Ordering their breakfast and coffees, Chantele wished the peace and happiness of being together could go on. Unfortunately, there was a reason for this meeting. She sat down and turned to her father.
“What's going on Dad? Tell me everything! I mean everything and don't attempt to sugar-coat it either. I want the truth. Why was it addressed to my grandfather? He’s been dead for what, over ten years now? What the hell is going on?” She insisted.
There was a pause, where her father sat sipping his coffee and glancing at his briefcase. He’d been prepared for this day since Katya’s murder. He knew it was time for Chantele to learn the truth about their family vault.
“Your grandfather, Vladimir Sokolov, was a powerful man. He knew things the world wasn't ready for.” Anton watched Chantele’s face as he spoke. “He also knew one day you would be a part of his legacy.”
Chantele was stunned, but not overly shocked. She remembered the promise she’d made to Vladimir, an answer to his dying wish.
“The email was from Ivan, a close friend of Vladimir’s. He is younger than your grandfather; in fact, he was Vladimir’s best student in New York.” Chantele's father spoke at a slow and steady pace, noticing Chantele perk up at the revelation of the email's sender.
Chantele leaned in, listening intently to what her father was telling her. He’d grabbed her attention the minute he mentioned Ivan. Chantele recalled recently meeting someone named Ivan. She thought back to her encounter with Ivan in Belgium a few weeks earlier while on a business trip for work. Something about him aroused her suspicion at the time. When her father mentioned the name, it resurfaced in her memory. Was it possible the man she met in Belgium was the same Ivan that her grandfather lectured in New York?
“Chantele, I want you to promise me something,” her father paused, noticing his daughter’s attention had drifted for a moment. “I want you to open your mind and think about everything I am about to tell you. I need your emotions intact to listen.” He made her promise him.
“I want you to seek the truth with an open mind and not make an assessment until you are confident, especially regarding Vladimir. Can you do that Chantele?” Anton held Chantele’s hands, feeling them tremble in his grip. Concerned with his daughter's state of mind he gave them a reassuring squeeze.
“I promise. I promise I can live with the truth,” Chantele vowed earnestly. She didn’t show any feeling or emotion, lost in her thoughts. She knew the truth, she was still chasing after it since her mother's death. And now it was about to re-surface. This time she would hold onto it tightly, and force it to provide her the answers she desperately sought.
Chantele listened to every word, studying her father’s breathing and movements for an emotional inflection. Her heart was trembling in trepidation, as questions sprang to mind at a speed she couldn't control. The more her father spoke, the more her mouth dropped and the more she realized the immediate danger her family was in. She looked around, losing faith in the walls and fearing what others could hear.
Anton poured out an entire history of forbidden secrets and volatile truths that could change the lives of millions of people around the world. Deafened with the information she sat in silence, thinking about the twenty years of love she and her husband, Vincent, shared. Her heart broke as she realized the mess she was in wasn't going to clear up with a summers downpour. Nor was it a storm reaping havoc to be cleaned up by those caught in it. She couldn't believe it was real, the honesty of a hundred years of family history.
Why was this happening? It was as if the vicious murder of her mother hadn't been enough! Now the great Vladimir Sokolov's ghost was haunting her. She played through her childhood, growing up in New York. She mentally searched the early years of her life for an answer. Chantele warmed to Katya, a woman of grace, beauty, and elegance. Katya was an influential person, raising a daughter. Katya even received the Nobel Prize for her research in Nuclear Medicine.
Chantele used to admire her mother as an intelligent, sophisticated, and incredible woman, but most of all as a loving mother. Katya never allowed Chantele to feel alone despite her research responsibilities. Chantele was always Katya's number one priority. Katya took every preventative measure to not get caught up in the world of greed, and ruthlessness manipulation. Chantele missed her mother more than ever when feeling vulnerable. She mentally crumbled at the realization she never told her mother she was proud of her.
Chantele felt paralyzed knowing Alex, Samantha, and Suzie was going to be caught up in this war ignited from deceit, grown from corruption, and an ever-spreading betrayal. A never-ending terror between powers who rule the world and life they steal from humanity. Her world was shattering, and she felt her stomach turn as if she were going to be sick. The truth was more significant than anything she could have possibly imagined, or that the world had ever seen before.
With tears welling, she saw specific events in her life under a new light, giving them a renewal of meaning that made much more sense. It added up but came at a price she could never pay back, the truth she now wished she’d never learned.
Why now? Why wasn't she told before she met Vincent? Before she fell in love and had three beautiful children? Why was the truth so cruel? Disgusted, and feeling even sicker, her mind processed the missing pieces about her mother.
Chantele's blood pressure dropping exponentially by the minute. The glow of her sun-kissed skin faded to a pale white. She was losing herself to a world before her time, her life taken before it was her own. Chantele closed her eyes and searched for her mother's smile, hoping her mother would embrace her and tell her everything was going to be alright. She felt cold, and her body began to shiver as the dark honesty of the facts scorned her existence.
Swallowing hard Chantele chocked back the tears causing her throat to narrow. Sanya had betrayed her. The one person she thought she could trust above all else. Sanya had crossed Chantele. Bewildered by her own ignorance, she chastised herself for being so stupidly naïve in her judgment.
Trembling, even more, Chantele could physically feel the long-buried and hidden secrets of her family’s past crashing down around her. Her grandfather's death-wish. She’d promised him she would never deliberately seek the truth about her past unless she was prepared to face the consequences and continue his legacy. Vladimir worked endlessly at creating a façade. His deceptive illusion was set by greediness and power, designed to defend an entire generation who were fighting for their freedom and the rights of all mankind. She was now a part of his world. Sanya had known all along and failed to warn her about the dangerous reality she was living in.
Finally, tears streamed down her face as her mind worked through the past: Vladimir Sokolov, the murder of her mother, Katya. The wicked world she now saw would inevitably pull her husband in too. There was no stopping it. Once an avalanche had started, there was no way to stop it. Chantele remembered the secret diary she left after getting off the phone with her father the day before. She’d hidden it in the roof of her much-loved sanctuary - in the attic above her wardrobe. Her private palace where she wrote her famous series, 'Casanova in the land of Espionage' and 'The Reality of a Forbidden Life.' Charlotte Grace was not her alter ego - Charlotte Grace was the real, residual fragment from her alter ego, Chantele. Charlotte Grace was the voice behind Vladimir and Alina's cold hard reality.
Chantele didn’t pretend to be Charlotte Grace, she was Charlotte Grace.
There was no way she could let Vincent find the journal, leaving it had been a mistake. The journal was a trap, leading not to Chantele but the devil, and it was all her fault. Chantele’s husband and children would now pay the price for the greedy and power-hungry evil that corrupted the world. How on Earth did she get it all so wrong? Why didn’t Vladimir warn her, or at the very least tell her about Sanya?
Chantele jumped out of her seat and ran from the café as fast as she could. She had no time to muck around or explain the secret S.O.S. message she’d left for Vincent to
her father. She had to get to that book before Vincent did. Chantele had to protect her family no matter the cost. This life was her mess, and it was her duty to keep them safe. She thought back to the night she met Vincent in Paris, the spark, the love, the magic she’d felt with him. All of it was a bittersweet memory now. She couldn't explain it back then, but part of her always knew she’d been with Vincent before. Now she understood because she finally knew the truth.
Chantele didn’t hear her father running out of the café, calling out to her. “Chantele! Chantele wait…”
She was already too far away, disappearing into the car park. Chantele’s thoughts were consumed by the danger her husband, and children were about to face.
“Damn you Sanya!” she cursed.
It was Sanya; she had Chantele right where she wanted her all along. Sanya was up to something, and Chantele needed to protect Vincent from it before Sanya led him on a dangerous wild-goose chase.
Chantele's father watched her vanish from the café’s doorway. He knew it was time to trust his daughter, letting her figure things out on her own. Anton knew she needed to deal with it in her own way. Ultimately, he had to let her go, and it was crushing him. He closed his eyes and prayed Katya would keep their daughter safe. Turning away he summoned a taxi for the airport. When it arrived, he climbed into the back seat and refused to look back.
Chantele had tunnel vision. Her only concern was to get home and keep Vincent from ever seeing that damn book. Fumbling for the keys, Chantele felt someone grab her from behind. In her haste, she’d failed to notice the man following her to her car. She did, however, feel the pinprick in the side of her neck, as she heard the keys hit the ground… then nothing.
PART THREE
1950 Stalingrad, Ussr
(Pre Volgograd)
CHAPTER 5
V
ladimir Sokolov, born to Russian parents Alexei and Maria Sokolov, was born in Stalingrad, Russia 1928 (re-named Volgograd in 1961), otherwise known as Tsaritsyn during the Russian Empire of the Romanov Dynasty, Alexei and Maria's era. Maria was a housewife raising their three children, twins Vladimir and Konstantin and younger daughter, Svetlana. Alexei Sokolov worked as a 'Cheka,' a 'Russian Secret Service Agent' combatting counter-revolution and sabotage against the Union of Soviet Social Republics - USSR, under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin.
Twins and older brothers to Svetlana born in 1934, the boys grew up in Stalingrad raised during Stalin's totalitarian grip on Russia. The twins were like most boys growing up, hungry for knowledge, concerned for their future in a war-torn country raised in a regime of total government control by Stalin's rule.
Their father Alexei was one of the 'Chekist’s,' protecting Russia against the fight and Russian Revolution from foreign and western influence, the philosophers and great thinkers of that time.
Joseph Stalin, the successor of Vladimir Lenin's Social Democratic Labor Party Leadership, cunningly took over the USSR and enforced a dictatorship style of control on the country and its economy forcing the industrialization and military superpower of Russia. His collectivization of agriculture led to a man-made mass famine killing millions of people including farmers who had their land taken from them by Stalin by the military creating labor camps all over USSR.
Konstantin was only a minute older than Vladimir Sokolov, his identical twin. He was strong, masculine, wavy thick brown hair, tall and knowledgeable. Working at their local grocery store after school hours when he wasn't studying Physics at Stalingrad's State University (later re-named Volgograd State Pedagogical University).
Vladimir the younger of the twins was conservative and highly intuitive questioning everything. His love for philosophy and literature encouraged him to lose himself hours on end reading the great works of Philosophers and their research around the world as a final year student at the Stalingrad State University in Philology.
The political repression against Stalin's dictatorship was painful for Konstantin and Vladimir, living through World War the Battle of Stalingrad witnessing the German's and I invaded Russia during their teenage years. The culling's of many Russians during the war in Stalin's concentration camps and their father Alexei substantial involvement in the Secret Service as a 'Check' Police Officer constantly playing on Vladimir and Konstantin's mind.
They didn't agree on the way USSR treated its citizens despising the control of the government. The Sokolov twins went weeks without seeing their father raised single handed by Maria, a soft, warm and caring woman, pleasant. The twins hoped for Russia to move back to Vladimir Lenin's style of leadership and political rule based on Marxism's ideology for no corruption organized crime and good human nature. Their fear of exile or execution for their disapproval was a factor leading up to their plight to destroy the current government.
They made a pact to protect the people playing a significant part revolutionizing the political regime of USSR, working closely and staying undercover at all cost. Their father's involvement with Stalin was the boy's perfect decoy from Stalin's spy's, and they're only chance to save Russia from a mass culmination of its people during the famine and dictatorship of Stalin.
Vladimir's passion for literature and books, empowered him to interpret the broader thought process by the great philosopher's, studying every word and rewriting their laws. The horrors during the invasion of the German's in Stalingrad only years before left the people of Russia traumatized. Konstantin and Vladimir were grateful for surviving the heist. The murder of their closest family and friends, including their younger sister Svetlana only 17 when she died in the Nazi movement in Stalingrad of 1941, a permanent scar embedded in their hearts.
Svetlana's death rattled the Sokolov family, especially Maria and the boys. They loved and adored their younger sister vowing to avenge her death in the name of change for a peaceful future in the era of modern warfare. Their mission overpowering the government was their purpose for building a future, a prosperous and once again powerful country that Russia had once been.
Secretly spying on their father, the boys used reverse psychology gathering and analyzing his thoughts and any relevant information in document's that their father had in his possession. Alexei was a Lieutenant, storing all highly confidential documents in the roof of their cottage. Studying the materials profusely the brother's plotting against the plans of Stalin and the military warning the Marxist's intellects from around the world. Konstantin and Vladimir were part of a secret underground group of political revolutionaries helping distribute communications and information through the literary newspaper 'Pravda.'
Santino Carless, a well-known Philosopher, and believer in equality and fairness, alerted by the efforts of the Sokolov twins realizing passion like theirs is unique. Summoning Konstantin and Vladimir in a secret meeting through their University Professor Alexander, as soon as possible.
"I can't believe we are meeting Santino Carless, Konstantin. How did this happen? I haven't slept all night thinking why he wants to talk to us?" Rambled the older twin talking to Vladimir, nervously pacing up and down the hallway of the Stalingrad State University they were students at for the past four years.
Vladimir continued studying the wall mounted board of all the dux graduates at the State University choosing to ignore his brother pacing up and down the hallway.
"Why does he want to meet with us?" Continued Konstantin utterly oblivious to his brother ignorance as he continued to talk to himself.
"What is he doing here?" Konstantin added.
"Calm down and get yourself together!"
Vladimir hissed back tired of the questions he already spent hours asking himself the same questions during the night unable to sleep at the thought of what this great man had planned for him and Konstantin.
The door flung open, and the twins were asked to come in. Quickly jumping off their seats, entering the room to meet the esteemed Philosopher Santino Carless. Konstantin and Vladimir both idolized the philosopher for years adm
iring his influence and power. They religiously followed and read his literature.
Walking in the room, the Sokolov brothers noticed a well-dressed gentleman in a quality tailored suit made from the expensive material. He was tall and owned a moustache, clean-cut and quite an admirable man. They knew instantly they are in the presence of a real philosopher feeling each other's heart nervously beating louder and louder. Approaching the table where he was sitting in a leather tall back armchair behind the desk they heard the voice of Santino Carless.
"You must be Konstantin and Vladimir Sokolov? Please, fellas, sit down make yourself comfortable. Would you like a cognac?" The voice of a robust and stern Carless echoed in the room pouring them an expensive vintage cognac.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Carless." Both replying without realizing their voices synchronized sounding more like a school boys choir.
Accepting the two crystal glasses filled with a delicious drop of cognac the boys were intrigued in disbelief of the events taking place. What did Santino have installed for them?
"Let's get to the point. Shall we? I have a meeting I need to be at soon." Carless pointed out.
Santino’s friendly voice was turning more business-like, wasting no time walking Konstantin, and Vladimir, through his vision to unify Europe, all the countries in it and work in harmony to become the countries of solidarity, a 'Greater Europe.'
Chantele Page 4