Page 12 of Hunter's Trial

All of these lethal and powerful figures? Now I’m supposed to be on a first name basis with mobsters? It’s thrilling and terrifying all at the same time.

The most important thing that needs to come out of this is the fact that Alek and Anya are going to have to give their permission for Henry to testify in court. There’s not going to be any way around this. If they don’t like the story that I’m going to have them spin, then none of this works and everything falls apart. I wonder how deep their word is going to run as soon as they have the divorce papers in their hands. Surely my protection isn’t going to be contingent upon getting Nikolai out of prison. I haven’t even bothered asking them what happens to Volkovich after I win his case anyway.

They all will have to testify. They are going to have to agree to it.

Horus dropped the bomb on me this morning over breakfast that Henry was Nikolai’s biological child. I haven’t allowed myself the time or energy to think about what that means. I don’t want to get personally involved but I feel like it’s going to change things for me. Or will it?

I will figure it out one way or another.

I turn the radio up higher as I finish the last thirty minutes of my long drive. It’s going to be a hell of an evening and I can’t let my own overthinking get the best of me. I have to use the fact that Nikolai is Henry’s is biological father to our advantage somehow. I simply must. There’s got to be something in there that I can use to make the child abduction charges drop.

The estate that I drive up to looks brand spanking new. I can see that there’s another house a little bit further down the complex. That one must belong to Daniel and Helena. They have been more reluctant to speak to me about all of this. I don’t know yet if I’m going to testimony for me or not.

I put the car into park and take a moment to fully admire the fine mansion that I’m parked in front of. Sprawling and massive, it’s hard to take in the whole picture while standing up so close to it. I move slowly to the front door. I won’t allow myself to be intimidated by them just because they have more money than me. I have a skill set that they need.

Hell, maybe I should have raised my rates for them.

I lift a hand to knock on the front door, but it swings open before I have a chance. A stunning exotic looking woman opens the door. She’s comfortable in a soft sweater and leggings. But even through the lush fabric I can see the soft swell of a baby bump. The ring on her finger catches the sunlight and it is almost nearly as dazzling as the smile that she gives me. It’s impossible not to like her right away.

“You made it!” Anya greets me and I smile.

“You must be Anya!” I hold out a hand to greet her, but she hugs me instead. Just as I guessed, I can feel her baby bump when she hugs me.

“Come in, come in!” She steps back and gestures me inside. “I was just making a snack. Would you like something to eat? I’m sure that you’re hungry after your long trip!”

I follow her inside and she starts to lead me and points to where I can leave my shoes. It feels weird to slip out of my heels, like I’m shedding a piece of my armor. But it’s their house and I don’t want to offend them. Instead, I leave them behind and follow her toward the kitchen. Before we can get there, Alek comes jogging down the stairs, comfortable in his sweatpants and bare feet. It feels like I’m horribly overdressed. This man is the one who took down Nikolai’s Bratva? He’s the one who took over the whole thing? He looks so… normal.

That’s what I get for stereotyping I suppose.

“Henry’s calling for you.” Alek comes down and kisses Anya on the cheek. The way that he looks at her is filled with such admiration that it almost feels intrusive to watch. He pauses to place a hand on her belly, splaying his fingers over the rounded skin and Anya lights up under his touch. “I think he needs help with his project. He said I don’t know what he is supposed to do.”

“Such a fun phase he’s in right now.” Anya giggles.

“We can always send him back over the hill. Let Daniel deal with it.” Alek teases her.

The only reason I get the inside joke is because I have been doing my homework, studying the papers Alek sent me when he hired me to get Nikolai out of prison. We also had endless phone calls so he could help me better understand how all these people came together. And why Alek, a mob boss, was ultimately paying me a fortune and offering me 24/7 security to get his mortal enemy out of prison, despite Nikolai having tortured him for months.

Anya, who was Nikolai’s wife at the time, had saved and helped free Alek from the basement of their home, getting herself locked up and hurt too, and had fallen in love with him in the process. Nikolai had been a very controlling husband. Alek is doing all this because it is the only way he and Anya can convince Nikolai to sign the divorce papers, so that they can get married.

Anya had originally been kidnapped by Nikolai when he had found out that her father was responsible for hiring a woman, Helena, to spy on his Bratva’s business, leading to the murder of his father. During Anya’s long imprisonment, they had fallen in love. He had freed her, and they had then gotten married. But he remained obsessed with what Helena had done to him and his father and wanted to find her and kill her.

Henry’s mother was Lilian, Daniel’s sister. They were the children of a Cosa Nostra boss in New York who was forging an alliance with Nikolai’s Bratva because of his weakened position. The one condition Nikolai had set was that Daniel kill his ex-fiancée, Helena. When she had infiltrated his business, Nikolai had fallen for her and gotten engaged to her. She had killed his father to avenge the death of her own parents, so Nikolai had had her pushed off a building, but she had miraculously survived, changed her name and gone into hiding. Nikolai found her.

In the meantime, Lilian had been seeing Nikolai on and off, whilst also dating Alek. When Lilian had gotten pregnant and then died shortly after giving birth, Daniel had thought Alek, who worked for Nikolai, had killed Lillian because she had gotten pregnant by another man. Daniel had become Henry’s sole caretaker. It much later turned out that Nikolai was Henry’s father and had had Lilian killed. But at the time Daniel had been asked to kill Helena, he had been happy to comply because he had found out that Alek was none other than her half-brother of Helena from their mother’s side. He had left home when she was still young because he did not get along with the man he thought was both of their father. Daniel and Helena, however, ended up falling in love. He no longer wanted to kill her and decided to help her save Alek, who had been kidnapped by Nikolai because he had discovered that he knew that Henry was his child.

I am brought back from this soap opera of a story to the present by the sound of Anya giggling as Alek tickles her side.

Anya rolls her eyes and pushes Alek playfully before heading up the stairs. Only then does Alek seem to notice me. “Thanks for driving all this way.” He holds out his hand to shake and I take it. He covers our joined hands with the other one of his and shakes it firmly. “It means a lot that you’ve put in so much work as it is.”

“Just doing my job.”

Alek smirks. “Just another day at the office? Though, I don’t think that there is ever anything that is routine about dealing with Volkovich.”

“It’s a steep learning curve, I won’t deny that.” I answer evenly.

“You said that you had some news about the case?” Alek gestures me toward the kitchen. We pass room after impressive room and I can see elements of both of them in every bit of their house. We turn into the kitchen and he moves to take over the snack that Anya had been making on the counter. It is all very mundane, in the best possible way. It is a glimpse into what I had thought my life was going to be, but never became. A functional, happy relationship and a well-adjusted child. I’ve been incredibly fortunate that Liz doesn’t seemed to show any signs of trauma from leaving her father, but there’s no way to know for sure until she gets older.

Then again, having heard what Henry went through in his short life, losing his mother, being brought up by his uncle, being kidnapped by his biological father and then acquiring another set of quasi parents, somehow gave me hope. If he did it, despite his dysfunctional family, then Liz can do it. If Helena and Daniel and then Anya and Alek were able to defy all odds and find one another, then perhaps there’s the possibility of a happy ending for me as well.

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