Adiva's P.O.V:-
"Zacharias?" I call out looking at him.
"Yes love?" He answers looking back at me.
We are currently at the beach facing the villa, sitting on the recliners, Zacharias with his back resting against its headrest side of the recliner, his leg spread on the front with me on his lap, my legs resting on his either side as I face him.
"I want to know about you" I express my wish.
Hearing me, he sighs grazing his palms on my shoulders. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything. I want to know everything about you"
Exhaling out a breath, he rests his head against my shoulder, taking a deep breath, as if he is tranquilizing himself. Pulling away he looks into my expectant eyes.
"Our family was the most feared mafia in Russia. My father, my great grandfathers, were all in the mafia. You see, its been passed on through generations. The Russian mafia is known as the most ruthless mafia in the whole world. There is always a feeling of dread amongst people when they hear the name of Russian mafia.
They dealt in every illegal business from illegal trading of weapons, drugs, smuggling to even trafficking of human beings on sex trade."
I flinch at his words. 'God, they even dealt with human trafficking....How treacherous they might have been?'
"They were the real monsters...They never thought twice before killing even an innocent human being. Life of others meant like a weightless paper to them. They would commit genocide on a large scale without a slightest tinge of remorse. The words cruel and ruthless couldn't justify their barbarity. Women were treated like animals. They were treated like shit. Raped, abused and beaten to death. Women were their fuck toys, a mere flesh, their means of pleasure. They had no say in the family. Their only duty was to bear an heir to the mafia throne and nothing else.
But soon things started to change when the throne was bequeathed by my grandfather. My Ded. Like the rest of the others, he too was trained to be a heartless monster, and he was a monster indeed, until my grandma entered his life. He always used to say, she changed him for good. She made him a better man."
"How did they meet?" I inquire curiously.
A small smile plays on his lips. Placing a kiss on my forehead he continues. "Well, my grandma had just turned 17. It was her 17th birthday. Her so called friends had dragged her to a club to celebrate her birthday only to ditch her in the middle of the night. She was left alone. Scared and lonely amongst those scary and horny bastards in the club. She didn't had a ride back home, cause it were her friends who had dragged her with them in their cars. So she thought of walking alone back to her apartment in the middle of the night. That was when she was abducted my these monsters to be sold in a sex trafficking ring.
Call it a fate or whatever, but my ded had come to get a girl for himself in that same auction. When my grandma was brought on the stage, he didn't knew what came over him, but the sudden urge to claim her possessed him when he saw her kneeling on the floor with barely any clothes on her body, her black hairs curtaining her beautiful face, as she tried to protect herself from all those hungry eyes. He had the sudden urge to buy her, and without thinking twice, he pushed the BID button. Turned out that it was my ded's best friend and second in command Ilaya Sullivan, one of the men who abducted my babushka on the night of her birthday."
'Sullivan? Isn't he the one who had ordered our kidnapping?'
My thoughts are interrupted when Zacharias continues speaking. "She was brought in front of my grandfather. But she was a feisty one, who gave one hell of a fight as they dragged her towards my ded. Ded couldn't help but get attracted towards her beauty and her feisty personality. She was supposed to be used as a personal pleasure by my grandfather, but he couldn't bring himself to do that to her. He didn't even realized when did he started to care for her. It didn't take long for him to eventually fall in love with her. They both fell hard for each other. My babushka brought out the good side in him and turned him into a better human.
Soon, they got married and my grandma got pregnant with their first child. My grandfather was over the moon when he heard that he was going to be a dad. But decided to keep this news only amongst his most trusted family members. Ilaya was like a brother to him, his best friend, the one whom he trusted with his life, so he went and gave him the news too. Ilaya was happy for his best friend, or that is what he wanted my ded to know. But soon after sometime my grandma lost her baby."
A gasp escapes my lips, as I look at him in shock. "How?" The question tumbles out of my mouth.
He sighs heavily, "Miscarriage...Both my grandparents were grief stricken at the loss of their first baby. But as they say, 'Time heals your wounds'... Indeed time healed their wounds, and they thought of conceiving a second baby. When the same thing happened for the second time, my Ded decided to keep their third baby a secret from everyone. This time, he didn't even informed Ilaya about the expecting baby.
To protect his wife and unborn child, he brought them to a secluded cottage, that was situated in the heart of the mountains, he had purchased some years before. No one knew about that secret place. Not even Ilaya.
Citing the reason to overcome the grief at the loss of their two unborn babies and a change for atmosphere, my ded took babushka to the cottage and made Ilaya temporary boss in charge until their return. Only their trusted doctor who was a kind man and a maid who was loyal to my grandpa were allowed to accompany them. The maid was in her fifties and was the one who had raised grandpa with motherly love. That was one of the reason Ded trusted her.
The pregnancy went well and Babushka gave birth to a healthy baby boy. A couple of months after the birth, they happily returned with their bundle of joy back to their estate. Everyone was shocked but happy as well to see a heir in the arms of their queen, except one.
Ilaya went berserk and started shouting at my grandfather for betraying him and not informing him with such a big news. Ded thought that his anger was acceptable, as he might have felt betrayed for keeping such an important news from him. He thought Ilaya was in shock and soon might come to terms when he would realize Ded's reasoning behind all this.
Days went by, and Ilaya was still holding the grudge against my Ded and it was getting on his nerves. He had thought that eventually his friend's anger would dissipate and he would understand him. My grandfather thought that it was enough. With the intend of knocking some sense into his friend's brain, he went to his room to talk to him, but found the room empty.
Just as he was about to turn and leave the room, something caught his attention. There was a pill lying on the carpet. Picking it up, he examined the pill in his hands and thought of discarding it as some kind of a drug pill. But his brain thought otherwise.
Walking inside, he stealthily opened his bedside drawers to find three various types of pill bottles. Those were not the drugs they dealt with. Being a mafia boss, he knew that.
'Is he not well? Or is he suffering from some kind of ailment that I don't know? But why didn't he tell me anything about this?' Those were the thoughts running in his mind. Ded knew, if he confronted Ilaya, he would deny it. Hence, he took a sample of pills from each bottle and handed them to the doctor for investigation. But when the doctor came back with the report. my grandfather was appalled.
Those were the pills used to cause miscarriage and one pill contained poison. He felt as if the earth beneath his feet was shaken, turning his world upside down. He couldn't believe his best friend had betrayed him in the worst way possible. He was the murderer of their two unborn babies. It was then he started to join all the pieces together, how he was furious when he hid the news of their third baby from everyone, from him.
That traitor bastard of a best friend had betrayed him. Immediately, he ordered his men to capture him and throw him in the basement cell. When my Ded confronted him, his reply was, that my grandfather had turned into a weakling ever since he fell in love with a woman and he was no longer capable to be the mafia king, and the children of a weakling will obviously turn out to be informal wimps. Hence, he killed them before they were even born. He thought himself as the only person capable to be the mafia king.
Ilaya was under the impression that if he killed the babies, and continue playing the role of a loyal best friend, my Ded would eventually hand over the reins of the mafia empire to him. But all his plans went down the drain when they hid the news of their third baby until its birth.
He was filled with rage and started making a plan to annihilate the whole family, my grandparents and their son-my father. He had planned on poisoning their food and later strangle the baby to death. But luckily, Ded discovered his nefarious plans just before his plan set into motion.
Ded tortured him for days. He didn't wanted to give him an easy death. He wanted to make him feel the pain that they both had suffered from child loss. But after some days, Ilaya managed to escape the prison. Apparently, one of the men was a loyal dog of Ilaya who helped him escape. He was shot dead, as soon as Ded got the news. But what was the use? The traitor had managed to escape.
Later, it was revealed that, during me Ded's absence, when Ilaya was made the temporary boss in charge, he had secretly set up various prostitution rackets, sex trafficking organizations, and had also successfully smuggled a large amount of weapons and money from our organization.
Days went by, Ded kept his search on, to find Ilaya, but it was as if he had vanished from the earth surface. That bastard had managed to hid himself so well.
After few years, babushka gave birth to a girl, my aunt Elizabeth. Damien's mom and Artyon's Godmother and adopted mother. Artyon was her best friend's son. After his parents passed away in an accident, she took him under her wing and gave him a family. Parent's love and a brother's love.
Years passed by, and my father was crowned the next mafia king. My mom and dad followed their parents footsteps and married out of love. My aunt was married to my dad's best friend. By the time, a lot of changes had been carried out in the mafia. Sex trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping women and children was put to a complete stop.
Women were treated with love and respect. There was love, care, understanding and respect amongst the family members. It was a true family. No doubt our fathers were strict to us, but only when it came to training us. And off the training grounds...They were the best fathers any kid could ever have. We all were a happy family, until a tragedy struck all of us, changing our lives forever.
It was my parent's anniversary. So they decided to celebrate it on one of the Ivanov's family cruise. My grandfather had some urgent matters to attend to. So he, along with Uncle Nikolai -Artyon's dad, waited behind and promised to join before the party celebrations would commence. We all kids were at the boarding school at that time.
It was something 8 in the evening. Ded and Uncle Nikolai had already boarded the chopper to join the others. When they were on their way, they received a call informing that the cruise had caught fire. He immediately called in for more help and flew towards their destination. They saw bodies of the guards floating around the cruise as soon as they neared it.
Quickly they maneuvered and landed the chopper on the deck before running inside. The scene in front of them shattered their whole world. The whole family lay dead in a pool of blood. My Ded was a strong man. Instead of crying in despair, he immediately got to work. He, along with Uncle Nikolai started putting all the bodies onto the floating boats. The fire was erupting in flames. By the time, the help reached, they had already placed all the bodies in the boat and ordered the men to carry it to the choppers.
The only survivors of the massacre were Khristina and Igor. Apparently, our mothers had hidden them in the bedroom closet in one of the rooms, when they sensed the attack. The cruise started to break and submerge into the water due to the fire. Luckily all the bodies were pulled out in time.
Our whole family was declared dead on arrival. Igor and Tina suffered a trauma and kept crying for our parents. Tina was 4 years old and Igor was 5 at that time." I find my husband reliving all those dark memories again, his voice choking as he speaks.
'Oh Allah how did they all go through such an agonizing pain?' I find my own tears streaming down my cheeks as I hear him speak.
"Za-Zacharias, yo-you don't have to continue...." My voice croaks, as I speak resting my palm on his chest. I can't see him in pain.
'Ya Allah, how did he go through so much?'
"No Zhena, I want to....I need to release this from my chest." He exhales out a long breath before he continues, "We were immediately brought back from our schools. We didn't have an inkling about what was happening around us, until we saw the bodies of our parents laid in the casket. Our whole world exploded in front of us.
I was 14 then, and Ana 16. Artyon was 18. Demyan and Alyosha were 10. Artyon was the eldest between all of us. But as the eldest son of the Ivanov family and the heir to the mafia throne, the whole responsibility had fallen on my shoulders. I couldn't even cry at our parent's funeral. I had to be strong for the family. I was the leader, and leaders don't cry. They always have to guard their emotions no matter what. That day, we laid 6 members of our family to rest for eternity.
From that day on wards, I took the charge as the king of the Russian mafia. We were home schooled after that incident. Ded brought us to America in order to ensure the safety of the remaining family. Ded very well knew this was all Ilaya sullivan's doing, and he had vowed to avenge the death of his wife and his children by giving him the most painful and torturous death.
Ded and Uncle Nikolai started training us to be the best assassins in the world. As soon as I turned 18, I started setting up my own legal business empire. I didn't wanted to do anything with all those illegal business, nor was I interested to be associated with any of the illegal work. We all brothers had the same thought process. None of us was interested in that shitty mafia business. But there was one thing that we couldn't get away with....The mafia world. We were born into this and had no choice in that matter. Our fates were sealed as soon as we were born into this world.
Years after, we succeeded in tracking down Sullivan's hideout, and were able to get hold on him and his men. But, what we didn't knew was, he had fathered a son who was able to escape. Ded avenged our family's death by giving him the most torturous death. After killing him, it was as if my Ded was at last at peace.
And now Leonid Sullivan, his bastard son is behind our family. That was the main reason why I had to keep our marriage hidden." He explains.
"And now he got to know about it" I speak.
He shakes his head, "He hasn't seen you. Yeah its true that he knows I am a married man now."
"That guy Steven..He said that he was his son and now he might be enraged at his son's death. H-He might attack us."
"No he won't. Sullivan doesn't has any son. He raised that motherfucker, only to be used as a pawn in his game." He explains.
"I do bad things love. I kill people, but only the one's who deserve. What you saw the day before was just a glimpse of what I am. They don't call me Devil for no reason. I am the Devil who can kill people with just the snap of fingers."
I shake my head, "No you are not. You are not a Devil. You are one of the most kind, loving and caring human being in the world. You are that person who can die for his family, who protects and loves his family. And most importantly, you are my savior. You are my angel who protected me and chased away my demons."
He raises his eyebrow, "That's the first time I am hearing it. I was accustomed to be called as cold, ruthless and Devil."
"Cause that's what you want to show them. I know my husband, I have seen him how he is. I am proud of you, you know that. Especially now, when I have heard and got to know you. I understand know, what you do and why you do."
He smiles caressing my face, as his eyes glint in happiness and relief.
"Where is your grandfather now? Doesn't he stay here anymore?" I ask the question that was in my mind for sometime.
"He died five years ago. Its only Uncle Nikolai now, and he lives in Russia and handles the mafia business over there."
"Oh. I am sorry..."
"No, don't apologies. He is in peace now." He speaks, before placing his lips on my forehead. "Any more questions?"
"One last.." I smile sheepishly, raising my finger, making him chuckle.
He nods, "Go ahead..."
"The Falcon thing....Is it real?"
"You are the Queen Of Falcon...." He smiles placing his lips on mine.....
Hey guys, I am back with another interesting chapter. Hope you all will love it and convey me your thoughts on this chapter through your votes and comments....
Hope to see you all soon....
Until Then Good Bye!!!