Chapter 2

"I don't want to be liked, I want to be respected."

-Jack Ma-

***

Anton Chernikov was sitting in the porch of his mansion on the side of Moscow with a piece of Cigar in his hand. Placing it in between his lips, he inhaled it for a bit before breathing out the smoke, which had mixed into the cold air to create even more vapor in the air. He was wearing a long layered coat with a bit of fur on the back to warm his head. The weather that day was rather forgiving for a Russian winter.

A little far from his sight was the view of his Serval cats playing around, in the yard, chasing each other as they played in the large yard. He found those creatures so amusing, of course, they were gifts from a good friend of his, ones he could not really reject as he was fond of exotic animals as well, so much he hired several specialized workers just to take care of them. In his mansion gathered all sorts of exotic animals from all over the world, both dead and alive, it was the only hobby he had in life, besides that, everything was business for him.

One of the recent business deal he had taken was a marriage proposal. Yes, it was probably one of the craziest transaction he had ever made, it was one done purely on physical impulse. He had heard of Grigory Orlovsky before and the two had been well acquaintance, but he had never thought there would ever come a day where he would be a son in law to that man. Yes, he was a mafia leader, a minor mafia organization, but still an impactful one.

It was like a link of chain, each dots on the link mattered, each of them had their own purpose, one could not simply look down on a certain crime organization just because they are smaller in scale, it doesn’t really work that way. Each mattered, because at one point they were what built the country as well. People know who Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos are, what people tend to overlook are these seemingly smaller players, who actually had much larger impact on a private scale than these public billionaires figure.

It troubled Anton a bit because although he had done his calculations of the benefits he would reap from the arranged marriage, it was partially nerve wrecking for him as well, because it involved a woman. Men are simple creatures, he knew how to handle men well and even certain types of women he was all too familiar with.

Yet this one was slightly different, since the first time Grigory showed him her picture, he felt that something about her was so attractive and eye catching to him, yes she was a beauty indeed, but a lot of Russian women are beautiful as well, so he did not quite understand what it was about this particular woman that caught his attention so intently like that.

He knew that he wanted something a little bit different than the usual lustful attentions and affection women had given him, he knew he did not want to live and spend the rest of his life with an easy woman, this one was said to be a virgin, though honestly he did not mind either if she wasn’t, she still appeared so pure and almost angel like, that he felt so drawn to her.

It was problematic for Anton who had always been taught to guard himself against women for they are the source of destruction for plenty of men. He had some of his friends’ wife testifying against their own husband during tough times to save themselves, some ran away with foreign man to another country, while not all were bad, as he had seen some good examples as well, he was still afraid, and Anton had never been afraid of anything else before.

He had always been a very calm, cold, and rational man. He was capable of doing anything as long as it was advantageous to him, which was the reason why he never wanted to fall in love or use feelings, but there’s this thing called nurture vs nature, though he as an individual had always tried to be logical at any circumstance, being raised with examples of a happy loving parents, who although they did many terrible stuff to other people, were always so genuine and loving to each other and seeing such thing happening in his family, deep down he always knew that he wanted that as well for himself. A partner who would stick with him through life.

He could not allow himself to drown in his own thoughts any further, so he stood up from the porch and walked inside his mansion, where he was immediately greeted by one of his man, he rushed to his side with a concerned expression.

“What is it, Pasha?” he asked the man.

“Madam has arrived, she wants to meet you right away.” He informed with a sweaty palm. Anton rolled his eyes, he was not the kind who would do such gesture often, but when it came to the matter, he was never looking forward to it. Still, he had to pay his respect to her, with heavy steps, he walked into his grand living room where she was already seated with a cup of tea on her hand. She was wearing a full fur coat, and warm pair of trousers with ankle length Chelsea boots which made her appear like an old school, a bit vintage classy lady. It was her style, after all, she could never live without fur coats on her skin, it was always her favorite.

She had her slick black hair tied in a formal bun, her lip was painted in the deepest shade of red possible, her eyes, though they had started to show signs of aging, remained as blue and bright as she was over thirty years ago when she was only a newly mother. Anyone who laid their eyes on her could easily tell that the woman had aged incredibly well.

All those years dealing with the family had made her immune to stress. At that age she was sure there was nothing else that could harm her or shock her. She had her fair share of struggles in the past, it was time for her to enjoy peace in her life, but of course, she could never fully retire, not when she heard that her only son had made a life changing decision, which was not even told to her by himself.

“Hello son, I see you are starting to smoke again. Don’t pick up your father’s habit, dear. You know it’s going to age you horribly.” She advised out of sheer concern. He put off the cigar and walked toward his mother, who was smiling at him, trying to make sense of what was actually going on in his wicked mind. Yes, even his mother knew what kind of man he was and she still couldn’t get over the shock she felt when she realized that he was doing such reckless, or as she called it, impulsive action, considering his personality.

Though as an elegant lady she always made sure to put on a slight façade over her image and never reveal one hundred percent of her thoughts and intentions.

“Mama, I wonder what might be the reason for your visit this time? It’s so unlikely of you to come and visit me. You’re supposed to be spending your time somewhere in the United States with your new company and everything else that you left Russia for, mama.” His tone was calm but his words were piercing.

“How’s that American man treating you? I hope he treats you well and shower you with the lavish lifestyle you are so used to having.” He continued. His mother, Maria stared at her own son in disbelief, she had no idea how it was possible for him to become such a disrespectful man at such a short amount of time. She guessed allowing him to take over his late father’s business in Russia had gotten into his head. Yesterday he still needed his mother’s guidance and then suddenly he was talking back to her like that.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong in me visiting my own son, beside, I have a matter to talk to you about.” She thought what good would come had she forced the matter too far, his son was not the kind who would soften up just because she asked him to, he was clever and cunning, sometimes it terrified her a little, but she still had the upper hand, after all, she was his mother.

Maria could no longer hold her intention and strain the conversation way too far from its original context, she knew she needed to tell her son straight away about her opinion.

She pulled her bag close to her and reached out inside, trying to find something, a few seconds later, she pulled out a picture of a young woman he had seen before.

“This woman, I heard she’s Orlovsky’s only daughter. If she had no business with us I would have never even cared about her, but I recently heard you made a marriage deal with her father, Grigory. Is that true?” she questioned as if she wished deep down it was all just a mere fabricated lies the men had made to bring down her son’s reputation, yet when Anton slowly nodded his head in confirmation, she could have sworn her legs turned into puddle as she instantly sat down on the couch again.

“My son, what are you thinking!?” she raised her voice ever so slightly.

“The Orlovsky are no good, you should have chosen a family that’s more suitable to ours, someone who has higher prestige, some of my friend’s families have beautiful daughters I can arrange you with, why this woman you have never even met!?”

He raised his hand to stop her from speaking any further.

“Mother, it is none of your business. Now, if you’ll let me.” He rose from his seat and walked away from his mother without saying anything else.