by Lacey Legend
She wasn’t wearing any shoes, but having to kick down a door before, she thought she might be able to do it. She took a step back and with all her energy, kicked the door as hard as she could, aiming close to the handle. She felt a sharp shock up her leg all the way to her back and realized the door hadn’t even budged. She screamed out and Ruslan came running down the hall and into the living room, looking up the stairs at Olivia.
“Throw me that!” Olivia yelled, pointing to the sticks next to the fireplace. He grabbed one and tossed it up the stairs, Olivia barely catching it. She hoped with the help of a weapon she’d have better luck opening the door. She gripped the stick and swung at the handle. It only took two strikes until the handle fell off, the door opening.
“Margot!” Olivia yelled, Ruslan standing at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for direction.
When she entered the room, she saw Vera straddling Margot, holding a pillow over her head. Margot’s arms flailed on the bed as she fought for air. The lamp on Margot’s bedside table had been knocked over, likely the noise that had woken her up. Olivia, still gripping the stick, ran over to Vera, giving her a hard strike in the back of her head.
Vera fell to the floor, but the hit wasn’t hard enough to keep her down. Vera turned around and faced Olivia, eyes crazy and nose bleeding.
“She’s taking too long to die! I need to do it now!” Vera said.
Olivia knew a drug addict when she saw one. She wasn’t sure what Vera was on but knew that it was dangerous. Vera looked back at Margot on the bed and Olivia swung, just missing Vera. She was scared to hit her too hard. The family didn’t need to see any more death. She kept the stick up, ready to strike if Vera lunged, but it was hard to tell what her next move was going to be...
“Rus!” Olivia screamed for him and heard him running up the stairs. Vera lunged at him, Olivia having the chance to strike her in the back again. Vera still wasn’t budging.
“It was supposed to be you! It was supposed to be you!” Vera yelled at Ruslan, hitting his chest as hard as she could, scratching his face with her acrylic nails. Olivia raised the stick to give Vera another hard strike, but Ruslan stopped her.
“Olivia no!” Ruslan screamed. Vera was clearly hurt, bleeding and bruised, but she must have been on some sort of drug that kept her going. Ruslan didn’t want Olivia to hit too hard. It was clear she wasn’t going to go down easy.
Though he wasn’t much taller than Vera, he was able to grab her arms and turn her around, wrapping his arm around her neck.
Vera scratched at his arm and tried to bite his skin, but he held her there as she slowly passed out. She looked like a rabid animal, and Olivia felt sad that she was in such a state.
Olivia ran over to Margot, who was still alive and gasping for air. She had a bruise on her head and wasn’t looking well at all. Olivia didn’t want to have to see her die just yet either. It wasn’t her time yet.
“It’s okay, Margot, I’m here. Just breathe with me. You’re going to be okay,” Olivia explained to her. Ruslan grabbed a rope from the curtain and tied Vera’s hands behind her back should she wake up again.
They looked at each other, exhausted and bruised.
*
Two weeks had passed since Joseph was murdered by his own daughter. After Ruslan and Olivia were able to stop Vera from murdering her mother, they flagged down an officer and called authorities to come help. Vera hadn’t woken up from Ruslan’s sleeper hold and was immediately taken into custody.
Olivia had to give her statement once again, wondering if that would finally be her last encounter with the Russian police. She was ready to never have to see them again and hoped that that was the last of her worries.
Margot was rushed to the hospital as well where she was found to be in a worse condition than ever. The cancer was spreading rapidly, and she was given less time than originally thought. By some miracle, Olivia was hoping that she would end up finding out that Margot had been misdiagnosed and that she’d get to live a long and healthy life.
She survived being smothered by her own daughter, but she was still going to fall victim to cancer’s deadly curse. If she hadn’t had any condition, Olivia wondered if she might have died of a broken heart anyway. Finding out that her beloved daughter murdered her high school sweetheart was not easy for her health.
Ruslan’s name was cleared, and Vera was blamed for everything that had happened. Olivia felt guilty for ever having doubted him in the first place. It was easy for her to see what an amazing man he was and only wished she would have realized sooner that he was the one for her. She had revealed to him that she gave her statement to the police, but he understood.
He knew that he was the one who had robbed Olivia on the first night they met, anyway, so he wasn’t expecting her full trust. She had certainly given it to him since and knew that she should never doubt him ever again.
Olivia had missed her flight and wasn’t going to leave the hospital without being next to Margot anyways. It was a confusing mess that only Olivia was available to take care of, so it wasn’t surprising that missing their flight was the last of her concerns. Margot wouldn’t have been cleared to fly anyway, and they presumed she would quickly pass in the Moscow hospital she had been taken to.
She was disappointed she wouldn’t get to return to her home, but she told Olivia that she didn’t want to go back to their empty mansion anyways. Olivia visited her every day and read her books or played checkers with her during her visiting hours.
She had been through enough, she didn’t need to be abandoned by one of the few people who had actually cared for her in her life. She realized only after the whole ordeal just how much she actually cared for Margot. They had formed a close bond and having to see everything that happened to her was not easy for Olivia to stomach.
Still, she had to remind herself that she knew this was going to be happening from the moment she met the family. It was hard for her to adjust to living in downtown Moscow while Margot was in the hospital, but Ruslan made it worth it all. Olivia didn’t mind sticking around in Moscow for the time being as it meant she just got to get closer to Ruslan.
She had basically moved into his apartment and was staying there when she wasn’t visiting Margot at the hospital. He treated her like a queen each and every day. He had a maid and would always have a full fridge or order takeout, allowing Olivia to get the rest she so deserved.
When she wasn’t at home spending her days snuggling on the couch with Ruslan or sightseeing all the spots she didn’t get to see while working for the Touhy family, she was at the hospital with Margot. It was nice that Margot had people taking care of her so Olivia was able to just be a friend. It’s certainly what Margot needed after losing so much during their trip to Moscow.
Even more than that, Margot needed a friend, and Olivia had needed someone to love her. Ruslan had taught Olivia what it meant to be loved and to be IN love. She was a very compassionate person, that’s why she had gone to nursing school. Compassion and empathy were so much different than actually being in love with someone. She felt like half of her heart had been given to Ruslan. When he hurt, she hurt. When she saw him happy, it could turn her mood around immediately. They hadn’t known each other for too long, but they had both given a piece of themselves to the other person.
Being in love also meant wanting to be alive. Olivia thought back to a time when she wasn’t really afraid of death. Now she feared it more than ever. She had no idea what would be waiting for her after she died, and she only hoped that it would be a place where Ruslan still was. Trying to remember a time in her life, or picture her future, with him not in it was like trying to remember anything before you were born. It was just so different for her to experience the idea of being completely head over heels in love with someone.
He was the last person she thought of before she went to sleep and the first one she thought of in the morning. She dreamt of him almost every night, and when she had a nightmare, he would be right there holdi
ng her when she woke up. When she had steamier dreams, the man no longer had his face covered by a shadow. Instead, it was Ruslan.
Olivia worried that after everything had settled, the two might grow apart or realize they weren’t meant for each other. They had spent the beginning of their relationship sneaking around, so she was worried that once they had the opportunity to do real couple things, they might not mesh. Her fears were washed away as she realized their chemistry was unbreakable. They could laugh and joke with each other but also knew how to have a serious conversation and address a problem head on when they saw it.
Ruslan was also starting to teach Olivia Russian. He figured it was time that she at least learned how to properly say hello and goodbye. He was tired of ordering for her at restaurants. He wasn’t actually, but only wanted to tease and encourage her to learn more. No one had ever been as much of an inspiration to Olivia as Ruslan was. She loved being able to take care of him as well. Since graduating college, she had been taking care of people she didn’t even know. Some of those people were rude to her, others didn’t even notice she was in the room. When it came to taking care of Ruslan, she felt so much better than ever before. He loved her back and never failed to make her feel incredible.
She knew how to treat someone with patience and respect, but she didn’t know what it was like to actually be in love. That unconditional feeling she had for someone is what kept her going. It drove and inspired her to be better and to do better. It was hard for her to figure out what it was exactly that made her love Ruslan. It was just a feeling deep inside her body, in every part of her body, that knew that he was the one she was supposed to be with.
The night after Vera tried to kill Margot was the first one that Olivia and Ruslan were finally able to share their bed all night. Waking up next to him was the greatest thing she had ever felt. She finally woke up in an amazing mood, ready for whatever that day had to throw at her. They hadn’t slept apart from each other since.
Olivia would have never imagined that that was the way everything was going to turn out. She felt sick looking back on her time spent with Vera, unaware that she was hanging around with a murderer. The clothes they shared and the times they spent together drove Olivia wild. She admired this girl. She resented her a little bit, yes, but overall, she still cared for her. She would have never wanted the fate she had planned all along to actually happen.
That was a horrible thing to imagine. She had her entire life ahead of her. She could have been whatever she wanted and done whatever she wanted. Instead, she chose to be a drug addicted murderer. It broke Olivia’s heart to see someone with so many possibilities and potentials just throw it all down the drain. Olivia had to fight for everything she had and hadn’t been handed anything in her life, so she knew how to appreciate whatever she was given. Unfortunately, Vera was in too big of a bubble to realize all of the opportunities she threw away every time she chose to do drugs.
She was disappointed that she didn’t listen to her gut when it came to Vera. She thought there might be something up with her, but Olivia always had negative opinions on spoiled girls like her. She saw that although she was wealthy, she didn’t have the easiest of lives. It was never simple to be in the spotlight, no matter how much fame and fortune that brought. She was also raised partially by nannies, missing out on the opportunity to have a truly close relationship with her mother and father. She would act like a brat and definitely showed off how spoiled she was, but Olivia thought that was all just her trying to act out, to find something she didn’t know she was looking for.
She decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and didn’t want to be too harsh. Even when Vera wanted to make her scream, she would try to keep her cool and be a friend instead of an enemy. That only seemed to work for so long, unfortunately. She never would have guessed that Vera would have turned out to be a murderer. If Olivia would have been able to know, or to somehow find out, would she have been able to save Joseph?
She thought about the black box. When Ruslan and his crew discovered it, they found it under the bathroom sink. She should have known that Joseph wouldn’t have put the knife there. How had she not seen that there was a murder weapon when she was doing all of the unpacking? That’s why no one claimed it from the authorities. If Vera would have stated that someone had stolen a black box, everyone would have known she was likely the murderer.
It was twisted that Vera had a specific weapon for killing everyone anyways. What kind of person does something like that?
Olivia was baffled that she had managed to carry it around without anyone noticing, even flying it across the country. When you were a pretty and charming girl like Vera, you could get away with a lot, however.
Olivia felt so sorry for her the days following her father’s death, not realizing that she had been the reason that he died in the first place. It hurt her brain and made her abdomen ache to think of it all. Luckily, she had Ruslan by her side the entire time to help her through it all. She could rest her head on his chest and feel his heart beat, knowing that it wasn’t going anywhere this time.
Vera was charged with the murder of her own father, confessing that she had actually meant to kill Ruslan. She had seen the note he had given to Olivia and took it from her purse when she wasn’t looking. She waited for Ruslan at the tree, but instead her father had followed her. He knew she had some problems and wanted to keep an eye on his daughter, making sure she wasn’t getting into any trouble. He must not have planned to go very far, since he was wearing his pajamas in the bitter cold.
He saw her sneak out of the house and wanted to know what she was doing. She ended up freaking out and attacking him, ultimately slicing his throat open. She didn’t know what to do so she leaned him up against the tree hoping it might stop the bleeding and that he wouldn’t die. She ditched the knife and headed back home where she showered her own father’s blood off of her body in the same bathroom that she had hid the murder weapon days before.
She had a serious drug addiction that no one was aware of. She revealed that she had also been addicted to cocaine since she was only 16 years old and continued using the drug through college. When that high wasn’t enough for her anymore, she turned to painkillers and amphetamines. She was a wealthy girl and only liked high-class things, so she would easily blow her money during binges.
She could drop thousands of dollars in an hour at the mall when she was too high on cocaine and other drugs to know any better. She’d grab a few friends and let them buy whatever they wanted. If she had a shirt in her closet that she hadn’t worn, and it went out of style, she’d simply throw it away. Olivia felt so stupid for not being able to tell that she had been living with a drug addict. She thought she could spot one from miles away, but Vera was clearly an expert at hiding her dirty laundry.
Joseph threatened to cut Vera off. He had massive amounts of money but when Vera started spending, she wouldn’t stop. She always had the nicest clothing, bags, and outfits. This was common among girls her age, but she would take it a little too far. Apparently, she had also purchased the knife she used to kill from an online store that sold vintage weapons. It cost over $10,000, explaining why it was so important that she risked her freedom to take it to a different country with her. She must have liked the glamour of using an expensive weapon on her murder victims. Her insane spending habits didn’t stop there. Everyone splurged on a new outfit every once in a while, but Vera gave splurging a new meaning.
At one point, she spent $170,000 on one pair of shoes. Most people weren’t even aware that shoes that expensive were sold. She would sometimes use credit, but for the most part, she dipped into the trust fund that was supposed to be granted once she graduated college. She pleaded with her father to give her the money then, so she would stop spending his. He ended up changing the terms, allowing her to the fund whenever she needed.
Joseph was always a pushover when it came to pleasing his only daughter, so Vera knew she could get whatever she wanted from her father
if she told him what he wanted to hear. She quickly burned through her $10 million trust fund in just a few years. She would blow tens of thousands of dollars a weekend going out and buying shots for random strangers.
She never wore the same thing twice and loved taking extravagant vacations for her social media followers. Joseph handled all of the financials, and with Margot being ill for so long, never informed her of her daughter’s spending habits. He did his best to keep it just between him and his daughter. Unfortunately, it became too much for him to handle and he had to cut Vera off or else he risked bankruptcy. It was hard to do, as he knew she was losing her mother, but it was something he had to do for the sake of the family.
Vera couldn’t handle this. She completely snapped. It was the first time anyone had really told her no and she wasn’t quite sure how to react. She had a plan to find another man who would help maintain her drug and alcohol addiction. She dated a few different men here and there, looking for someone to give her what she needed. They would only give out a few grand at a time and she needed much more than that.
She was spending at least $100,000 a month on clothes and drugs, all of which she shared with her equally wealthy friends. It was important for her to show that she was the most popular and successful among them. It was easy for her to keep friends when she was handing out drugs like candy on Halloween. She loved renting private yachts to throw parties on as well. If there was a celebrity in town, she would do whatever she had to make sure that they came to her parties, spending thousands of dollars on champagne and other alcohol. She had the money, but it wasn’t going to last forever.
When she bled her biological father as well as her sugar daddies ran dry, she knew she needed to aim bigger. The closest man to her father that was just as wealthy as him was Peter. She ended up starting an affair with the much older man. Peter was a kind soul and could easily be manipulated so he started giving Vera what she wanted as well. Peter was a genius and didn’t get a lot of girls in college. Having a gorgeous and popular girl like Vera give him attention was rare, so he was willing to pay out big to keep her around. He gave Vera her own credit card and would often pay for her vacations during school breaks.