Chapter 97
Dmitri
Ariel should have been here with me to say goodbye to the last phase of our trauma, but her body suddenly started acting up this morning, and after what happened three days ago, I admitted her for a general body check.
“Wait, Dmitri,” Anya’s raspy voice stopped me from taking any further step out of the ward.
She’d be locked in here until the psychiatrist decided that her mental health was back to normal. At least, it was better than living in guilt for the rest of my life.
I spared her a backward glance, my eyes roving through her pale face. How did I go from being madly in love with this woman to feeling nothing for her?
“What do you want from me?”
Her hands had to be chained to the metal rail of the bed after she made two attempts to escape from her ward this morning. I couldn’t have her doing more damage to my family so the doctor and I decided on forcefully restricting her to a place.
“I’m sorry,” She sighed, running her tongue over her lips. “Can I have thirty minutes of your time?” Her eyes watered and something within me shifted.
I’d never seen her openly display her vulnerability even when we were together. She was always the tough bitch that took no shit from anyone.
I guess it was one of her numerous traits that attracted me to her. She’d studied me meticulously and maneuvered her way into my life.
My lips remained shut, my brain temporarily refusing to produce any response seeing that she had a lot to say. A nod was all I gave and a dam of tears broke from her eyes.
I watched her quietly, sobbing her heart out until there were no more tears to be shed.
“Thank you for not killing me,” She sniffed, wiping her nose against her shoulder.
“You should be thanking Ariel not me,”
She shut her eyes and nodded in agreement. “It was hard for me to accept that she was more perfect for you. She might be young and immature, but she loves you in a way that I can never do. Her feelings for you aren’t warped like mine. Gosh, she even took my child like her own,”
“How did you cope all these years without speaking to your daughter? We had a child who became dumb for years just because of the trauma she faced when we thought you were dead. You knew all of that, yet, you stayed away all for what? So that you could continue fucking my brother while I mourned for you?”
She broke into another bawl that did nothing but annoy me. A few years back, hearing her tears would have me running around just to make sure she was fine, but the case wasn’t the same anymore.
Even staying in the same room with her made my skin crawl.
“I have bipolar, Dmitri,” She confessed. “I already had eyes on you before my dad decided to take revenge on you for the business deal that you intercepted and then sent me as a spy to you. Knowing that there was no other way to be with you peacefully without being troubled by my father, I accepted. You trusted me with all your secrets, but I didn’t return the favor,”
“Did you tell him about my safe house?”
She narrowed her eyes into a squint and lowered her lashes. “I did, but he couldn’t find the main location because I lied to him about it,”
No one could ever find out about it because I was always two steps ahead and I’d tightened the security in the safehouse as soon as Mr Scuderi told me that she was the daughter of the Outfit’s boss.
“I’d like to leave right now, the thirty minutes you asked for have already elapsed,” I said coldly, starting off to the door.
She let out a deep sigh. “Will you be able to forgive me for everything that happened?”
“I can’t promise you anything right now. I mean, I might have let go of the betrayal but you tried to murder my wife and I can’t easily forgive that,”
She clicked her tongue in disagreement. “I wouldn’t have done that. That’s why I loaded the gun with just one bullet, I just wanted to have you once more and that was the only way I could get through to you,”
“You told Enzo about my safehouse,”
“I never did. We met a few times and he wanted me to help him frustrate you out of business, but I never agreed to it. You should ask Ivanov though, his father might have known about it and told him,” She suggested and gradually the bitterness I bore toward her dissipated.
I still couldn’t stand her, but the urge to kill her had completely disappeared. Maybe it was because she had a reasonable explanation for her disappearance.
“Have a nice day, Anya,” I shut the door behind me.
A beep resonated in my pocket and I turned on my phone’s screen to receive a message from Nikolai wanting to meet with me. My mind was in a limbo as I contemplated snubbing his invitation or giving him a chance to clear himself.
I chose the latter and hopped into my car, driving off to the location he had sent. I got there in no time and strutted to the table. The ambiance of the open-roof eatery was tranquil, a nice place for us to have a proper conversation.
“Didn’t think you’d come,”
“I also thought the same. I have somewhere important to be right now so I’ll want you to go straight to the point. Why did you call me over?” I asked bluntly.
A waiter waltzed toward us and took our order. I wasn’t going to stay for a long time so I requested a bottle of red wine and then he left.
“You have asked me severally why I left Europe to come back here. Well, the truth is that I felt very lonely back there, my life was rotating aimlessly without any worthwhile achievement and it was all my fault,”
“Oh, did you just realize that?”
He cocked his head to the side and clasped his fingers. “Father always favored you better than me even though I was the first child. Mother was the only one who cared about me, but somehow, you still took the largest space in her heart,”
I rested my arm against the table and cracked my knuckles. “It’s not my fault that I was treated preferentially and Dad didn’t love me as you claimed, he was just happy that he had someone to do his bidding without arguing,”
“But it doesn’t take away the fact that I did several stupid things,” He paused. “Liora is your child, Dmitri. I made it look otherwise just to hurt you and get a reaction out of you, but through your silence and wisdom, you’ve made me see why I could never measure up to you,”
Relief soared through me as I swiveled my head downward, fighting back the tears that built up in my eyes. For years, a heavy pile of resentment had built up within me for him.
I’d pretended not to miss him and so I ensured that no one mentioned his name around me, but talking to him like this made me feel better.
Today was such a good day, I realized.
“Don’t talk down on yourself, Nikolai. We might not see eye to eye on a lot of things, but I believe you have your strengths. Being the Capo of several soldiers isn’t that easy and I couldn’t have done all that by myself. Vladimir has been a huge asset to me though he’s our brother and Armen is always willing to execute my orders so it’s not all on me,”
His face pulled into a smile and silence ensued for a moment, and then we burst into laughter. I didn’t mind that we were bringing attention to ourselves, all that mattered was the evident peace.
“I needed this,” He admitted and stretched his hand for a handshake. Our palms glided over each other’s as we gripped our hands firmly.
“I’m so sorry for everything,” His expression was apologetic so I decided to tease him.
“You’ll have to repeat that,”
He shook his head. “I’m not saying it again,” He poured some wine into the wine glass that the waiter had already provided and we clinked our glass cups.
“You’d better enjoy every moment we spend here because you might not be seeing me anytime soon,”
“What do you mean?” My brows climbed my forehead.
“I’ll be traveling back to Europe tomorrow. I have to start my life afresh,” He declared with no glimpse of a smile on his face.