MasukLOTTIE
“Viktor, put a call across to Luca right now. Have him come here and explain this to me.” Igor said. My heart lurched in my throat. I looked from him to Viktor, my fingers trembling. Viktor nodded slowly, his eye still transfixed on me. “I’m on it.” I shook my head, stepping forward to clutch Viktor’s shirt. His steely gaze lowered to my hand on the fabric. When I made no move to leave him, he grabbed my hand and flung it off. I blinked back tears. “I’ll do it. I’ll pee, just give me a few minutes. I’ll drink more water. I’ll force it… please.” I begged. “You’ll do that with your father here. I’ve given you too much grace.” Igor spat out. I still kept my eyes on Viktor, waiting for him to say something. He simply tore his gaze off me, tipped his head at his father and brushed past. “Viktor!” I cried out, rushing towards the exit where he was headed. Igor yelled after me as well, but I ignored him. Viktor stopped in the middle of the hallway, quite a distance from Igor’s room. I started running towards him at the same time he turned around to face me. I stopped in front of him, panting. “You had to the chance to just pee and you blew it. Igor’s words stand around here, snow white. I’m calling Luca right now, and you can bring the pee sample while he’s here.” Fear clawed my throat. My father couldn’t come here. He just… couldn’t. That man was not only going to tie me up and hit me like he usually did when I lived in his house, he was going to hurt her too. He was going to hurt the only reason why I worked hard every day. The reason why I still wanted to survive every single day despite all the shit I’d been through. Viktor watched me for a few seconds, as if waiting for something, before turning to leave. He was only two steps in when I stopped him. “I’ll do anything.” I spoke out, not caring that there was a security guard a few steps behind, probably listening in on us. I went on, “Whatever you want, for you to help me. I can’t leave this marriage. At least not right now.” He didn’t move at first. But he eventually did. Slowly, he spun around to face me. His head tilted to the side. Looking behind me, he gestured with his fingers to the guard, and I heard footsteps retreating afterwards. He returned his gaze to me. “You’ll do whatever I want.” He mulled over the words. I nodded quickly. “Anything. Asides from leaving your father, of course. I’ll…” I sighed. “I’ll pee right now if you want me to, I…” His brow raised. “You’ll pee?” I stuttered, “Y-yeah? After drinking some more water, at least.” He burst out laughing. My cheeks flamed with shame. “You think drinking gallons of water would change the test?” He asked me, moving closer. I shrugged, my heart beating out of my chest. “Well… wouldn’t it?” He stared at me for a minute, then scoffed and shook his head. “Still never paid attention in school, did you?” I bit my lip, more scared than embarrassed. “So… it won’t work?” “Not in the least.” He smirked. I swallowed. “Can you… will you help me? I can’t leave this marriage…” His jaw ticked. “What could I possibly want from you? The most I want right now is for you to leave, and I’m about to start working on that. Once you pee in that cup and I send it out to the doctors, you’ll be caught. Despite the amount of water you drink. You’ll be caught for the fraud you are, and you’ll disappear from my life forever.” I couldn’t help it. I was the one that closed the distance between us this time. Our chests grazed each other. His eye darkened. “Please. Please, I’ll… I’ll do whatever you say, whatever you want. Please.” I begged, tearing up. Viktor’s phone rang in his hand before he could give me a response. He kept his eye on me while placing the phone against his ear. “Hello?” “Did you get through to Luca?” I heard Igor ask on the other end. I bit my cheek, my eyes begging him one last time. There was a long pause before he finally answered, “Luca isn’t in the country right now. He can’t come in today, but I’ll take your wife’s pee and get the results in as soon as possible. I can get him here then, if we have a problem.” My heart swelled with relief. He was really going to help me. For a moment while he looked at me, he didn’t look like the rugged man that ruled a mafia syndicate alongside his father, but the pretty boy that had stolen my heart back in high school. “Hmm. Get the results first then. Luca after. And Viktor?” “Mm?” “Do a clean job. Don’t manipulate shit because you want her out. I’ll know if you added something. My doctors are loyal to me alone, I won’t take any betrayal lightly.” “You can have someone else do it if you want, Igor.” He said. I slapped his chest impulsively, my heart skipping a beat. He just stared at me without a word. He couldn’t have another person do this! Was he crazy?! “Do it.” “Alright.” He dropped the call and grabbed my wrist. His gaze was downright scary when he asked me again, “Anything, snow white?” He enquired. This time, my nod was shaky. “Y-yeah.” He hummed in approval, then started pulling me after him. I stumbled over my feet a little before getting myself together. He stopped in front of the last door on the other side of the hallway, took out a card from his pocket and swiped. The door opened. He pulled me in after him, shut the door after us. In a flash, I was pressed against the cold door, and my body warmed, thinking about what else he could possibly want from me… His rich, woody cologne filled my nostrils, and I suddenly wanted to get lost in it. Viktor’s hand closed around my throat, and I struggled to keep my gaze on his good eye to keep myself from staring at his lips. I couldn’t get my mind off our kiss. Rightfully so… the man could kiss. He broke the stare first, his gaze dropping to my lips. “You know what I want, don’t you, little temptress?” He queried, his voice hoarse with lust. “You’ll… fuck me?” I breathed against his lips, just to be sure. His grip around my throat tightened. “I sure fucking will.” He responded harshly. “For as long as I protect your little druggie secret, you’ll be my slut. Mine to fuck, punish and own…” Despite being breathless from his iron grip around my throat, I sassed, “I don’t know about the ownership part… I belong to your father, not you.” “That’s where you’re wrong, baby.” He growled against my ear, his large hand sliding down my naked thigh. Chills spread across my skin as he lifted me until my hips slammed flush against his hard length. “You’re mine. Always were, always will be. Fucking mine.” His teeth grazed my pulse point, the effect traveling straight to my core. Before I could draw another shaky breath, I heard a loud rip. Air whooshed over my skin as my singlet fell open.LOTTIE“What do you mean you shot Luca?”Viktor raised his hands. “Lottie, calm down.”“Calm down? You just told me you shot my father! Is he dead?”“No.”“Then what happened? Where is he? Did you leave him somewhere? Viktor, what have you done?”He reached for my hands, but I pulled away.“Answer me!”“He’s alive, Lottie. I told you he would be fine.”“You said you shot him!”“And I did.”I stared at him, my mouth falling open.“Why would you do that? What if you killed him? What if—”“He’s not dead. I had him taken to a hospital, and a doctor has seen him. He’s going to recover.”I pressed both hands against my chest.“Goodness, Viktor! You can’t just shoot someone and tell me about it as if you went out to buy groceries!”“He was lucky I didn’t do worse.”“Viktor!”“What? He took your daughter, Lottie. He had men keeping her away from you, and he thought he could keep doing whatever he wanted without facing the consequences.”I looked toward Nevaeh, who sat on the couch with the ha
LOTTIE“Please, Papa. Just give her back to me.”I clutched the pillow against my chest, my tears soaking the fabric as I stared at the empty space beside me.It had been weeks since Papa and Mamma were thrown out of the house, but I still had no idea where Nevaeh was. Viktor had men searching for her, and each time he came into the room, I asked if they had found her.Each time, his answer was the same.Not yet.I had barely left my bed since that day. I cried for my baby, for Nevaeh, and for the mother I thought I had. Some days, I could not eat, and on others, I only got out of bed to take a bath before returning to the same spot.A knock came at the door.“Lottie?”I wiped my face with the back of my hand.“Come in.”The door opened, and Viktor stepped inside.“Have you eaten anything?”I shook my head and pulled the blanket over my legs.“Lottie, you need to eat something. You can’t keep going like this.”“I don’t feel hungry.”He walked toward the bed, then stopped near the foot
VIKTOR“Lottie, open the door.”I knocked again, and this time the door opened. She rushed into my arms, bursting into tears as I caught her.“Viktor!”“I’m here.” I held her against my chest, rubbing her back. “What’s happened?”“They know, Viktor. Mamma knows where Nevaeh is. She has been lying to me all along.”I pulled back to look at her face. Her cheeks were wet, and she was struggling to speak.“Tell me what happened.”“Papa showed them a video of Nevaeh. Felicia was hitting her because she kept crying for her Mom and Dad. Mamma knew about it, Viktor. She knew where my daughter was, and she watched them hurt her.”“Where is Nevaeh now?”“I don’t know. Papa won’t tell me. He said I would only see her if I did what he wanted.”I cupped her face. “Did he touch you?”She shook her head, then covered her mouth as another sob escaped.“And my baby…” she whispered. “He asked me what I thought happened to my baby, and Mamma smiled. She was the one who did it, Viktor. She put something
LOTTIEIt was a small smile, but I saw it, and the tears that had been gathering in my eyes spilled down my cheeks.“No,” I whispered, shaking my head as I took a step away from her. “No, Mamma. Please tell me he is lying. Tell me you don’t know what happened to my baby.”She said nothing.“Mamma, look at me!” I cried, reaching for her as my knees began to weaken. “You were there when I started bleeding. You took care of me that morning. You made my breakfast, and you brought me my tea. You sat beside my bed and held my hand when I came back from the hospital, and you told me everything would be all right. Please tell me you didn’t do this to me!”Her smile faded, but she still refused to deny it.I covered my mouth as a sob escaped me, my whole body shaking as I looked at the woman I had trusted with my life, the woman I had defended when Viktor questioned whether she should stay in the Morozov mansion.“You killed my baby,” I cried. “My own mother killed my baby!”“Do not raise your
LOTTIEI stepped out of the corner, my heart beating fast as I barked, “What the hell is going on here?”The three of them turned toward me, and Mamma’s face changed the moment she saw me standing at the entrance. Papa, on the other hand, showed no sign of surprise as he slipped his phone into his pocket, while Felicia rose from the couch and folded her arms across her chest.“What are you doing here?” Mamma asked.I stared at her, unable to believe she was the same woman who had cried in my arms and claimed Papa had hurt her, the same woman I had welcomed into the Morozov mansion because I thought she needed my protection.“I should be asking you that question, Mamma. You told me Papa hurt you, and I believed you. You told me you had nowhere else to go, and I opened my doors to you. Meanwhile, you have been sitting here with him, planning God knows what behind my back. What is going on?”“Lower your voice,” Papa ordered.“No! You don’t get to tell me what to do after everything you h
LOTTIE“Darling, you should have told me you were coming today, because I would have prepared something special for you before your arrival.”I stopped outside the sitting room when I heard Mamma’s voice, my hand resting on the tray I had been carrying upstairs.A moment later, I heard her laugh, followed by the sound of a kiss, and when I glanced through the open doorway, I saw her holding Papa’s face between her hands before settling beside him on the sofa.“It’s good to see you too, sweetheart,” Papa replied, brushing his lips against her cheek before reaching into his jacket. “I brought something for you and Felicia to see, and I believe you’ll find it rather interesting.”Mamma leaned against his shoulder, watching him take out his phone, while Felicia put down her wineglass and moved closer.“Is that her?” Felicia asked.Papa nodded and opened a video.“MOM! DAD! Please come and get me! I want my Mom and Dad!”The tray slipped from my hands and crashed against the floor, but I b







