On answering the call, Dmitry’s voice came through, “what did you do to Titiana?”
Natasha was a little confused. She sat upright and asked, “she was fine as at the time I left. Is anything the matter?”
“Come to her lodge right away.” He commanded.
Natasha huffed. She quickly called upon the nanny, “I need to leave now.”
“But you’ve just come around. You need to breastfeed the kids.” Naomi responded.
“I’ll do that once I’m back,” Natasha said and immediately walked out. Took a while before she got a cab that took her to Titiana’s lodge. On getting there, she saw Dmitry standing gallantly in front of the house.
“Is she fine?” Natasha asked, panting. She had been assuming all sorts of worse things that could have happened to Titiana while on her way here.
“She’s been diagnosed with Lung Cancer,” Dmitry uttered with a low voice.
Natasha’s heart sunk into her belly. “Oh my days! Is she inside?”
Took a while before Dmitry responded, “She’s at the hospital.”
“It’s not my fault. That’s probably the outcome of the hard drugs she had been taking,” Natasha defended herself.
“Titiana can now speak,” Dmitry said to Natasha’s surprise. Is that even possible? She can count the number of times she had treated Titiana? How come she can now speak?
“You did well.” Dmitry praised her for the first time. “Yuri will forward the balance of our agreed amount to you.”
Took a while before Natasha responded, as she was still yet to recover from the miracle happening before her, “thank you.”
“Can you help her heal from Lung Cancer?” Dmitry asked.
“I’ve never treated any cancer case before. Moreso, I don’t seem to have knowledge of how to treat cancer,” Natasha answered truthfully.
The time she spent with the blind man that taught her traditional medicine was limited hence, she could not learn it all. She only learnt how to treat some specific sickness. She wished that someday, her path will cross with that man again and she’ll be able to continue learning from him.
“Fly her out to Russia for proper treatment,” commanded Dmitry.
Natasha’s eyes furrowed. She didn’t even notice that Dmitry had been on the phone. “Is that Titiana?”
“That’s right. You may leave,” Dmitry said and began to walk towards his car. Yuri could be seen standing by the car, waiting for him while the driver sat in the car. He had already started the ignition of the car as soon as he realized that Dmitry was heading over.
Dmitry suddenly paused. For some weird reasons, he had missed those babies at Natasha’s house. “I want to see those twins again.”
“Oh… that could work.” Natasha answered. “When did you want to see them?”
Dmitry answered, “I’ll inform their mother.” Then he turned from her. Once he got inside the car, he said to Yuri, “inform the twin’s mother I’m coming to check on them tomorrow.”
“Got it, ” Yuri answered and noted. “Mr. Jucef from Crying Sun City is visiting Leaf City tomorrow. He had sent a special invite to the top five powerful families in our city, ours included. I want to know if to report to his management that you are coming or otherwise?”
“What’s his purpose for coming here?”
“It wasn’t particularly disclosed. But it’s sure he’ll be having both fun and talking with the invitees.” Yuri responded. “I think it will be a good thing for us to attend. We may need his help in the future.”
“We’ll attend.”
“Got it, sir.” Yuri noted.
The following evening, at the platinum Hotel, Dmitry sat on the table reserved for him and his assistant. The platinum Hotel is by far the most expensive hotel, not just in Leaf City, but in the entire east. It’s only accessible by ship as the hotel was built on a turquoise sea. The hotel is only affordable to the richest of the richest.
“Sir,” Yuri suddenly called Dmitry’s attention. Dmitry drifted his attention from his iPad and set it on Yuri, seeing that Yuri was looking at a particular place, he instinctively trailed his look. He didn’t expect to see both Pavel and Natasha walk in, they had walked in like the couple of the day as both were holding hands intimately.
Dmitry noticed Mr. Jucef stood up as soon as Pavel and Natasha walked in, Mr. Jucef had immediately walked up to them. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is my son, Pavel and here is his lady.” The old man said merrily.
The only people present in the spacious yet elegant oval room were the five most powerful families in Leaf city.
Dmitry watched as these families went one after the other to welcome Pavel and Natasha, many greeted them with so much respect and cheerfulness.
“Sir, what to do?” Yuri asked Dmitry. As Mr. Jucef had his cheerful eyes on Dmitry, expecting him to come to welcome his son.
“That’s my boss, father,” Pavel said and then walked with Natasha to where Dmitry and Yuri were.
“Thanks for coming, sir, ” Pavel said respectfully.
Natasha however was too nervous to utter a word. She knew that Pavel’s father had invited powerful families in the city; she didn’t expect that Dmitry would honor the invite, for he was known to always have busy schedules. He had never even attended the mayor’s annual ceremony in person, nor had he personally attended the annual gala festival so Natasha thought that even if he were to honor this invite, he would send someone over.
Natasha swallowed hard. Why was she even feeling this way? They had no relationship between each other, she’s free to hang out with whoever she wants to hang out with. And it’s not like he cares too. Natasha shook off the weird feelings she was having and also greeted, “Hi, Mr. Dmitry.”
Dmitry didn’t respond to the two of them. Yuri read the signal on Dmitry’s face and said to the both of them, “thank you, you may leave.” He said that quietly.
Pavel and Natasha then walked away and went to sit.
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for coming,” Mr. Jucef said into the microphone. “Gathering the top five most powerful families here in person is something I’ll never take for granted.”
“Personally, I’m meeting many of us for the first time. I know by the time we are done with today’s meeting, no one will have any course to regret coming,” Mr. Jucef said with the audience nodding except Yuri and Dmitry. He wasn’t even paying attention to whatever Jucef was saying.
Natasha who was seated right beside Pavel couldn’t help but keep glancing at Dmitry who was clearly not paying attention to Mr. Jucef’s words. All of a sudden, their eyes locked up as Dmitry had also looked towards her side.
Natasha looked away shyly, she could feel her heart pound hard. She hadn’t expected that he would look towards her side.
She had come with Pavel because Pavel had asked her to pretend like his girlfriend to meet with his father. Pavel believed that once his father saw a woman with him, he would stop pestering him to marry and would not bother to proceed to bring a woman he must marry. So this was more like a pretense and Mr. Jucef indeed fell for it.
In the middle of Mr. Jucef’s speech, he said, looking at Pavel, “my son, Pavel will be taking over my company soon. I’m glad to see him again. As you can all see, the woman he had taken to marry is so beautiful. Their wedding will be holding in two months time, I’m officially inviting everyone here to please attend.”
Natasha arched her brow when she heard that, she looked at Pavel, “your father didn’t mean what he said?”
“He does. But I’ll inform him we are not ready for marriage.” Pavel said.
“Do you want to tell him the truth, that we have nothing in common in the first place? I feel like he would be disappointed if he finds out that we have been deceiving him.” Natasha said.
“My father will be leaving Leaf City in four days. Let’s keep up the look for the next four days. Once he’s gone, I’ll inform him we have broken up.” Pavel said.
Whereas, Yuri and Dmitry had their eyes on Pavel and Natasha who were talking quietly.
“Wow. That’s unexpected,” Yuri said as he kept staring at Pavel and Natasha who were talking quietly.
Dmitry then stood and walked out of the hall, he took the grand staircase to the second floor. For some reason, he felt very suffocated in the hall. He didn’t know if that had anything to do with hearing the news of Natasha and Pavel getting married. He didn’t know why he had a form of constriction in his heart because of that.
He went out to lean on the balcony, before him was a stunning view of the sea. As the gentle breeze of the sea blew on him, he heard a little chaos behind him.
“Get out of here!” Screamed a familiar female voice. And then came another scream, “let go of my hand!”
Dmitry left where he was and approached where the minor chaos was coming from. He soon noticed that it was in the female’s toilet, there were a lot of struggles going on there.
“Listen to me…”
When he heard that, he knew a man must be trying to assault a lady so he kicked the door open. He was stunned to see a very big muscular man dressed in a suit, holding Natasha’s hand tightly.
“Mr. Dmitry, please help, this man appeared in my toilet while I’m trying to ease myself and he won’t let me go,” Natasha pleaded for she had struggled to yank her hand off the big man’s grip.
“Let her go.” Came Dmitry’s calm voice.
The big man looked at Dmitry and asked, “who the fuck are you?”
Dmitry knew at once that this man is not a citizen of Leaf City. There’s no one in Leaf City that doesn’t recognize him. Although only a few had met him physically, they will still be able to recognize him should they see him in person. For many had seen his face severally both on newspapers, magazines, on social media and on TV.
Seeing how harshly she was holding Natasha, Dmitry launched into his demon mode. And in two seconds, the man was lying dead on the floor.
Natasha had her mouth wide opened. She had heard of how demonic the most powerful man in the city could be but she was yet to experience it first hand. Her heart felt like it was hit with a tsunami.
“Step out,” Dmitry said as he took steps out of the toilet. Natasha also stepped out.
“What do we do with his body?” Natasha was worried someone will accuse Dmitry of murder.
“Your husband should have escorted you to the toilet since it’s not so safe. It’s his father organizing this meet and greet afterall,” Dmitry said.
“He’s not my husband…” Natasha finds herself saying.
“Your fianceé,” Dmitry corrected.
“Pavel and I have no relationship. It’s all an act to deceive his father,” Natasha said.
Dmitry suddenly felt the knot in his heart loosened. The chaos in his heart calmed. He didn’t know why hearing this calmed his heart.
At the sound of a sudden gun shot, Natasha finds herself jumping instinctively on Dmitry.