Chapter 3

Kiara:

“Arda?” I asked frowning in confusion when he walked inside the house.

We didn’t even know that he left the house to begin with. Seeing as he was coming in confused both Natasha and I.

“Arda, when did you go out?” Natasha asked.

“It concerns neither one of you” Arda answered before walking toward the door. I frowned and shook my head at Natasha not to question him anymore. We all knew the state that he was in and didn’t want to stir things as to worsen them with him.

Him losing his sister the way he has drove him off his proper mindset, it was something that we all knew, and the fact that he blamed me for it wasn’t something that I missed either.

“Aren’t you going to comment?” Arda asked me. Ah, yes, I forgot to mention that part. Despite the fact that the two of us had a nice friendship when Alexandra was alive. The man was constantly trying to start random arguments with me, whether it was him calling me trash words, or trying to stir my anger; I usually managed to stay quiet and just ignore him. Underline the world, usually.

“Is there any need to? You are an adult and know what’s right and wrong”

“Coming from the woman who has zero honor as to know what’s right or wrong…”

“Is there anything important that you’re going to tell me, Arda? If not, I need to go get my son from his nursery” I said stopping him.

“Oh, the bastard Aslanov” Arda said making my eyes widen. I stopped my tracks as I was heading to the door and turned to face him. His eyes meeting mine as he waited for me to react knowing that he had ticked a nerve.

“What did you just call my son?” I asked.

“A bastard” he repeated again “a woman like you is never going to be an Aslanov, and regardless of the fact that Artur adopted you as his own out of sympathy, it is only a matter of time that Alessio realized the mistake he did with marrying you”

“Kiara, you’re going to be late…”

“I will excuse every word you say to me, Arda. But should I hear you insulting my children, or breaking their hearts and prides; I’ll be sure to rip your heart out and feed it to you” I said glaring at him. I didn’t wait for him to respond before walking toward the door knowing that Viktor’s tutor was done with him by now. For some reason Damien believed that our kids having a tutor at an early age would help them future wise when speaking of discipline, and despite me being initially against it. I came to learn that every child in the Aslanov family went through that; therefore, I wasn’t going to come changing their habits.

I smiled at the sight of my son who ran toward me when he caught sight of me, I had to admit that he was more attached to me than his sister ever was. But that may have been because I spoiled him too much. The classes he took were still in the house due to him being too young to go to a nursery on his own, at least in my opinion, and for that I was thankful.

“Mummy” he smiled as I kissed his cheek. His tutor, Nikita, smiled at me as she took slow steps toward me.

“Mrs. Kiara”

“Nikita, how are you?” I asked smiling.

“I am fine, thank you”

“How was he today?”

“Gave a little fuss today, there’s something that worried me about him actually” she said and I frowned in confusion. She nodded at the child who was in my arms and I nodded putting him down.

“Love, how about you go and draw something for me? I’ll speak to your teacher here” I said and he nodded excitedly. I smiled as I watched him head to his desk before looking at his teacher who avoided my eyes.

“He said something about his uncle. I know how the family works, but I don’t think the kids are exposed to what their father does”

“I don’t understand”

“He said that he and his cousin, Tatiana, saw their cousin doing something bad. At least that’s what his cousin described it to him, she closed his eyes before he got to ‘see’ what was actually happening” Nikita said and I nodded.

“The kids are not usually exposed to anything of the family businesses, not until a certain age and if they’re trained enough to be able to hold that responsibility. Else they would be living in their family’s wealth, working with the businesses” I said a Nikita nodded. She has been working with the Aslanov family for years now, therefore, if anyone knew how they worked; it was her.

“I know, that’s why I came and spoke to you. I feared speaking to Alessio, you know how he has been with Arda lately. Therefore…”

“I understand, I’ll see if I can speak to him and find out. Otherwise, I’ll be speaking to Tatiana, maybe she would tell me something” I said and she nodded. I smiled at the sight of Viktor who ran toward me showing me a drawing that he made.

“This is you, me, daddy, uncle Ivan, Aunti Natasha, Alexandra, Grandpa Artur, and Grandpa Damien” Viktor said happily and I smiled. I raised an eyebrow that he chose not to draw his uncle before he pointed at a window in the house revealing an angry man “and this is Uncle Arda”

“And why is your uncle in the house rather than with us in the drawing”

“Because he’s always staring at us through the window” he said and I frowned. However, the child wasn’t wrong, Arda was constantly in his bedroom lately. He wouldn’t bother coming down to eat either. Well, that is unless I wasn’t on the table. His conflict with me went from us being good friends, to us being enemies. Not only did he blame me for his sister’s death, but he blamed me for his brother no longer fighting to search for his mum’s killer. There were times when I remembered us being friends, but for the past ten years, he proved to me that he wanted nothing more than to see me dead.

I sighed and nodded at Nikita before walking out of the nursery as I held my son’s hand in mine. The two of us walked up the stairs and to his room where he smiled when he saw his new toys, of course, my beloved Alessio had to buy him new toys every now and then.

“Arda, love, can I ask you something?” I said getting down on my knees in front of him. He smiled and walked toward me, cupping my cheeks before he planted a sloppy kiss on my nose making me laugh “you told Ms. Nikita that you saw Uncle Arda doing something bad?”

“I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. I promised Tatia to keep it a secret” he said shyly.

“Do you want to tell me what it is? I won’t tell anyone about it” I said pretending to zip my mouth and lock it. Viktor’s eyes widened and he pretended to unlock my mouth.

“I will tell you, but you can’t tell anyone, not even daddy”

“I will keep it a secret” I said gently. He looked around the room as if some villain would be entering the room, or would be listening in.

“We saw him hurting someone, he was hitting him behind the house. She didn’t let me see it, but she told me that it was something bad, and that we shouldn’t go hurting people” my heart raced against my ribcage and I found it harder to breathe for a second. However, I forced myself to remain in control as I kept a smile on my face.

“He might have been playing, love. You know, like when I tell you not to play rough with Alex” I lied to my son. His eyes brightened and he nodded “but it doesn’t mean that it is right”

“I don’t play bad, mummy” he said and I smiled cupping his cheek.

“Where did you see him play?”

“In the back garden, mummy”

“Alright, love, come on, I’ll call Vivian to help you shower before lunch, yeah?” I said smiling. He nodded and I clapped my hand twice for his maid to walk inside which she did quickly “help him shower then change into fresh clothes before lunch”

She nodded not saying a word, watching as I walked out before she approached Viktor. My hands shook and my heart raced as I fought to remain calm. I pulled out my phone and messaged Alessio knowing that he would be the only one to help me with this.

“Love, call me when you have the time. It’s urgent”