Alessio:
“Have you managed to track anything?” I asked Ivan who shook his head as he handed me a few papers when I entered the office.
“Nothing, whoever set that bomb was sure to leave no trace” Ivan answered and I nodded. I expected this to be a little harder than usual, but I didn’t really care; these people were human, they were bound to leave a single trace.
“Try the street cameras, not the ones surrounding the building; those that are leading to it would do. See if you can find anything suspicious” I said putting the papers down on the desk “come on, we need to drop the kids to school before we head to work”
“Alright” Ivan said nodding. The two of us walked out of the office and to the living room where Natasha was rocking her and Ivan’s baby, Timur, Alexandra was watching her recorded episode, and Kiara holding Viktor who was watching Tatiana, Natasha’s eldest daughter as she studied for her exam.
“Alex, don’t you have a spelling bee today?” Ivan asked.
“I do, but I’ll be reviewing it in the car” she answered and Ivan nodded kneeling down to kiss Natasha’s forehead. He took Timur’s hand and kissed it softly before wrapping his arm around Tatiana who got up putting her papers away.
I cupped Kiara’s cheeks and pecked her lips before taking Alexandra’s hand in mine and walking out the door.
“Aren’t we going to say goodbye to Grandpa Damien and Grandpa Artur?” Alexandra asked.
“Not today, we’ll leave them to rest” I said smiling. Both having come back late last night from whatever they were doing. I knew that they had work to tend to at one of the safe hotels, being the representatives of the family when Ivan and I weren’t around.
I opened the door for the girls and watched as they got inside before getting into the car beside Ivan as he started it. Tatiana started helping Alexandra with her spelling bee, making sure that she didn’t make a mistake in the harder words throughout the whole way.
“Bye, daddy, bye, Uncle Ivan” Alexandra said kissing the two of us before she walked out.
“Bye, princess” I said smiling.
Tatiana kissed her dad’s cheek, whispering something in his ear before kissing mine “bye, Uncle Alessio”
“Bye, beautiful” I said softly. I watched as the girls walked into school before Ivan drove off, heading toward the office.
“Something is bothering Tatiana, you know that, right?” I asked and Ivan sighed but nodded.
“I tried asking, but no matter what I tell her, the girl doesn’t seem to want to tell me what’s bugging her. Natasha asked me not to pressure her, but it seemed that me leaving her be like that isn’t helping either” Ivan said and I nodded. We have noticed that she has been going cold throughout the whole week, though we weren’t really sure what the problem is, and Tatiana wouldn’t tell us what it was. We called her school, but they said that there was no issue either.
“I’ll see if I could try talking to her later today”
“Playing the uncle card” Ivan teased and I chuckled as we reached the office. Both our eyes hardening once we entered. Having become Pakhan years ago, Ivan was my second hand by default, it wasn’t even a question. Dad had retired after Alexandra died, and Artur chose to rest by our side, watching the kids grow in peace.
“Boss” one of the girls said once she saw me. Her blonde hair tied in a bun as she brought papers to me and I nodded glaring down at her before walking past her. She was one of my club’s managers, and the papers that she brought would most probably be about what happened during the weekend, or about information that I asked for. Some would be the club’s financial records, and whether or not it would need any supplies provided.
“Call for a meeting” I told the secretary once I caught sight of her. She nodded and dialed her phone calling the other departments for the meeting that had been canceled three nights ago due to the bomb attack. Thankfully, no one was harmed, but the fact that one of our allying families’ building was the one affected; I didn’t really appreciate it.
I watched as the men entered the meeting room. Ivan sat by my side with a smirk on his face. The confidence that we both had was something that was known all around, my eyes catching sight of Arda who never usually came to work. The man has been in bad shape since Alexandra died, and though he was with the fact of her dying, something changed in him when he saw her corpse.
I didn’t comment when I saw him sit down in front of me at the head of the table. But even Ivan was surprised to see him here. He looked at me and I shook my head in confusion. Nevertheless, I stood up and started my meeting.
“What are the outcomes of last year?” I asked Christina, my clubs’ main CEO. She was in charge of ALL the clubs, her managers ran the clubs during the nights and would report to her on a daily basis. Some would report to me when needed or asked for information, if urgent supplies were needed; they would either come to me, or go to Ivan.
“So far, everything has been going according to plan, and we’ve even exceeded the initial timetabled financial plan in most clubs. Two clubs haven’t reached to their target, however, I have taken care of their manager and changed the girls to more experienced ones. For our strippers, I needed to hire a few more; one sprained her ankle, and the other quit when she got pregnant” Christina said and I nodded.
“Winery?” I asked Mikhail who handed Ivan a file. He opened it revealing the pictures of the new wineries we had. I had them shift areas when the repeated attacks on our business bases started becoming more frequent. I didn’t miss Arda who frowned before composing himself once again.
“If things go as planned, boss, we should be able to open three new bars by the end of next week. We were supposed to be launching our main opening next month, but I believe a soft opening would bring in more publicity to the place” Mikhail said and I nodded.
“Arda, is there anything bothering you?” I asked my brother who seemed to glare at the table. His eyes met mine and he shook his head, avoiding my eyes. I didn’t bother commenting, but I was going to be getting to the bottom of his situation later.
We proceeded with our meeting normally, and somewhere in the middle of it, Arda left the room to take a call. However, he never came back.
*********************
I entered my office to find my brother sitting there with two of my security guards watching him. Their eyes were on him as hawks would have on their preys as to ensure that he didn’t hurt anyone, or himself to begin with. The men looked at me and I nodded for them to walk out leaving me alone with my brother who glared at me.
“It seems like your men seemed to find pleasure in holding me hostage”
“And it seems like you have a problem which you are refusing to admit, or speak of” I said glaring at the once genuine, kind man. Now he barely looked at his nieces and nephews, nor did he bother approaching anyone at the house.
“Arda, when is your fight with us going to end? We are your family. We are NOT here to hurt you” I said looking him in the eye.
“Wasn’t Alexandra our sister”
“You hit her to snap out of what she was in yourself. The woman kidnapped my wife…”
“The babysitter. You married a person dad hired to clean up after you. Call her what you want, a psychologist, psychiatrist, wife. That won’t change the fact that she came to work for us as an employee” it took everything in me not to punch the man in the face. To think that he once loved Kiara, the man would defend her with his life, but now, it was like she was his sworn enemy “everything changed in the house when she arrived”
“Yes, she fixed the damage that has been done on us all, and in case you’ve forgotten, your sister wanted us all dead”
“She wanted to avenge mom’s death. Something that you seemed to forget with your beloved bitch” I punched him in the face as he said that. His eyes widened and he glared at me before rolling his eyes.
“The woman is my wife, and the mother of my children”
“Those kids are bastards in my eyes, until that woman dies, those children will NEVER be Aslanov’s” he said trying to get up. However, I put my hands on his shoulders pinning him down to his seat.
“One more word about my family, Arda, and I’ll be sure to send you to Russia where you’ll learn the meaning of the word family” I said glaring at my brother whose eyes widened when my hot breath his face “am I making myself clear?”
“Yes, boss” he gulped.
“Good, now get out of the building, go home, and I don’t want to see your face until you’ve learned your limits”
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 argum
Alessio: “Kiara, is everything okay?” I asked through the phone after leaving the meeting. Kiara was NEVER, and I mean NEVER one to call or message me about situations when I was at work. Therefore, seeing as she has right now, I knew that something terribly wrong had happened. “Alessio, you need to come home” Kiara said making me frown in confusion “we can’t find Arda, and something bad has happened” “What?” “Arda killed someone in the house” Kiara said making my heart drop to my stomach “I don’t know who he is, but Tatiana and Viktor saw him. Whoever it was, the man was beaten to death. Natasha and I just spoke to Tatiana, they saw him killing the man in the backyard. There’s blood on the walls, but the man is nowhere to be seen or found” “Where’s Arda?” I asked. “I don’t know, I did go to his room to try and see him, I wanted to lock him inside. But he wasn’t there when I reached the room. The window was open, he could have escaped
Third Person Point of View:“Arda!” She snapped glaring at him.“You couldn’t have expected me to stay back there after their kids saw me killing the man” Arda snapped back at her “Tatiana, your daughter rushed to tell Alessio, she would have made sure that I was dead before I could think twice”“You shouldn’t have killed the man in the first place, and especially not in the house!” Tatiana snapped at him. Her eyes glared daggers at the man whose eyes widened in both fear and rage. Fear, because he knew what the woman was capable of, he saw it firsthand how she made one of the strongest men submit to her with just one word. The man was her ultimate soldier, and her biggest pride “nevertheless, we can’t change what already happened. You’ll be staying here for now, and do try staying out of trouble”“What am I going to be doing here?” Arda asked.“Tr
Kiara:“What do you mean we have to go elsewhere, Alessio?” I asked wide eyed. My heart racing against my chest as I processed his words.“Kiara, you and the kids have to go to the safe house, you and I both know that it’s not safe for you here” Alessio said making me glare at him. The fact that he even suggested such a thing annoyed me more than he could think. The fact that he believed that it was okay to go on ahead wanting to send his wife and kids away from their home when he knew my opinion on it angered me.“The kids have school, Alessio, and I belong by your side. If there’s a fight to take, then I don’t think that I would come now, ten years into our marriage, and run away from it” I said glaring at my husband. He smiled and wrapped his arms around me, hugging me as he kissed the crown of my head “stop being romantic when I’m angry with you”“When was the last time I to
Alessio: I wrapped my arm around my wife’s waist as the two of us walked through the airport. We were both heading to the VIP lounge wanting to see a friend of mine before heading to the plane. To say that she was happy that we were heading to the Maldives would be an understatement. I knew that she’s always wanted to come here. She had told me once about it, but Viktor was a few months old, and I knew that she wouldn’t want to leave him alone. Her hotel has been running for years now, and it was as she always wished it to be. She has opened a café with Natasha as well. The café would turn into a bar at night, but we rarely allowed the girls to go there, not that they asked to anyway, at night as not to risk them getting drunk in front of their costumers. “Excited?” I asked Kiara who smiled. Her smile reached her eyes and I couldn’t help but feel my heart skip a beat as my beauty showed me every sense of gratefulness a person could. The way she acted,
Kiara:My eyes widened when I took sight of my mother who was standing in front of me with a menacing smile. Her eyes met mine and she winked at me before the men who were with her blindly attacked us.“I trust that you said your goodbyes to your children before leaving the house? You know, as parents would to their kids before traveling” mum mocked “though I believe that your trip would be taking a little longer than they would be expecting”“Kiara, run” Alessio said but I shook my head. If he was going to fight this, I would be by his side until the end of it.I kicked a man that approached me in the face breaking his nose before punching him in the face. However, I was surprised when the man didn’t flinch for a second. No, the man threw punches at me as if the blood which was now smudging his face was nothing. I frowned in confusion, trying to understand what was going on. But now wasn’t the time to proce
Alessio:I ran my fingers through my hair as I watched my wife’s chest rise and fall in her sleep.The oxygen mask on her face helped her breathe, and I hated the fact that she had all the machines plugged around her for her to be able to at least breathe normally.“Alessio, she’s going to be fine” dad assured and I shook my head. She’s been sleeping for the past two weeks. Thankfully, the men reported to Ivan that there was an ambush at the airport. They had come with everything to help us, but when they arrived, the bombing started nearly killing them too.The room that we were in kept us safe for a few hours while they removed the ruins around us to get us out. Yasmina broke her arm and bad a few cuts, but thankfully, her and Paolo’s injuries were quickly treated and they were waiting for Kiara to wake up before they left.“She’s a strong woman, Alessio” Paolo said catching my attention &ldqu
Kiara:I stayed quiet for a while as I processed what Doctor Anastasia had told me a while ago.My hand rested on my stomach, where my child once was, and I sighed.The fact that I didn’t know of this pregnancy was something, but the fact that I lost the baby was another. But judging by the circumstances that I was in, I wouldn’t have been able to protect the baby if I knew of it anyway.“How are you feeling, baby?” Alessio asked and I sighed.“I’m fine, I guess. It would take a while to digest what I heard but anyway, we’ve gotten out of worse, right?” I said smiling at my husband. He took my hand in his and kissed my knuckle softly.“It was my fault for what happened, I shouldn’t have…”“Now, now, you blaming yourself would do nothing, love. I don’t think you planned for an attack at the airport, nor did you plan for mum to come out with brain-contr