Page 35 of The Virgin I Desire

“Your father better not get in my way.”

“Be very careful with what you say.” She got nervous again. “Don't you dare approach my family.”

“Why do you defend them?”

“Because they are everything to me.”

“That's foolish.”

“You are wrong. There is nothing more important than family.”

“They are nothing more than a weakness.”

“They are our entire strength. It's not worth living if you have no one.”

“I spent thirty years of my life very well like this.”

“Maybe it's time for a change.”

“No.”

“Then you're probably wasting your time with me, Pakhan.” I heard her voice echo on the other end and was followed by her ending the call.

I didn't expect her to hang up again and maybe I should have been really angry, but I felt weird. I hated not having the answer to some questions and still found any sentimentality she might have for her family to be foolish.

Leaders needed to be cold-blooded, but she was boiling mine and my mind was confused.

Chapter fourteen

I should have been well aware of everything my grandmother and sister had told me. The Russians weren't like us, they didn't respect family or women. The rules of conduct and behavior we had, and all honor did not apply to them. Mikhail was not like Luca or anyone else who had been created according to our foundations. Getting involved with him was much more dangerous and riskier than I first thought. I should be scared, and never answer his messages and calls again. In fact, the most prudent thing was to turn to the men in the family so that the situation didn't turn into a snowball, but I didn't do it,apart from Perla, no one else knew about our involvement from a distance...

“Pietra!”

“Hmm?” I shook my head, startled when my teacher's call echoed in my head.

“Did you hear anything I said?”

“The human heart...” I bit my lip and made an awkward face.

My teacher crossed his arms and glanced at me sideways.

“Sorry, sir...”

“It's already difficult without participation in the classroom and it will get even more difficult if you don't apply yourself.”

“I'm dedicating myself, I'm sorry about today.”

“Can we get back?”

“Yes!”

“The atria and ventricles of the human heart...” he explained it to me again and I tried my best to focus on him without my mind straying to Mikhail.

My father had made sure I had classes with one of the best doctors and teachers in Rome. He was dedicating himself to helping me become something at least close to him, but without my commitment it would really be impossible. I wanted to be in a classroom like other ordinary university students, but I was already happy that my father had found a way to adapt my dream to our reality.

More than his desire to keep me isolated from the world, to stay at a university, with a routine, was to make me easy prey for our enemies.

After the lessons, I met up with my sister who was saying goodbye to her Visual Arts teacher. As much as I knew we would never work in the real world with other people, at least we occupied our time and developed our innate skills.

---