𝑇𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑒𝑛𝑖𝑥 ✔︎ || 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑑

51

~ phoenix ~

Blinking slowly, I raised my head.

The cell was shrouded in semi-blackness. Slivers of light from somewhere far away glinted on the steel bars of my cage. On the other end, there was a white screen, seeming gray in the darkness.

Soon enough, I registered the pounding in my skull and... then, the pounding in my stomach.

I wanted to show him I was there, except my hands were strapped down and I found so were my legs. Biting my tongue, I lowered my head and muttered every goddamn prayer I knew.

Daddy was coming, I wanted to say.

But he wasn't. Ilya wasn't coming. I didn't want him to. I fucked up. Again.

So instead, I whispered, "Mamusia jest tutaj, kochanie." [Mama's here, baby]

Behind the rushing of my blood, I heard voices, low growls approaching. There was a flash of light behind the bars and then the familiar clicking of shoes as he strolled in.

I looked up at Giovanni with a bitter smile. "I should take this as a compliment," I rasped, looking down at the wire restraints around my ankles and wrists.

The Italian was uncharacteristically quiet.

The smile became a smirk. "Did you get your precious chip, bella?" I taunted, guessing the reason for his downcast expression.

Something terrifyingly dark flitted across his features. For a moment, I was truly scared of what this man could do to me... to us.

But I continued to grin, perhaps with deliriousness, as he spoke.

"If it was the real chip, I would have been surprised," he admitted, quietly. "Where is it?"

Ignoring the pathetic question, I mused, "It was too good to be true. Viktor was a lie, wasn't it?" I paused to laugh dryly. "Some part of me knew that. And some part of me still loved Gianna."

Giovanni stepped closer to me, snatching my chin between his fingers. It seemed pointless to struggled but I glared nonetheless at the bastard.

A finger slid down the side of my cheek as he leant down.

"It's such a shame," he whispered, hot breath fanning against the side of my face, "that she would not be able to see your execution."

I froze, a cold chill sweeping up my chin.

"You could give us the chip," he continued, "but you would die either way, Phoenix Ivanova. The Don demands it for you have endangered the entire family."

And Vera? I thought with panic. I tried to reassure myself with the thought that she was valuable to her malicious bastard brother. And she would save herself. She was Vera Petrova.

Though my throat was clogged with it, I kept the emotion out of my voice. "You're starting a war you can't dream of winning."

Giovanni's laugh was breathy and low. "Win it or not, may God be with us, bella. The war has already begun."

Silent, I watched the play of emotions across his face.

"Singlehandedly," he murmured, "you have ruined everything I worked for. Everything Gianna has worked for. You have ruined it all."

"Glad to have," I spat. "And until you stop your disgusting trade, there will be a thousand more Phoenixes."

To my surprise, he didn't move. Except he made a gesture to something behind me. Even if I tried, I couldn't have seen what he pointed to, thanks to the multiple restraints on my body, tying me to the chair. But my peripheral vision was flooded with light. I tucked my head away from the stinging brightness, but Giovanni was already scraping my chair against the stone as he twisted me towards it.

Blinking rapidly, I registered that the white screen had disappeared and in its place, a glass window. Behind it, my mother.

For the longest moment, I was breathless as my eyes trailed down her face to her suit-clad body and back up again. There she was in the flesh, only metres away.

Lena Stilinski Vale was speaking to some men, whose backs were towards me. I searched desperately in her expression for something akin to fear... But there was the cool, composed expression I grew up seeing — the face of a hard businesswoman.

She must have come for me. B-but—

"We wanted to stop this war," Giovanni suddenly spoke behind me.

It took a moment for me to process his words, as I reeled. "What—" Instead of finishing my question, I opened my mouth to shout. Couldn't she see me?

"You could scream all day," he interrupted, "and no one would hear a thing."

Eyes glassy, I looked up at him, with unveiled panic. "Don't hurt her."

"Hurt her?" Giovanni repeated. "The only woman with a brain in this world?"

The words of praise coming from his mouth for my mother sounded wrong, terrible. They unnerved me.

"I did tell her," he spoke again, but it seemed like now he was talking to himself. "to bring you in. To tell you everything, but she insisted it be done at the right time. But she wasted time that we did not have..." he turned to meet my wide gaze "and now she must pay for it with her daughter."

Shaking my head, I looked back at my mother. He couldn't be right. Mom wouldn't...

"You can't," I growled, tears spilling, "I'm—" I met his gaze once more. "My baby."

He let out a breath, sounding almost like a sigh. "Oh, bella."

Now, I did struggle, trying to wrench my wrists out of the restraints.

Giovanni began to step away.

"Please!" I begged. "The chip—"

"It doesn't matter anymore. The war has begun."

"No!" I screamed. "You don't understand!"

The Italian continued to recede, disappearing from view.

"I'll talk to Ilya. Let me go! Please!"

Before I heard the fading clicks of his leather shoes, Giovanni's words echoed, "This is bigger than your precious husband and your precious baby. This was decades in the making — the work of our fathers. It cannot be undone."

I released a heavy, furious sob. Bright and angry, my eyes returned to the white screen.

For the briefest of moments, my mother was staring right back at me. No, through me. And just as quickly as she glanced my way, she turned away, like I didn't exist.

NOTE:
Before you kill me, or Phoenix, let me just say IM SORRYYY AND I SURRENDER. I promise many more updates in the very near future.
To be honest, I dont even know what happened, these past weeks. I'm usually on top of things but when you start procrastinating, fuuuuuuuuuuuck, its so hard to stop!!!!
eek, are you excited though? xo, Rosavi