by K. J. Dahlen
Anita looked down at her hands for a moment then looked up at him with tears welling in her eyes. She had finally figured out what he’d been calling her. Dragotsennyy. It was a Russian endearment, but not used in modern times. It was from an old Russian poem. It had taken her a day or two to finally figure it out. This man was so complex at times. It was a part of who he was though. She sighed as he made his vow to take care of her. “Now, it’s my turn. You said you lived a lifetime in those three days we had all those years ago? Well, so did I. I had those memories to pass on to your son. When I found out about him, I suddenly had the courage to live my life. I found the courage to let the past go and live for the future. I had purpose I never had before. I had a tiny piece of you growing inside me and I was going to do my best to make you proud. In turn, he made me so proud every day of his life. Nico and Gavril came in and out of our lives but for the most part, they stayed away. When he graduated from college at the top of his class, I was so proud. If I had known how to contact you, I would have. That boy is my greatest accomplishment. Then you showed up a few days later and I knew fate was giving us a second chance.” Looking into his eyes she whispered, “I want that chance, I want you. Not for three days but for the rest of my life. I want to grow old with you, I want to watch our grandchildren grow up with you.”
Sergi smiled. “Sweetheart, I’m older than you so that life together might not be as long as either of us want, but you got it. I’m already a grandfather and a great grandfather so you’ll have to play catch up but I’m good with that.”
“It’s getting late maybe we should get some rest.” She hinted. Her hand brushed across his chest and Sergi caught her fingers in his hand.
When Anita looked up at him, she could see for herself that his eyes held a certain look in them. She licked her lips.
Sergi groaned. “You are a wicked woman.”
“Only for you,” she whispered.
He got to his feet and reached down for her. “I now know that is certainly true.” He pulled her up and threw her over his shoulder. He rushed up the stairs and down the hall. Anita giggled the whole way and when the bedroom door closed, she stopped the giggling. She looked at him and saw the love in his eyes.
“I love you Sergi,” she whispered. “I need you right now. I can’t wait.”
Sergi took her to his bed. He fell on top on her as soon as she hit the mattress and from that moment, they were lost in each other. They made love for half the night and when they did fall asleep, morning came all too soon.
Sergi opened his eyes and the early morning sun shown on her face. Her face looked older than it did twenty four years ago but he didn’t mind. She was still a beautiful woman. He was older as well. Maybe he was too old to start all over again, but he wasn’t going to let her go. Not after all he had been through.
It didn’t matter to him whose blood she had in her veins. He might face opposition from the men in his organization but he would fight to keep her.
He searched her body and noted the changes time had left with her. Her breasts were no longer taut and her belly was still rounded but that didn’t mean anything to him. He wasn’t the same man he was twenty four years ago either.
He loved this woman beyond anything else and he was going to love her the rest of his life.
He looked up into her eyes and saw they were open and looking at him. “Good morning my love.” He smiled.
“Good morning,” she whispered back in a sleepy voice. “I suppose its time to begin the day huh?”
“Da, it is time.” He sighed then turned to lay flat on his back. He stared at the ceiling for a moment then told her, “I know today you will hear some terrible things about your father and grandfather. The events that led to my wife’s death will not be easy for you to hear or for me to relive but we can get through this if we believe in the truth coming out.”
“Its time for the truth to finally be told. I don’t condone what they did and I never will. Their beef was with you and they should have come after you, not taken revenge on your wife and family. You were in the right and your peers will see that. Gavril and Nico are not good men. They never were and probably never will be.” She paused then turned his head to look at him. “I just wish you hadn’t made a deal with Nico for me. I never wanted that. I still don’t but I know you will abide by that deal. It won’t matter what he tells you regarding my birth, it won’t be the truth, it will most likely be just enough to keep you wanting more.”
“But I need him to tell me something. Although I never expected you to be Petr’s granddaughter. I never would have thought Nico would have been with her. It all makes no sense and I need it to…make sense, before I can let this go.”
“He would never tell me anything about my mother. Like I said, he always told me she walked out when I was two days old. He wouldn’t even tell me her name. If I didn’t know better, I would think he didn’t know who she was.”
Sergi frowned. “How could that be?”
Anita shrugged. “I don’t know but I got that feeling more than once growing up.”
“Well, we should get up and get moving. Today will be hard enough but I want us to be ready for whatever happens.”
An hour later, they joined the boys in the dining room.
Both Levi and Misha were eating breakfast and talking quietly. When they entered Levi looked over at his mom and frowned.
Sergi picked up on it and paused. “What’s wrong?”
“We may have a problem,” Levi told him.
“Just one?” Anita sighed. “Then we’re ok.”
“No Mom, not just one and this one just doesn’t make sense.”
She held up her hand then went to pour herself a cup of coffee. When she sat down and drank over half the cup, she looked at her son. “Ok, so tell me what you found?”
“The blood work doesn’t match.”
“What?” She frowned. “What blood work doesn’t match? What are you talking about?”
“A child gets half its blood from the mother and half his blood from the father. The first test I did was blood typing. Its quick and easy and its standard to begin the DNA testing that way. I tested Petr’s blood and his blood is O+, I tested Nico’s blood and it was O-. Now those blood types are very common and I expected your blood to be one or the other of those two blood types.”
“Ok.” Anita nodded. “I get that.”
“That isn’t what I found,” Levi told her. “Blood type O is universal and dominant. Your blood type should be either O+ or O-. It isn’t. You have blood type B-.”
“Ok but what exactly does that mean?” Anita asked in confusion as she looked over at Sergi.
“Well, Petr faxed over the autopsy he had done on Nina when she died and in that report the coroner listed her blood type as O+, the same as her father. There is no way you could be a child of a mother with O+ and a father with O- with a blood type of B-.”
Anita carefully set her cup down on the table with a thud. “What? What did you just say?”
“There is no way you could be a child of a mother with O+ and a father with O- with a blood type of B-,” Levi repeated his statement.
“Grebanyy ublyudok,” Sergi swore in Russian. He wanted to face Nico and beat the truth out of him. “So what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that her real father would have to have the B- blood type and Nico doesn’t have B-. There is no way Nico Turchaninov is any relation to her. He’s certainly not her father.”
Anita felt numb. All her life she thought she knew exactly who she was. Now she had no clue. “Does that mean Petr isn’t my grandfather?”
“Not necessarily. He very well couple be. We won’t know for sure until the full panel DNA is in,” Levi explained. “That won’t be ready until tomorrow at the earliest.”
Sergi grabbed his phone and made a few calls, one of which was to Petr.
Half an hour later, Petr came to the house. When Sergi let him in he looked over at Anita. “What is going on?” Th
e older man demanded to know. He was concerned about how pale and nervous she appeared to be.
“We may have evidence that Nico Turchainov is not Anita’s father,” Sergi told his old friend. “We don’t have the full panel in yet but her blood type is B- and he has O- blood. A you know Nina had O+ the same blood type as you have.”
“But you don’t know yet that Nina is her mother?”
“Not yet but right now, we don’t have reason not to think so,” Sergi went on. “All we do know is that Nico is not her father, like he’s claimed all these years.”
Petr swore under his breath. Looking at Sergi he asked, “What the vechnyy ad is he playing at here?” “I don’t know but I know this much, he wouldn’t have taken on a child if he didn’t have anything to gain,” Sergi surmised. “But if he isn’t her father who was Nina with when she had the baby?”
Petr ran his hands over his head. “I don’t know. I found out about Nico a few weeks before Tasha was killed. Then he disappeared and it was after that I found out Nina was pregnant. I assumed the baby was Nico’s because that’s what she told me. Then just before the baby was born, she disappeared. We didn’t find her for a week and by that time, my Nina was dead and her baby was missing.”
“So we still have no answers.” Sergi growled.
“No my friend, we do have some answers just not all the answers. I’m sure that your Anita is my Nina’s baby. She looks like my family. We just don’t know who her father really is but we do know who he is not. The crimes against young Nico are compiling.” Petr shrugged.
“Is there anyone else your Nina could have been seeing back then?” Sergi asked.
“I do not remember or she might have hidden this fact from me at the time.” Petr shook his head sadly.
“Would her friend or her sister or even your wife know?” Sergi was reaching and he knew it but this was his woman they were talking about. He had to find some answers for her sake as well as his own.
Petr started to shake his head then realized something. “Wait a moment, maybe…”
“What are you thinking?” Sergi cocked his head to one side.
“My Nina and her sister always wrote their thoughts and feelings in a diary when they were younger. They knew there most secret thoughts and feeling would be forever safe there as I taught my children to respect people’s privacy if they wanted their own to be respected. My wife kept Nina’s diaries after she passed away. They were her last link to her daughter. Maybe those diaries will tell us what we need to know.”
“Can you get them here sometime today? Anita really needs to know and so do we.” Sergi asked.
“Da, I can have them here before we break for lunch and then we will all know,” Petr vowed.
“I want to see just how far Nico will take this pack of lies he has going.” Sergi growled.
“Good luck with that my friend.” Petr shook his head. “If he admits to his part, he will die for what he did.”
“Da, I know he thinks if he testifies against his father for his part in Tasha’s death he’s, going to walk away from this tribunal. So I expected him to lie about her mother and without proof to back up his claim we would have no choice but to allow him to do just that. But now we have something we can use to keep him in jail until the truth is fully known.”
Petr nodded. “Thanks to your son, Levi…we do. But first, we have to confront Gavril and see just how far Nico will go to keep his secrets.”
Chapter Eleven
When Sergi, Anita, Misha and Levi entered the Council building one of Sergi’s security men joined them and passed a message to him.
Sergi heard his request then turned to Anita and Levi. “Nico would like to see you both before the tribunal.”
Anita looked over at her son then back to Sergi. “I have nothing to say to him, nor does he have anything I want to hear. It would all be lies anyway.”
“Very well. Let’s get this thing started.” Sergi motioned for them to move down the hall.
They entered the main hall and Anita noticed the hall was full of people. She moved closer to Sergi and whispered, “Who are all these people? I thought they were going to face a few judges.”
Sergi shook his head. “These are the leaders of the different fractions all over Russia. This is a tribunal not just a High Council Judgement. The infractions are too great for just a regular High Council.”
Anita began trembling. Sweat beaded her forehead and her hands began to shake. These were the people who would judge Sergi for his choices and she was one of those choices. She stumbled against him and he caught her in his arms.
“Are you all right?” he whispered.
“I think so?” she whispered back. She followed him down to the front where Sergi took his usual seat. Anita and Levi took the seats directly behind him.
Sergi opened the folder on the table in front of him. He caught his breath at the sight of the photos in the file. The first agenda on the table was the charges against Gavril on his wife’s death. Every folder had the evidence he was presenting to the Tribunal. Some of the evidence were the pictures of what Gavril had done to her.
Sergi didn’t need to see the pictures again. They were already imprinted on his brain. He felt someone sit down next to him and he knew it was Misha.
“Rumor has it that Nico is getting worried,” Misha told him quietly.
“Oh yeah, why is that?” Sergi asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know but I spoke to the guard who got the blood sample last night and I heard Nico really didn’t want to give him the sample.”
Sergi turned his head and sneered at his son. “Well, we all know why that is don’t we?”
“Indeed we do.” Misha nodded. “He’s also telling the guard he’s willing to make a new deal but he’s insisting on talking to Anita and Levi.”
“She knows that. I gave her the message and she turned his request down.”
“I’m told he’s being rather insistent.”
Sergi shrugged. “He should have thought about that long before now.” Sergi looked around the hall and saw many faces. Some he knew but some he didn’t. He did see Dmitri Salvo sitting at a table with three other men. The old man appeared almost frail but his eyes were watching everyone and everything around him. When they paused on one of the men in the hall, Sergi turned his eyes and studied the man as well.
The other man was bearded and wore a suit. He studied him carefully then turned to Anita. She had caught sight of him as well. She looked extremely pale and her hands were clasped in her lap. Her fingers were clenched tightly and she seemed to shrink into her seat.
He picked up his phone and sent her a text. He watched when her phone pinged and he saw her jump. Then he saw her look at his message. When she read it, she began typing a return text. When his phone pinged, he looked at his device, then nodded. Sergi began typing a message to his security guards and sat back casually, his expression the usual blank he wore when he needed to as if he hadn’t just set the course for his men to take the man into custody.
He watched as his men closed in on the other man and they began to move him toward the exit. They wouldn’t take him into custody until it was safe to do so. Sergi wasn’t risking anyone getting hurt to get his hands on Adrian but the man would be in custody before he could hurt anyone else.
Adrian didn’t know he was being followed as he moved toward his grandfather. He was staring at the older man with such hate Sergi could see it from where he sat. Misha watched as the low key drama played out.
When Adrian played his trump card, he was reaching out to his grandfather with something in his hand when one of Sergi’s guards stopped him. They strong armed him and held his arm outstretched. They hustled him out of the hall and as they reached the door, he began struggling violently. Sergi’s men got him out of the hall before he could disrupt the meeting about to be taking place.
Dmitri raised his head and looked over at Sergi. He stared for a long moment then slowly nodded at him.
Sergi nodded back and turned his gaze away. That’s when he took note of one of the guests looking at Anita. He frowned as he saw the man staring rudely at the seats behind him. He didn’t know the other man and he wasn’t sure what he was doing. Sergi glanced over at Misha and nodded at the other man. “Do you know him?”
Misha shook his head. “I do not. He must be from one of the outer areas.”
“He’s being rude staring at Anita like he’s found a lost soul.” Sergi growled. “I would like to know why.”
“Maybe she reminds him of someone from his past.” Misha shrugged. “Who knows why he’s looking at her. It could be any number of reasons.”
Sergi saw Petr join them and as he walked toward Sergi he caught sight of the man staring at Anita as well. Petr frowned as he followed the other man’s gaze. Then he got a strange look on his face. He slowed his pace but eventually, reached Sergi’s table.
That was when the other man turned his gaze to Petr. He glared at Petr then looked down at the file in front of him.
Sergi took note of what had transpired and looked over at Petr. “Do you know him?”
“Da, I know him.” Petr nodded. “I haven’t seen him in a number of years though.”
“Who is he and why is he staring at my woman?” Sergi growled.
Petr startled as he looked at Anita then looked back at the other man. “Mmmm, no it can’t be…”
