by K. J. Dahlen
Gavril grunted and looked her over carefully. He could see something different about her and he shook his head. “You little whore, your spread your legs for him again, didn’t you? Is that old bastard banging you again?”
“What the hell girl?” Nico grunted. “That old fucker is twice your age.”
“I’m not here for that or any of your abuse to me,” she told them both, as their comments made her feel sick like they usually did.
“What are you here for then if not to brag about banging a man older than your own father then?” Gavril glowered at her.
“I’m not here to brag at all.” Turning to her father she stated, “I’m here to ask you a question, dad…”
“What in the world do you want to know? And what makes you think I’ll tell you anything? What you gonna do for me?”
Anita looked at the only parent she’d ever know. “There’s nothing in it for you. I just wanted to know, were you with grandpa the night he murdered Sergi’s wife? Did you hold her in place while he stabbed her to death?”
“What makes you think I was there?” Nico asked as he paled a bit.
“Something you’ve said pretty much every day of my life.” Tears rolled down her cheeks when she came closer to the bars between them. “You always said something to me wherever I disappointed you. Did I ever do anything right for you?”
Nico snorted. “You were nothing more than a disappointment to me from the day you were born girl. Number one you were supposed to be a boy, a son I could teach everything I knew to, but instead you were a girl. The more you grew, the deeper my disappointment went. Everything I tried to teach you, you couldn’t do.”
Anita took another step toward her father. “I didn’t want to lie and steal for a living. I didn’t want to work the streets. I wanted to do well in school and go places I knew you would never go.”
“And look how well you did at that.” He scoffed. “Adrian only took you along to Russia to distract Sergi, when he called and told us you were in with him, we expected bigger things from you but again, you disappointed us big time. You didn’t keep him distracted enough. Oh, you slept with him and got yourself knocked up but you should have gone back, made him marry you. Only you never did, did you? No, you went out on your own. You were supposed to protect us from him and instead you let him catch us.”
Anita stepped back as shocked hit her. “Adrian was in on this w-with you?” she stammered. “He knew I was with Sergi?”
Nico snorted. “Of course, he knew. He watched you until the day you met Sergi. He was the one that suggested that park you went to remember? He also knew Sergi’s routine, as he’d had men trailing him before he even went to Russia. Then when you did catch his attention, Adrian began the real reason he went to Russia. He was making a deal not for oil but to set up a drug route right through the heart of his homeland. We’ve been making money hand over fist over there and no one was the wiser.”
“The two of you and Adrian set me up to distract Sergi?” She took another step backward toward the door. “How could you do that? I was your child!”
Nico snorted. “What else were you good for? The Bratva never would have allowed us to set up a drug route through Moscow if they knew ahead of time. They didn’t want the drugs there and have chased us out time and time again, only we keep coming back. People want our product and we will be there to supply it. With Sergi distracted with you, Adrian was able to meet with his dealers and suppliers.”
She turned and walked out of the room. She let the door slam behind her but she didn’t hear it. She was thinking about what her father had told her. They had set her up all those years ago. They were truly evil. She had tried to give them the benefit of a doubt so many times. In hopes, they would finally turn to her and be decent one day. Her hopes were dashed again and again. Despite these hard lessons, she still couldn’t believe they could do that to her.
When she hit a brick wall disguised as Sergi she couldn’t help but burst into tears.
Sergi gathered her into his arms and just held her while she cried. She didn’t know and he couldn’t tell her that the cell area had cameras trained on the individual cells. He, Misha and Nikoli heard and saw everything. They now knew Nico had been there with his father Gavril the night Tasha died.
Not only that but they also knew both men had set her up. They used her to distract him while Adrian set up contacts to spread their own brand of poison on the streets. He could only imagine how she felt.
Anita stumbled away from him blinded by tears as well as shock. She looked up at his face and cried out, “How can you bear to even look at me?”
“What?” Sergi frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“My father was with my grandfather the night they both killed your wife,” she informed him. “Then twenty something years later, they sent me to distract you so they could set up a drug pipeline through your country! How can you even want to look at me, let alone touch me? My family is dealing poison to children because I was able to distract you from your job. You should hate me for playing a part in their deception.”
“Their deception, you said it yourself. It was their deception not yours,” Sergi insisted. “You had nothing to do with what they did.” He cupped her face with his hands and told her gently, “You had nothing to do with what they did.”
Anita searched his face for a moment. “How do you know that for sure though?”
Sergi smiled. “I know when someone is lying to me and that has never been you. You were always open and honest with me. I don’t know how you managed that after being raised by those two but you did. You could have come back to Russia and if you had been cunning enough, you could have found out who I was and blackmailed me when you found yourself pregnant but you didn’t. You could have aborted my child and got on with your life but you didn’t do that either. You carried our son, you chose to give him life and raise him the right way. With honor and pride. We all make decisions in our life that have serious consequences for other people. How we choose to handle those decisions tells other people what kind of people we really are. You could have given in to the pressure of your father and grandfather and turned your back on everything that is right and just, but instead you went the other way.”
She swiped her tears away. “I didn’t want to be like the people that would come to our house at all hours of the day and night. I could see the addiction in their eyes and in everything they did. I just never acknowledged it until now. I wanted more than to live that life. It wasn’t easy but all I had to do was look at my father or my grandfather and really see just how terrible and selfish they were and know in my heart that I wasn’t going to end up like them. I might not have as much as they did but I had the right to hold my head up and I didn’t have to stay in the shadows to hide myself. They would leave me for days at a time when I was little. I had to learn to take care of myself because they wouldn’t do anything to help me. When I knew Levi was coming, I made a vow that my child would never know the loneliness I grew up with, he would never know what being hungry was, or what being left alone was all about. I vowed I would always be there for him when all he needed was someone to hold him or tell him things would be better one day. I tried to give him everything I wanted growing up and never got.”
Sergi pulled her back into his arms. “And I’m sure you did very well to give him a balanced life. He saw you working hard to provide for you both and he worked hard to get what he wanted as well.” He turned and put his arm around her shoulders and walked toward the outer hall.
When they met up with Misha and Nikoli, Anita recoiled slightly at the rage on Misha’s face.
“When did you know? When did you know your father was there that night?” he snarled.
Anita hung her head for a moment then looked at him. “When you mentioned a certain phrase less than an hour ago when you told your father that phrase. My father repeated that phrase every day of my life. Nico Turchan was never a good man but he wasn’t a killer. At le
ast I didn’t think he was until I heard that. He was always more a coward. I didn’t think he would do the deed himself but when I heard what you said I knew he was just as guilty as grandpa was. I knew he was there and that he participated in some way.”
“And when you came to Russia twenty-four years ago?” He stared hard at her.
“I had no idea what game they were playing then or now,” she admitted. “You have to believe me.”
“I don’t have to believe a damn word you say.” Misha glared at her.
“Misha,” Sergi called out harshly to his son.
Misha looked over at his father and shook his head. “How can you trust her? You saw and heard everything I just did. You know she was sent there to set you up. You heard her father’s own words admitting to it. How can you trust her?”
Anita separated herself from Sergi and turned to leave by herself. Then she paused and turned to Misha, “You don’t know me. I realize this. All you see is a woman whose family killed your mother. You may not believe me but I hope your father believes me when I say I had no clue what they were doing, or what they had done in the past. I fell in love with your father twenty four years ago. Yes, he was older than I was and yes, I never bothered to ask him who he was before I slept with him, but that doesn’t make me a bad person or a whore. I didn’t do anything wrong then or now.”
Then she turned and walked away from all three of them.
Only when the door closed behind her did Sergi look at his son. “You had no right to degrade her just now. No right at all. Da, I heard the same things you and Nikoli did and yes, I believe those two men murdered your mother, but she had nothing to do with that. She wasn’t even born yet. Nor did she have anything to do with setting me up twenty four years ago.”
“And just how do you know that dad?” Misha asked. “Some women can fake just about anything.”
“Anita can’t.” Sergi looked him in the eyes. “She was an innocent then and she’s innocent now. She just helped prove her father was involved in the plot against me forty years ago. Without her help, we never would have known he was there that night. He was just as guilty as his father was in the murder of your mother. He would have gotten away with it.”
“I tried to do a background on her last night after we left your place,” Nikoli admitted.
Sergi swung his head to his second in command. “And what did you find?”
“I found out that her birth certificate is a fake and that there is no record of her birth. At all. We don’t even know if Nico Turchan is her real father.”
Sergi’s scowl turned into a look of pure confusion. “Chto za chert?” Nikoli nodded. “I know. So you see why we…” He looked over at Misha. “She doesn’t exist on paper. We’re digging deeper but I have to tell you, we may never know who she really is.”
“That is impossible.” Sergi glared at his top man. “You’ve met her, she is a person. She’s alive, so she had to be born.”
Nikoli shrugged. “Like I said, we are digging deeper. I’ll inform you as soon as we find anything definite but I suggest you tread carefully until we find out more about her.”
Sergi, as usual, showed no emotion on his face as he left the building.
Misha turned to Nikoli. “Find out who this woman is. Don’t stop until we know everything about her. I want to know.”
“I do too,” Nikoli admitted. He looked down the hall Sergi had just went through. “What about him? I’ve never seen him this protective for anyone expect you.”
Misha shook his head. “I don’t know what to tell you. This woman has him tied up in knots. I may or may not have a brother and if she was raised by the two men in your jail, I think this will not turn out well for my father. She, I think, has the power to bring him down and down hard.”
Nikoli stared at him.” Impossible.”
Misha let out a heavy breath. “ This woman means more to him that we realized. I see that now. He has never had any serious relationship for all these years. I have to admit, I have never seen him look at anyone the way he does her.”
Nikoli raised a brow at him. “Could it be that you are just… surprised?”
Misha stared at him with narrowed eyes.
Nikoli shrugged. “We are all human. When a man falls for a woman and finds that piece to his soul…” His voice trailed away.
Misha looked angry now. “Are you saying I’m jealous or something?’
Nikoli shook his head. “No. I don’t think this. However, we all have had Sergi protecting us, leading us. We know him as a father figure. He has never showed any weakness… ever. Not that love is that.”
“Love?” Misha looked like Nikoli had punched him in the gut. “You think he…”
Nikoli nodded. “I believe so.”
“I don’t care about that part right now. If this other man, Levi is his son why didn’t she come to him before he was born? Why didn’t she make her claim when her son was born?”
“I don’t know but I will find out,” Nikoli swore.
Anita let herself into the hotel suite Sergi had and when she entered, she found Levi reading in the living area. She went over to him and sat down on the sofa.
“What’s up Mom?” Levi asked. “What happened?”
“Oh, kiddo…” She grabbed his hands and squeezed them tightly. “When I overheard Misha talking to his father this morning, I knew something no one else did. Misha had a nightmare last night about the night his mother was murdered. He said he wasn’t sure if there was one man there that night or two. He was hiding and didn’t look but he heard something that told me there were two men there that night. Your grandfather and your great grandfather. They were both there that night and if one is guilty then they both are guilty. When I confronted my dad, he admitted he was there and helped murder that poor woman, then he told me I was sent to Russia twenty four years ago to distract Sergi so they, and my old boss, Adrian could set up a drug pipeline there.” She lowered her head. “I always knew they were bad people but I never knew how bad. They used and abused me all my life but when I knew you were on your way, I wouldn’t let them do the same thing to you. I tried to keep them out of your life as much as possible. I wanted you to have a good chance to succeed in life.”
“You did a good job of that Mom,” Levi assured her.
“No.” She shook her head. “I never should have allowed them back in your life. Not even for your graduation. Now we will both pay the price for being related to them. You are Sergi’s son. He is the only man I’ve ever been with then and now. I can’t and won’t deny you your birthright. But I can’t stay with you now. I have to leave here.”
Levi frowned. “But why? I thought you loved Sergi?”
Anita raised her head and looked at her son. “I love him with all my heart. I always have. But I can’t stay here because he doesn’t trust me. The fact was brought up today that cast an ugly shadow on our meeting in the first place. My father told me I was sent to Russia twenty four years ago to distract Sergi and that’s exactly what I did. I didn’t know what they had planned, or I never would have gone but Misha doubts me and what happened in the past and I won’t come between them. I’m no one but he is his son.”
“If you’re leaving here then so am I,” Levi announced. “I won’t stay here either.”
Anita shook her head. “No, you have the right to be here and know your father. I want you to know the man he is and has always been. I’ve had you for twenty-three years and I am so proud of the man you’ve become. You’re a full-grown man and now, you need to know your roots. I couldn’t give you that as a child, but you have a chance to have that now and I want you to take it.” She patted his hands. “I’ll be ok. I’ve done this this starting over stuff before. I love you baby boy. I always have and I always will. You will always have a piece of my heart.”
“And Sergi?” Levi wanted to know. “Does he have a piece of your heart as well?”
Anita smiled sadly. “He has the rest of my heart. I fell in love with t
hat man the day I met him and that love has never faded or left me. I carried my memories of our time together in my heart that were so strong I couldn’t shake them. I didn’t even try. He was the one I dreamed about and in his arms I felt safe and wanted for the first time in my life.”
“Then why are you leaving him?” Levi asked.
“Because I won’t stay and see that love turned to doubt by Misha’s accusations. About me or what I did before you were born. I won’t see the rage in his eyes against my family when they go before the Council or have that rage turned to me or you. I want you to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that you are his son and you are old enough to make up your own mind about what to do after that. He is your father. Please give the man a chance to know you. You are such a wonderful person. I always hoped you would have the chance to meet him.”
“But you aren’t staying, are you?” Levi asked her.
“No. I didn’t want to leave him again but I won’t stay and be doubted either. That would only tarnish was we once had. And that is all Misha would do if I stayed. He would doubt everything I said or did. I can’t and won’t live that way anymore.” She got to her feet and leaned over to kiss his forehead. “Give him a chance, he could be very good for you. But in the end, you have to make up your own mind.” She cupped his jaw and said, “Always remember that I love you very much. I just can’t and won’t live that way anymore. I can’t ask Sergi to choose between Misha and me either. That wouldn’t be right. Misha is his own blood and I am nothing.”
“If he doesn’t want you then he doesn’t want me either,” Levi stated.
“No… Please? I want you to know him, you deserve that much, you deserve a father. I have to go.” Anita began to turn but Levi got to his feet and pulled her into a tight hug. “I love you Mom.”
“I love you too. So much.” She broke away and rushed out the door.
Levi sat down again stunned. The last few days had taken their toll on him. First, his grandfather and great grandfather show up out of the blue. Neither he or his mother expected them to show up at his graduation from college. The way they told it, they’d been keeping track of him for a while now. They were happy to find out he was a science nerd and they asked him if he could design drugs for them. Levi told them no he couldn’t and he wouldn’t do that. They had been in and out of his life before, mostly out as they ignored him and his mother most of his life.