by Ivy Clyde
“You’re not a secondhand lookalike of Maria Volkov,” he said with a surprising smile. It changed the look of his face completely. At that moment, Mikhael Petrov was beautiful. “You are your own person. You don’t have to be like someone else to please people. Stay you.”
“Thank you.” He leaned in and placed another kiss on my cheek before settling back in his seat. Starting the car, he drove us toward the heavily guarded gates of the manor.
“You know I’m with Andrei, right?” I hedged. I was already in a messy state when it came to relationships. I’d already fallen for Andrei and Christian. Was something wrong or broken inside me? Could I allow myself to fall in love with a third person?
“Well, if you ever need a backup,” said Mikhael with a chuckle. He reached out with his hand and caressed my head with gentle strokes. “Don’t let it stress you out. I was just giving you options.”
“Err, thanks?”
He laughed again, the easy sound of it putting me at ease again.
He drove through the gates of the manor and followed a tree-lined path winding toward the manor. The gray granite stones looked dull and uninviting even under the afternoon sunshine. I wondered what Andrei would think if I told him to change the décor of the place. His place reminded me too much of a black-and-white Dracula movie.
Reaching the manor, Mikhael climbed out of the car, leaving me to follow him. There was no house servant or maid to greet us. Only a line of burly, sour-faced men holding guns stood before us.
“Come on,” he said, walking inside without a glance at the guards.
Even during daytime, the manor was dark and cold. I followed Mikhael through the bare stone corridors and up a flight of stairs to reach the wing where Andrei stayed.
“There are no guards here but I will send a few up,” said Mikhael as he pushed open the door to Andrei’s room.
“I don’t want them,” I said at once. “They’re creepy.”
He chuckled and turned around to look at me. “I’ll be going out in a while. With neither of us here, you need protection. Other than the cook, you’re the only woman in this house. Mrs. Farrell will leave at six P.M. After that, you’ll be alone.”
“Unless you have female security guards, your logic makes no sense. You’ll just be sending more men my way.”
Mikhael moved closer and wrapped his arms around me in a loose hug. “Just bear with it for a while. Please? Andrei and I will have one less thing to worry about then.”
“Fine,” I huffed out. “But could I at least move around the house or do I have to be a prisoner here?”
Mikhael stepped back and stared at me. “This isn’t a place to wander about, Skye.”
“I know but what if I got hungry and wanted to go into the kitchen?”
“That’s allowed.” He seemed to think for a moment. “Actually, you could tell the guards where you want to go. They will show you the way and keep you from getting lost.”
Moving forward, he gave me another hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll leave. Stay safe.”
“You too.”
He strode out of the room and closed the door after him, leaving me completely alone in Andrei’s room. A long breath exhaled out of me. I was finally here and by some miracle, both Andrei and Mikhael wouldn’t be here until late tonight. It was the perfect opportunity to get inside Egor’s room.
I settled down on Andrei’s bed for a moment and took my phone out. There were messages from both Christian and Stella. I’d told her about being in the hospital but hadn’t given her an exact reason for it. Ignoring her complaints about how boring it was in classes, I opened the chat with Christian and quickly told him about the incident in the factory.
We haven’t received the news yet, Christian replied back. I will let Uncle know immediately so we can get more info. In the meantime, stay tight at your end.
I lay down among the pillows and began thinking of an excuse to go inside Egor’s room without raising any alarm bells. It had to look like a natural cause. Well, he’s Andrei’s brother, I reasoned with myself. You’re kind of his girlfriend. Why should it feel shady to ask to see him?
The other thing that worried me was Egor himself. His moods varied from cold to hot. Last time, he’d thought I was Maria’s ghost and had attacked me. He could have seriously hurt me without Andrei there to control him.
I had to be careful with every step.
Picking up my phone, I checked the time. Half an hour had already passed since I was here.
Getting off the bed, I moved toward the door. Opening it, I peeked out. Four men in black suits stood along the corridor. Taking a deep breath, I walked out and approached the nearest man, a tall, bulky guy with blond hair.
“I want to go to the kitchen,” I said. “Could you show me the way, please?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He spoke a few words into his earpiece before striding down the corridor. I followed him, making a note of the way to the kitchen. The man led me to the ground floor and to a different part of the house until we came upon the vast kitchen. It was clean and shiny but looked awfully empty.
“Mrs. Farrell is inside,” said the guard. He stopped at the threshold and motioned for me to enter the room.
I gave a nod and moved forward. A middle-aged woman in a neat black dress approached me with a curious look on her face.
“Hi,” I said with an awkward wave of my hand. “I’m Skye, a friend of Andrei’s. Is it okay if I made myself something?”
“You’re a friend?” I was glad to hear Mrs. Farrell’s American accent.
“Yeah. Do you mind if I made myself a sandwich?”
“If you tell me what you want, I’ll make one for you. Do you want coffee?”
“That would be great,” I said, giving her my friendliest smile. “Thank you.”
“You can wait upstairs if you want,” she said, putting on an apron. “I will have someone send it to you.”
I shook my head. “Please, let me stay here. Andrei isn’t around at the moment and it’s strange to be all alone here.”
“I know what you mean,” she said conversationally. “This place is strange with all the guards and guns. If I didn’t need the money to keep my daughter in school, I would have taken the time off to find a less creepy place to work.”
Opening the fridge, she began taking out cold cuts and fresh salad leaves.
“We’ve got a lot of food in the house,” said Mrs. Farrell, glancing at me. “What kind of sandwich do you want?”
“Even a peanut butter and jam sandwich would be fine,” I said with a chuckle. “Make me whatever you’ve got on hand.”
“You’re not fussy, are you?” said the woman with another close look at me.
I chuckled. “No, ma’am.”
She smiled in return and began making me a large sandwich with slices of ham, boiled eggs, and sliced pickles. Mrs. Farrell seemed just as glad as me to have some female companion in this house infested with armed men. It had to be uncomfortable to be watched all the time.
“Do you cook for all the guards?” I asked as she began cutting up the sandwich into smaller pieces.
“No. I only cook for the two Mr. Romanoffs and Mr. Petrov. There is a different kitchen for the guards that is managed by one of their own. And thank God for that!” She put the plate of sandwich on my hand and moved away to pour me a cup of coffee.
Over the next few hours, she asked me about my family and school. In turn, I asked about her daughters. She was beginning to like me and became comfortable with me hanging around in the kitchen. When five P.M. arrived, she got up to prepare Egor’s dinner.
“Is he doing better these days?” I asked her.
“Mr. Egor? No.” Putting the tray of food on a counter, she was about to walk to the door but I stopped her.
“Where are you going?”
“I am going to let someone take his food to him,” she said. “I don’t really like being with that man. He can get violent at times and it just s
cares me.”
“I will take it to him,” I said, going to the counter and picking up the tray. “It’s been a while since I last saw him.”
“Are you sure?” Mrs. Farrell looked suddenly anxious. “I feel sorry for the man but he’s not in his right mind. If I were his family, I’d put him in an institute or somewhere with doctors.”
“Andrei has lost all his family,” I said in a soft voice. “He feels responsible for his brother and wants to stay closer to take care of him.”
“Mr. Andrei is at school on most days. Other times, he’s off doing god knows what.” She gave her head a shake. “I suppose it’s not really my business what they do. I’m here for my job.” It sounded like she was trying to remind herself that fact.
“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” She gave me a nod before I walked toward the door with the tray of food.
Two guards were waiting outside. Taking a deep breath, I looked for every bit of courage before facing them. “Could you lead me toward Egor’s room, please?” I asked.
The two men glanced at each other.
Before either could shoo me away, I added, “I am Mr. Andrei’s girlfriend. It’s okay for me to see his brother.”
I held my breath as the guards took another moment to decide whether to comply with my request. Finally, one of them stepped forward and motioned for me to follow him.
Gripping the tray tightly, I walked after him.
Egor’s room was on the first floor of the manor. There weren’t any guards around which seemed strange because someone like Egor needed more men around to help him with his needs. The guard opened the door for me and gestured for me to go inside.
As soon as I stepped inside, the door was closed shut behind me.
My gaze fell on the lone figure lying on the bed in the far corner. Soft whimpers escaped him but he didn’t turn around or call out for help. Placing the tray on a nearby table, I walked toward him. All the curtains in the room were closed shut. Only a bedside lamp illuminated part of the room dimly, leaving the corners to be hidden in shadow. It was an awful way to spend an entire day, locked up in this darkened room.
Moving closer, I realized why Egor was sobbing. His arms were stretched over his head and his wrists were bound with rope and tied to the headrest behind him.
“Who did this to you?” I gasped, walking forward to release him. His arms must have been hurting by now. “Why is no one around to look after you?” I asked in a soft voice as I untied the knots on the thick rope that had cut into his skin.
Egor sobbed like a baby. Once he was untied, he curled up on the bed and continued to cry.
I felt terribly sorry for him at that moment. Someone had tied him up like that for hours and left him in pain for so long. I wondered whether the guard who was supposed to bring in his food would take the time or effort to untie him. Does Andrei even know how his brother is being treated in his own home? I questioned myself, knowing it could never be him who tortured his brother this way.
A deep foreboding spread through me. I couldn’t exactly pinpoint it but things were strange in the Romanoff Manor. And it wasn’t just me who found the place creepy. Even the cook knew something weird was going on here but was too scared to say anything.
Taking a deep breath, I willed myself to focus on the task at hand. I was finally in Egor’s room with no one around to disturb me. Opportunities like these wouldn’t always come around.
I began searching the shelves, drawers and the cabinets, making sure to make as little noise as possible. From time to time, I turned to take a look at Egor. He was trapped in the agony of his own mind, completely unaware of my presence in the room.
There weren’t too many folders and files in the room, making my job a quick one. I was mostly checking for anything that resembled the transaction document Nikolai was after. After about forty-five minutes, I was running out of places to look in. My gaze fell on the bedside table by Egor’s bed that had several drawers in it.
I started with the bottom drawer and halted. A sleek black laptop sat there. I turned toward Egor, wondering why he left something like that in a bedside drawer. Taking it out, I turned it on. A few seconds later, the screen asked me for the password. Before I could get too dejected, I noticed the code was fingerprint sensitive.
Taking the laptop, I seated myself on Egor’s bed. If the laptop belonged to him, his fingerprint would open it for me. The familiar sense of excitement washed over me. This feeling of breaking into a foreign computer was exhilarating.
“I’m sorry to do this,” I whispered, taking one of Egor’s hands in mine. He didn’t even seem to notice the movement as he continued to weep softly. I made a mental note to make it up to him for doing this. Taking his hand, I placed his thumb over the scanner.
With a tiny beep, the laptop opened up, revealing a desktop background that was filled with video files. Letting go of Egor’s hand, I slid back on the ground, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
I took a closer look at the files. They were all named with dates going back further than a year. Locating the earliest file, I clicked on it.
The video started playing and I recognized Egor’s room at once. A few minutes later, I entered through the door with a confused expression on my face. No! Wait. That’s Maria. It was freakish to see her moving and talking. I had to constantly remind myself that it was her, not me.
“Why did you ask me to come here?” she asked. Casting a glance toward Egor to make sure he was still occupied with his sobbing, I turned my attention on the laptop, facing the old Egor. He was a completely different man back then. He was extremely handsome with strands of his dark hair framing his face. His eyes were dark brown but unlike Andrei’s, they lacked warmth.
“I needed to talk to you about something,” said Egor in a silky soft voice.
Maria’s gaze narrowed. “About what?”
“About you and me.” He turned his hooded gaze on her and caressed her arm.
Maria slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me!” Taking a deep breath, she added, “Andrei will be home any minute. I’ll tell him if you dare bully me.”
Soft chuckles escaped Egor. Stepping closer to her, he pulled her against him despite her loud protests. She hit him on the arm and shoulders but he forced a kiss on her mouth. I reduced the volume of the laptop, too horrified to see the video playing out as Egor proceeded to throw her on the bed.
Over the next minutes, he forcefully ripped her clothes away until she was completely bared to him. All the while, Maria cried, cursed and begged him to stop.
“I am going to tell Andrei what you’re doing,” she cried out as he placed his mouth on a red-tipped nipple.
He raised his head to gaze down at her. “Are you sure you want to do that, Maria? Your honor is tied up to the Volkov family’s honor. Will you be so rash as to throw it all away and have Dimitri marry a spoiled woman?”
The defiant look on Maria’s face vanished instantly. “Sp-spoiled?”
“I am going to put my cock inside you and leave my seeds in there. My mouth will mark every inch of this gorgeous body,” he said, letting his hungry gaze rove down her naked body. “From now on, it belongs to me. You’ll be nothing to Dimitri but my leftovers.”
“No. Please, don’t.” She broke out in sobs but Egor never stopped.
I shoved the laptop away from me but the sounds of his animalistic groans of pleasure and Maria’s cries filled the silent room. My whole body shook as I slapped my hands on my ears to drown out the noise of the violence and abuse. I looked toward the curled figure on the bed through tear-glazed eyes, no longer feeling sorry for what he was cursed to suffer through. An evil man like Egor deserved this punishment and more.
When everything went quiet, I picked up the laptop once more with shaking hands
Egor was holding Maria’s body in an embrace. She was softly sobbing and he was placing kisses on her bare shoulders.
Suddenly, I noticed patches of blood on the sheet underneath her a
nd felt my heart turning to ice.
She’d probably been a virgin when he raped her, hurting her so badly she had to bleed. I thought back to my first time with Andrei and couldn’t help but be grateful to him for being incredibly gentle with me. I hadn’t bled at all and had even enjoyed most of it after the initial discomfort had ebbed away.
But poor, sheltered Maria…she’d been ripped apart by a man of the family she trusted.
My heart broke for her. Egor hurt her terribly. He was an animal…a monster.
“You be a good girl now.” Egor’s crooning voice had me looking back at the laptop screen. “Tomorrow morning, go to your bank and pick up some cash for me. Make sure to go there alone and don’t mention it to anyone. It will be our little secret.”
Maria looked too lost to respond to him. He drew himself against her and closed his eyes while she continued to sob.
The screen blackened before me, indicating the end of the video.
Wiping the tears from my eyes, I clicked on to the other videos littering the desktop background. They were all taped in various locations, all ending with Egor raping Maria, threatening her with the consequences if she told anyone about them.
He warned her to stay quiet or he would release photos and videos of her being nude or being raped by other men. Later, he even threatened to kill Dimitri if she told anyone about the money she was withdrawing from her bank every few weeks.
I put the laptop away, feeling sick of the things I’d just seen and heard. The mystery behind Maria’s behavior was finally revealed to me. It had been Egor who’d coerced her into keeping quiet about the money that was being transferred into her account. He used her innocence against her, making her believe she was useless just because he raped her. She was probably raised with old beliefs that taught her to guard her virginity like some precious jewel, that it was only meant to be given up to the man you marry.
Maria must have been traumatized by everything happening to her. She didn’t dare tell Dimitri or Andrei about what Egor was doing to her, believing she was saving them from shame. She truly believed the honor of the Volkov family was tied to her, that revealing about her rape would bring shame to the family too.