re fucking him too?” Michael suggested with a glance over at Alek. “I wouldn’t put it past you since you’ve been fucking his boss.”
Audrina stayed quiet as Michael went on. She felt nothing but fear for what Michael was going to do next. She kept her eyes on Alek as he looked up at her through the slit of his swollen eye.
“Do you know why he even fucked you?” he asked. “Huh?”
Audrina shook her head knowing Michael expected something from her other than silence.
“From what Tatiana tells me, you just found out,” Michael said and held up the file she had seen before in Nikolai’s office. The file that was mixed with her information and those two Cathan women. What do I have to do with them?
Mich
ael stood up and kneeled in front of Audrina. He placed the open file on her lap and she saw the picture of the woman again, the one who looked like her with the child pressed close to her cheek. Then he whispered, “He only fucked you because of who you were... What you’re entitled to.”
“I don’t know that woman,” Audrina shook her head.
Michael looked down at the picture and then back up to her. “Well darling, that’s your whore mother and you. Diana and little Juliette Cathan.”
The world seemed to fall out from under Audrina’s feet. She stared down at the picture and there was no denying what her heart told her. This woman is my mother! And that baby is me!
I am Juliette Cathan!
“And here you are. Exactly like your mother. Like mother like daughter,” Michael chuckled. “You’re parents weren’t a young couple who died in a car accident. No, they were this woman and…”
Michael trailed off and pulled out another picture this time of two men. One was younger with dark features but the older one was more attractive and shared the same honeyed eyes that Audrina bore.
“This man,” he said pointing to the stockier, older man in the picture. “This is your grandfather or because like I said your mother was a whore, you are actually the daughter of your ‘father’s’ father,” he laughed again. “Look you have his eyes,” he pointed to the older man’s honeyed gaze, taunting her.
Audrina could not believe her ears! She was the product of her mother’s affair with her grandfather! She shuddered when she realized there was no hiding from the truth. Michael was right… she was just like her mother.
“That whore of your mother placed you into the system when all guns were pointed at you,” he said and took a seat next to her. Tatiana poured him liquor and handed him the glass. “She wanted to protect her little clone. Funny how the term nature vs. nurture works. You weren’t raised by your mother yet you inherited her whore like ways.”
The truth hurts…
Audrina remembered his words from moments before. Nikolai only wanted you because of what you were entitled to. “You said I was entitled to something.”
“Oh that,” he said after a sip of his drink. “The reason why Nikolai fucked you in the first place… You’re the heir to a fortune so massive it rivals those damn Rothschild’s. You inherit lands, connections, houses, and so much money you never have to worry about a damn thing ever again.”
Nikolai would not do that, she wanted to scream. But the nagging voice in the back of her head said anything was possible.
“Is that why you wanted to marry me?” she asked him. “For the same reason?”
Michael smirked with a shrug. “I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But god when I saw you, I just had to.” He lifted a finger to her face and brushed it softly down her temple and then down to her belly. She tensed. “And then when Carmella told me you were pregnant, God was I excited. I have even more claim to that fortune.”
Carmella! Why would she tell him of her pregnancy? I did not even tell her!
“How did she know I was pregnant?”
“She caught you throwing up and noticed your revulsion to my nonna’s cooking,” He said. “By the way, nonna is very disappointed with you. Running off. I didn’t have the heart to tell her about your, indiscretions. “
That last comment of his really pissed her off. My indiscretions! Like his constant philandering didn’t put enough strain on that poor old woman’s shoulders. Audrina lifted up her chin. “Like your indiscretions don’t break her heart enough.”
He lunged forward and grabbed her chin. “I’d be careful talking like that. I’d hate to take a hand to such a pretty face. Especially since you’re pregnant with my child.”
“I doubt it’s yours,” she said through gritted teeth. She knew the baby in her was Nikolai’s. The way he touched her belly comforted her and the way Michael touched it made her recoil. This baby was hers and Nikolai’s. There is no doubt about it.
“You’d rather it be the man who’s father killed your mother?” he smirked.
She felt herself go cold.
What?
“That’s right,” he smirked. “I did a little digging and come to find out, my father and Nikolai’s father used to do business together. It’s actually the only reason why I went into business with Nikolai in the first place. My father trusted no man but for some reason I never could pin point why, he trusted Nikolai’s father. Then I find out in order for my father to trust his father, he had to take out his greatest rival.”
Before Audrina could answer Michael said the words she was dreading.
“Your mother,” he stated.
Nikolai’s father killed her mother! She could not believe it! She tried to hide her surprise but her gasp gave her away. If she could have picked a better time to run away it was now.
“Did your ‘happily ever after’ just go to shit?” he smirked.
Audrina shook her head. There is no way in hell this is true. “You’re lying.”
“You’re just like all of us here in this room. Your family was the great Cathan Crime family. Your grandfather, his son and your mother were all killers,” he stated as a matter of fact. “You’re no better than any one of us. In fact, you’re the worst one of us all. At least our parents never tried to kill a mother and a baby in a vent.”
Audrina’s heart palpitated. She glanced up at Tatiana who just nodded with an arrogant smirk. Her family was the one who had ordered the death of Katja Stratauv and Svetlana. This is not true!
“Whether you like it or not princess, we have all been tied together for years,” he stated. “The three of us bound the actions of our parents. Fate has a funny way of fucking us doesn’t it?”
Fate… How she used to believe so heavily in fate but if this is what it felt like then she wasn’t too sure if she wanted to believe in it any longer.
The tears that were threatening Audrina’s eyes for the last few minutes came streaming down her face. In the last twenty minutes all the secrets of her mother’s life and her present collided into one big black mass that suffocated her whole. There was no escaping who she truly was.
Or who she was in love with…
She thought about that night on the terrace where Nikolai and her proclaimed their love for one another. If all else was lies, she knew that moment was real. The way he bared his soul out to her and the acceptance of their mistakes. It was real.
“So what now?” she sniffled. “You kill me too?”
Michael laughed and set his drink down. “Oh no. Despite my anger and disgust towards you I can’t do that just yet.”
Bruno emerged from the hall once again dragging a plump, middle aged man by the collar of his blue suit. The man looked unharmed but afraid none the less as he pushed the round framed glassed up his wide nose. He looked at the scene in front of him in horror.
A bloodied, bound and gagged man on the floor. A teary eyed pregnant woman. Two hench men double his height on either side of him. A crazed woman pointing a gun his way. And an arrogant man who waved him over with the crook of his finger.
The man walked over to Michael with his briefcase in hand. Nervously he placed it onto the table in front of them and opened it, pulling out two papers. Audrina glanced down at the papers before her and shook her head.
“Steve here is the son of the lawyer who your mother trusted,” Michael stated and then beckoned Steve to take the seat on the couch opposite of Audrina. “He’s going to marry us and then you’re going to sign everything over to your loving husband.”
Steve’s bald head glistened with sweat and his hands shook as he straightened out the documents. He swallowed a few times trying to find the words to speak but all he could do was shake and steal a few glimpses over at the scene around him.
“I’m not signing anything.”
“Oh you are,” Michael said untying her hands from behind her and then signaling to Giuseppe.
Giuseppe reminded her of Gino and that night that he attac
ked her. The way he held her down and covered her mouth with a rag. And now he hoisted Alek up onto his knees and shoved a gun into his mouth. She placed a hand on her belly and mustered up as much strength as she could.
“I won’t sign anything if he hurts him,” she shook her head. “Untie him please and I will sign everything. What ever you want is yours.”
Michael considered her words for a moment and then smirked. “Untie him Giuseppe. Make sure he can’t get away.”
Just as he was undoing his bonds Audrina heard a crack sound followed by a strangled scream from Alek. Alek fell over to his side and with his left arm, clutched onto the weirdly bent angle of his right arm.
He broke his arm!
Giuseppe looked at Audrina with a shrug. “Whoops.”
“No matter,” Michael shrugged. “Someone has to pay for the death of your brother Gino.” Then he looked over at Audrina with a hard glare. She could feel Gino’s eyes burn into her from afar. She did not even know of Gino’s death.
“Oh you didn’t hear?’ Michael asked with mock surprise. “Right after I tasked Gino with bringing you back home, Nikolai killed Gino.”
Audrina shook her head. When are all the revelations and death going to stop? How she longed to be a teenager again with Nikki by her side as they paraded the streets of New York city with the innocence of their adolescence. No death or violence. Could I have escaped this fate had I stayed away from Deep Falls?
Then Michael whispered so close to her face that she could feel his hot breath stroking her cheek. “An eye for an eye.”
Audrina knew it then. Alek wasn’t going to walk out of the room alive. Buy some time, she heard a voice scream at the back of her mind.
She looked at everyone around the room and chuckled. “So this is your plan Michael? Kill Alek, force me to sign documents and then what? Kill me after the baby is born?”
He shook his head with a smirk. “Not right after. I still need you to breastfeed the baby and then after that who knows? If you’re a good girl then I might just keep you around and forgive you.”