“Basically,” she continued, “I was ruining her life. Her parents had kicked her out for having me so early, so she was really struggling. I didn't really hold it against her, but when I found out that things got better for her, a lot better, and yet she never bothered to check up on me, or even look for me, that really hurt.” She swallowed hard as she paused.
In this moment, I wanted to kill that shallow creature who had abandoned her.
“I was about thirteen and I'd just been moved away again out of a foster home for no reason. That was when I decided I wasn't going to move again, or depend on anyone else. It was easy to not be adopted when you were a raging bitch to everyone. So I played the part of hateful little bitch until the day I met Charlotte. Remember her? She was the one who opened the door when you came to our apartment.”
I nodded. Sure, I remembered the blonde.
"I don't know what the hell she saw in me but from the first day we met, she decided I was going to be her very best friend. I don't think I even had a choice. In time, she became the sister I never had."
I could hear a slight break in her voice, so I rubbed gently down her back.
She turned to search for my eyes. "That was a long answer to a short question, wasn't it? I'm sorry."
I ran my fingers through her hair. "I don't mind. Alex is that way to me. I lost my mother when I was a kid too." I hesitated. I wondered whether to just gloss over it all, but then I decided to just say it as it was. I’d never spoken to anyone about it, but even if it all ended in a week with April, I wanted her to know my biggest secret. "My dad killed her."
April went completely still.
"She was cheating on him so he just strangled her to death right in front of me. I hated him for it until the day he died. He disposed of the body and pretended to everyone that she had run back to Russia. He got away with her murder. For years, I wondered if Karma would get him. It took its own sweet time, but it did. He suffered for nearly two years with cancer. By the time he died, the disease had worn him down to a skeleton. There was so little flesh on his face left, even his corpse bore the expression of a terrible grimace. On his deathbed, he cried. Fucking bastard wanted to carry on living even with all that pain. I gave him a lavish funeral, but I didn't shed a fucking tear."
She snuggled even further into me trying to provide as much comfort as she could and it made breathing a little easier. “You and Alex are really close too?”
"Having Alex by my side when I was growing up made it all easier, so I more than understand your connection to Charlotte."
"You know there's a saying that goes around in your household, that he is the only one you listen to," she said.
I smiled. "Really?"
"Yeah, and I understand why that would be the case, but when I mentioned it to him, he confused me even further."
"Why, what did he say?"
"He said, Yuri listens to everyone. I'm still not exactly sure what he meant by that.”
"Me neither," I said. "One would hope that with how little he speaks he would at least make himself clear, but he’s law unto himself. For the most part, he can’t be bothered what people think of him."
"What about his family?" she asked.
I scowled.
April immediately rushed to apologize. "I'm sorry if that's too personal."
"No, it's not that. I'm just wondering how much to say. In my world, less is always more. His mother moved with him from Canada to London when he was about ten. All I can say is that he has no need to be by my side. His family is fabulously wealthy, but the fact that he chose to… It maybe a little farfetched for you all to say that I only listen to him, but there is some truth in there. I do listen to him. I’m hot tempered and rash and he keeps me on the straight and narrow. "
She sighed. "I wish Charlotte was that sane. If I listened to all she said, I'd probably be in jail by now, or something. She's insane, most of the time."
I laughed and tightened my arms around her. My phone began to ring and I picked it up to see that it was Alex. "Great. Your doctor’s here," I informed her.
She groaned aloud. “I don’t need a doctor.”
“Don’t be a baby.” I threw the covers away from her and found her a pair of shorts from one of the drawers she had unpacked her luggage into. I tugged her by the legs to the edge of the bed and started to pull the shorts up her legs, but I just couldn't resist the lure of her blue panties. Stopping at her knees, I pushed my head forward and covered her sweet pussy with my mouth.
"This is not how you treat someone who's ill," she whimpered.
"It's just an incentive for you to get better quickly,” I said before taking a nip of her clit through the lacy material. I had intended to stop, but I soon got carried away when her hips started squirming in response to my mouth.
Her breathing was hard and heavy, but just as I began to roll the panties off her hips there was a knock to the door.
I stilled then, but she wrapped her legs around me, holding me in place. "No," she said, "I'm fine. I don't need a doctor. Send him away and carry on with what you’re doing."
I wrestled her legs away from me and slipped the shorts on her. "Come in," I called. Just as I threw the covers over her, the doctor came in, along with the housekeeper.
I sat by the bedside as he examined her.
When he was done checking her over, his diagnosis was simple. “She's showing symptoms of heat stroke. But with a few days of rest indoors, she should be better with time." He prescribed some drugs for her and went on his way.
“Onion soup and French bread is on its way to you,” I said.
She reached up to kiss me. "I can't stay in bed for too long, so please don't force me to. I’ve never been to France before and apart from this opportunity, I don't know when next I'll get the chance. I want to explore the city with Yulia and you."
"Well, get better quickly then, and you will get to."
Chapter 43
April
I did get better and we did have a great time exploring the caves around the beach and going into the little town having French food in bistros, but then Yuri had to leave two days earlier for an urgent appointment in Venice, and I was left with Yulia. If I was going to leave, it had to be the next day. Otherwise, I would never have the guts to make that painful decision. I packed my bags during the night, but I couldn’t sleep so I called Charlotte.
“Have you told Yulia?” she asked.
I shook my head trying to hold back the grief that wanted to overwhelm me.
“You’re shaking your head, are you? I can’t see you, you dummy you,” she stated.
The insult somehow brought a smile out of me. “No, I haven’t,” I answered with a sigh. “I’ll do that tomorrow morning.”
“What about him?”
“He left ahead of us. All he said was that he would see us back in London.”
“How was your week with him?”
I told the truth, and this time I couldn’t hold back the tears. “I’m think I’m love with him.”
“So why are you leaving?”
“I can’t see clearly with Yuri. For starters, his world is not one I could ever be fully a part of. And I know he cares about me, but how far is he willing to go?”
“Have you asked him about any of this?”
“So that I can shatter my heart more than it already is?”
She didn't say a word.
“I shouldn’t have agreed to this one week. It was a fucking mistake.”
“Did you enjoy your time with him?”
“I never wanted it to end.”
“But now reality is calling. If I were you, I would stay and damn the consequences to hell, but that’s where we’re different. You didn’t grow up using your heart because you didn't have the luxury. It had to be ignored so that you could see through the hurt. I understand that, but even so, don’t you think a broken heart is worth risking for this beautiful thing you have.”
“Oh God, what do I do Charlo
tte?”
“I can’t tell you what to do, babe. You know what I would do. I would only leave when leaving is no longer a choice.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’d go when leaving is the only option on the table. Then no matter what happens, I’d never regret my choice.”
I fell asleep with Charlotte’s words echoing in my ears, but I realized I wasn’t Charlotte. I couldn’t play around with my heart. Wait until there was no option but to leave? The next morning, I went in Yulia’s room, sat her down on her bed while I sat on the floor in front of her so I could look into her eyes.
Her smile was so sweet and so unsuspecting that I almost didn’t continue with my announcement. For a while, I was unable to speak. Then I took a deep breath. Yulia had Yuri to take care of her, I had only me to take care of me. “Listen honey, I’ve loved being your nanny so much. You don’t know how much. You are such a beautiful, amazing girl, but I need to leave.”
Her smile died. She looked desperately around for her pad and pen.
The moment I saw tears fall from her eyes, I turned my face away to hide mine. I quickly dried my eyes and turned back to see what she scribbled almost illegibly on the pad.
Why?
How was I to explain my heart to this little girl?
Is it Uncle Yuri?
My heart hammered in my chest. I shook my head. “No, no, of course not. Your uncle has been very kind to me.” I sighed. There was no way she could understand that I couldn’t go against the one person I had vowed to protect at all costs—myself. It would sound exactly the way it was, selfish and without much concern for her wellbeing.
“I’ll get you another nanny,” I promised desperately. “Someone much better than myself. You’ll love her I promise—”
She gave a shriek of fury and pain then. When I tried to pull her into my arms, she wouldn't let me touch her, so I sat there without a clue on what to do. I was terrified beyond words that I was harming her permanently. I wished I hadn’t told her now. I should have waited until we got back to London.
She wouldn't stop crying, so eventually I rose to my feet. Perhaps my absence would calm her down just a little. It broke my heart to leave her, but I didn’t know what else to do. Just as I made it to the door, for the very first time since I had stepped foot in their home, I heard her voice.
“April,” she cried out.
I froze. At first, I was sure my ears were playing tricks with me, so I spun around to meet her gaze.
Her face was soaked with tears. “Don’t go, please? I’m scared.”
My knees nearly buckled. Somehow, I made my way over to her. I sat on the bed and pulled her to me. “Yulia, you can speak,” was all that I could say.
“I could always speak,” she said.
I wiped the tears from her face. “What’s going on?”
“He killed my parents,” she said, barely able to catch her breath as the tears came pouring down her face.
“What do you mean?”
“Uncle killed them,” she cried.
I held my breath, almost too afraid to ask. “Which Uncle?”
“Uncle Yuri,” she replied.
I gasped as my heart fell into my stomach.
Chapter 44
April
Naturally, I didn’t leave the child in France.
I came back with her to London. I was in a state of devastated shock. I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t believe it. I had bared my heart to him. I trusted him. He told me about his mother. It couldn’t be.
A thousand thoughts and possibilities swirled through my head, but they all hinged on the only truth I would accept. That Yulia was mistaken. Yuri was dangerous, in more ways than I wanted to fathom, but there was no way I was going to accept that the man I had fallen for was heartless enough to murder his own brother and sister-in-law in cold blood.
Even so, I couldn’t deny that whatever Yulia knew, had been severe and devastating enough that she’d become speechless through sheer terror and will for almost half a year.
I asked her if she could be mistaken, but she told me she could prove it, if I just called her Grand uncle Ivan. For the sake of Yulia, we found his number and called him to come to the house. I sat on the floor in a corner of the room and watched as he came into the room.
Immediately, Yulia ran into his arms.
My eyes followed Ivan as he sat on the edge of the couch. “Is it true?” I asked him.
Gravely, he nodded in response and my head lowered to the floor. My brain refused to give my heart a pass.
“It happened in Yulia’s parents’ home in Surrey. Yulia’s father and Yuri got in an atrocious fight in his study. It was so severe that her mother came in with a gun, and forced Yuri out of the room. The surveillance video showed that Yuri came back and shot the both of them dead.”
My head was close to exploding but I forced myself to keep calm. “A video?”
“That was how Yulia found out. One of my men is in Yuri’s camp, so when he saw the video he recorded it with his phone, and sent it to me through the sleeve of one of Yulia’s stuffed animals. We couldn’t retrieve it in time before Yulia fiddled with the phone and saw it. When I came by to meet Yuri, I got her alone and found out what had happened.”
I looked at Yulia. “She’s just a child. How was she able to hold on this long without saying a word?”
“That’s what amazed me too. It must have scarred her so terribly. I’ve been working to gather enough evidence to take Yuri down, so she agreed to hold on. She stopped speaking because she didn’t want to accidentally let the cat out of the bag. I’m so surprised she spoke up now. It seems that she trusts you a whole lot.”
I felt so cold, that I wrapped my arms around myself. “Why do you need to gather more evidence? Isn’t the video already more than enough?”
“You do not know Yuri, do you?” he asked.
I looked up to meet the unbridled fear in his eyes.
“At the mere word of a video he will find a way to instantly get rid of it, and even if it somehow, makes its way to the authorities, his entire empire is in cohorts with the highest people in power. You should have realized by now that he is no ordinary man.”
I returned my eyes to the floor. “He is no ordinary man but neither is he this inhumanely cruel.”
“April, things happen that none of us ever intend, and moreover for the right price, anyone can turn inhumanely cruel.”
I thought back to what Yuri had said to me about his mother’s death. He hadn’t delved into detail but I knew that it was not a path that he would willing have gone down also.
“But he loves Yulia,” I defended. “So very much. Why would he do that if he knew—”
“Guilt,” Ivan interrupted. “He is brutal. You are right in that he is not heartless, but what was at stake is his brother’s empire which is almost as vast as his own. A little guilt doesn't seem much of a price to pay.”
He had all the answers, but none of it was what I wanted to hear so I sunk into my own thoughts, my body beginning to tremble.
But he wasn’t finished. “Right now, the only way he can get access to his brother’s vast fortune is through Yulia, so of course he has to care and keep her safe. If anything at all happened to her, the entire estate becomes a charitable trust.”
I thought back to how Yuri had over-reacted just because I had taken Yulia out of the house with me. Had that been not just out of care for her safety then? I shut my eyes. “So what do we do now?” I asked.
His answer came, “Just go on as though nothing happened. If Yuri even gets a whiff of our knowledge of any of this, then we will all be in trouble. If it’s too much for you to handle then just quit the job and walk away.”
Jesus, pretend as if nothing has happened? No wonder, little Yulia took the path of refusing to speak.
There was a noise of a vehicle arriving outside and three of us turned towards the window.
Ivan hurried over to the window and when he
turned back, his eyes were filled with panic. “Yuri’s here.”
“He’s not supposed to be back until tomorrow,” I whispered.
Yulia instantly shot up to her feet. I watched her and now it all made sense. Her fear and instant change of mood every time Yuri walked into the room.
“Yulia return to your bedroom,” he said and but she didn’t move. He came to me, crouched down and pulled out a gun from behind him. “Hold onto this,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
I gazed at the dark cold metal in alarm, but just before I could ask what the hell I was supposed to do with it, he was out of the door. A few moments later, he hurried back in, tucking in I was certain another pistol behind him. “Yuri is on his way here,” he said to me.
“Why the hell do I need this?” I asked in a shaky voice.
“Most of the rooms in this house are monitored. He might have already caught on to what is going on.”
“That doesn’t answer my questio—”
The door was pushed open and Yuri stood there. He looked around the room at the three of us and said four simple words. “Yulia and April, leave.”
She instantly broke into tears and ran to me, wrapping her arms around my neck, refusing to let go. I rose to my feet then. Things happened really quickly after that.
Ivan suddenly drew out the weapon from behind him and pointed it directly at Yuri.
“No!” I screamed before I could hold myself back.
Yuri’s eyes were glued on Ivan. “What the fuck are you doing in my house?”
Ivan turned towards us. “April take Yulia out of the room.” His voice was cold steel. When I hesitated, he roared with a bone chilling urgency, “Right now! Use the gun I gave you, don’t let anyone stop either of you. There’ll be a car waiting downstairs.”
Yuri turned to me then at the mention of a gun. “April, I haven’t given my security any instructions,” he said. “The moment they catch sight of a gun you are finished. Don't you dare leave this room.”
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