Page 83 of The Den of Sin
My heart was unbearably heavy, each beat rebelling at the decision I had to make. I looked away, unable to see the hurt my next words would cause. I had to get them out and be done with it, but my throat refused to make a sound. My entire body knew they would result in the same devastating pain I experienced five years ago.
But it wasn’t the same, was it? I was stronger now. And I certainly wasn’t that young girl that crushed after her best friend’s brother for over three years.
I swallowed. “Vasili, I-”
The door to the room burst open and Alexei’s head poked in. “Want the good news or the bad news?”
“What is it, Alexei?” Vasili’s eyes never wavered from me, and I could already see it in them, he sensed which way we were headed.
“Okay, good news first. Cassio King vouched for Raphael Santos. Said he’d protect his family to his dying breath. Bad news is that if we don’t show up for this meeting, he’ll move heaven and earth to get to her. Another fulfillment of a dead parent’s wish. His father made him promise with his last dying breath.”
I tensed slightly at hearing Santos' last name. Was the man from yesterday part of the Santos family?
“Couldn't our damn parents just do things right from the get go, so we are not stuck cleaning up their messes?” Vasili growled. His words surprised me. It was exactly how I felt.
Alexei just shrugged his shoulders. “It would seem not. Plenty of parent fuck-ups to go around.”
I couldn’t help but keep staring at Alexei. After my mother died and I went through her possessions, I found a birth certificate for a son she had ten years before me. She named him Alexei. He fit the same age bracket. Did Vasili’s father bring him to be raised with his siblings? Then why did I never see him or hear about him during my years with Tatiana?
“So why did I never hear about you before, Alexei?” The question came out before I could stop myself. This conversation was easier than the one I had to have with Vasili.
Pull the band-aid.Fuck that. Whoever came up with that logic was a damn idiot.
“Probably because Vasili found me only about four years ago.”
My eyes darted between the two, hoping one of them would elaborate. When neither one of them said another word, I cleared my throat uncomfortably. It was never in me to be nosy, but an inner instinct urged me to keep prodding at it.
“Why? What happened?”
Alexei came in, shut the door and leaned back against it, folding his arms. I watched his forearms, every inch of his skin there covered in ink.He sure likes tattoos!I raised my eyes and focused on his face. His eyes went to Vasili, his eyebrow slightly raised and muttered something in Russian.
“Can’t you say it in English?” I challenged him.
Those two shared a glance, and Alexei answered. “I told him that I thought you know.”
“Know what?” I questioned him. I needed this to be crystal clear.
“Vasili, brother,” Alexei started, his eyes remaining on me. As if he was watching me for some reaction. “Why don’t you tell my sister,” a sharp gasp sounded off my lips, “-how you found out about me?”
“What?” I suspected it but hearing him say it, it made it sound crazy. “Are you really-?”
He nodded at my unfinished sentence.
“I visited your mom while she was in the hospital,” Vasili’s voice had me turning my attention to him.
He visited my mother? I didn’t believe him. She would have told me someone came to visit.
“How did I not know? Or see you? I was there all the time.” I eyed him suspiciously. Although I remembered how my mother kept telling me she saw Nikola, Vasili’s father.
“I timed it right and only went into her room during your breaks.”
“You visited her more than once?”
He nodded his head. “Yes. The first day, I went to gloat.” I narrowed my eyes on him. “Yes, I was a dick, Isabella. And stupid. But what I found out was that your mother and my father had a son together. Alexei. My mother was not the best mother, nor the best wife. But she was downright cruel to her enemies, and your mother became her enemy. She took from my mother something that she considered hers, my father. What was worse, my father loved your mother. I’m not sure he ever really loved mine.” Jesus, all of it sounded like a big freaking mess. A damn fucked up version of the Hallmark Channel movie material.
“Anyhow, two years after Alexei was born, my mother had him kidnapped and hidden. He’s had a hard life, but despite every effort your mom or my father put into it, they couldn’t find him. Your mother told my father it was my mother that took the child, but he refused to believe it. After a few years, your mother grew desperate. She went to my father’s enemy and struck a deal. If they helped her, she would help Lombardo Santos.” I swallowed hard, realizing Vasili knew a lot more than I thought. “But Lombardo also had a weakness for beautiful women. Your mother became his mistress, and once she fell pregnant, she fearedhiswife would do the same thing that my mother did so she ran and hid.”
“She really had a bad habit of sleeping with married men,” I muttered more to myself than them.
