Sky was cloudy not letting any sun rays through. Usual weather in London.
You were sitting on grass in the garden with your little daughter on your lap, slowly counting flowers she gave you. A strand of her golden-brown hair fell out of ponytail and her face showed a complete focused emotion. Taking that one strand and placing it right behind her ear she looked up at you.
- Mummy, are you sad?
Her dolly voice made you stop staring at nothing. You shaked your head.
- No honey, mummy is not sad. It's fine, okay?
Pulling her closer to your chest and hugging tighter a wave of sadness overwhelmed you. Feeling exhausted and not knowing what you were going to do, you finally looked down at that little wonder that was looking at you with her eyes showing an unbridled admiration.
You know, kids love their parents without any reason, they just do. Every word, every movement of yours affects them somehow, making them want to be like you. And maybe that's why you didn't want Nia to see her dad ever again.
She was the only thing which was left after him. You kissed her small forehead and started to stroke her back up and down, until you felt a phone buzzing in the pocket of jeans. Sighing, you pulled the device out to make it silent, but then you see a message which appeared on your lock screen. It was not a one message actually, this human texted you at least 70 times already.
Tom
"Y/n can we talk please"
"Just give me one minute
and you won't regret it"
How funny those words sound now.
You read those sentences placing the phone on the ground and then raised your hands up to let Nia turn around and lay down on her back, placing her occiput on your knees. After reading the contact's name your daughter was super pumped and started jerking her legs in the air
- Is that dada?
She looked at you with her deep honey-brown eyes. Just like he had. Gosh, she reminded you about him so much.
You sighed again.
- Oh honey.. Yes. Yes, it is your dad.
Eyes of your daughter lighted up when you confirmed her assumption. She started jumping on your knees, making you chuckle a bit in relief.
- How did you meet dada?
She asked curiously all of the sudden.
Not expecting such question you wided your eyes a bit and after taking a minute answered:
- Well it's a long story..
- Mama please I wanna know it so badly!
She said making puppy eyes and clenching her palms together.
Of course mother couldn't tell her child all the details and how it all happened. Nia was not prepared for the truth and to be honest you didn't want to deep into it again, thinking about every single moment you spent together with Tom.
Sometimes memories hurt more than the reality.
But I'm going to tell a true story which happened to Y/n.
Let the story start.
Five years before
It was a warm evening. Time was running slowly but already had come to around the bed-time.
An old woman with grey short and a bit curly hair was sitting near a fire place in a big bright-red armchair which kinda looked like a small throne. She fixed big glasses with golden rim on her nose, sliding a page of a thick book with fairytales in it. Two kids, a little girl of age 6 that was hugging a teddy bear, and a boy who looked a bit older than his sister next to him was sitting on the carpet close to their grandma, listening to her carefully. They were your cousins. Unfortunately their mum (the sister of your mother) died when those two were little babies, so they were living in your house.
The other member of your big family, a tall sturdy man with abudant wavy and completely blond, even a bit silvery short hair - your father, was downstairs in his cabinet taking a sweet minute to relax and rest.
Clean-shaven angular face with clear-cut, even coarse features made him look powerful. He had an aquiline nose, think light-pink lips, high cheekbones, pointed chin and bushy eye brows.
A steady walk and the thing that he was never stooping made him look confident.
His deep gray eyes were cold - alienated, and kept many secrets in them.
He was not a human you wanted to talk to a minute after you met, he seemed to be scary and untouchable. Sometimes he could be rude and strict to people around him, but not to his children. He loved you and your cousins more than anything on this planet Earth.. Or at least you thought so.
Unfortunately your mum died when you were around 4 years old, so you didn't remember her. But lucky you, a mother of your father (the one who was reading a book to her grandchildren) took the role of your mum.
Enjoying the view you pulled your knees closer to chest hugging yourself, wrapping a blanket around. Yellow orange and red flame of fire calmed you down, your eyelids became heavier and after some minutes of fighting with a sleepy-mood you finally dropped your head on your knees, placing forehead on them. A woolen blanket made the atmosphere even more comfy than it already was and you couldn't be happier.
You were from a really, really rich family, which obviously caused good and bad things. You always had everything you wanted, the best professors in England were your teachers, you wore the best clothes and ate the best food.
Suddenly you got a text message from Lena.
"Can you please come and help me? Mum argued with dad again, I can't stand it anymore so I'm moving out to Abby and her friends. I need to pack my stuff"
Lena was one of your bestfriends since the start. When your family wasn't rich and you lived in a small room along with cousins, you met her on a usual playground and you two were inseparable.
Now when she grew up she is a real lady. Her fair beautiful hair and absolutely unbelievable blue - greenish eyes were always objects for you to be jealous of.
But here the appearance didn't matter, you loved her for her sence of humor, the way she supported you and even tho it was hard and she always had your back.
Of course after reading the messages you immideately jumped off the armchair you were sitting on and grabbed your backpack. It easley got on your back, and fixing the lungs of it you pecked your granny on the rosy cheek smiling slowly.
- I'm gonna be back, have to help Lena with some stuff. Love you, see you soon.
You said leaving your granny and moving to the two little kids, giving them a hug.
- Honey, please be careful. We love you too, have a great time!
Your grandmother's croaky but at the same time silvery voice answer as she smiled. That caused lots of wrinkles appeare on her face. Smiling widely you gave her last hug and sending an air-kiss closed the big front door right behind you. Rushing down the street and getting in your car you quickly texted back.
Lena
You
"On my way"
~
It took you 24 minutes to get to the opposite side of the town.
Soon all of Lena's clothes was packed and you helped her to get the boxes out of her window simply throwing them out.
When you arrived and saw her puffy red eyes you didn't bother asking what happened, there was no need to. Everything was clear without any questions.
Screams of her parents and sounds of broken glass from the living room didn't stop even 20 minutes later, so you two left the apartment as fast as it was possible.
Getting your seat belts done, Lena finally broke the silence mumbling:
- Abby is not home. Neither are her friends, so we will have plenty of time to unpack. Thank you so much, Y/n.
You nodded typing the address in the searching line with one hand while holding left hand of your bestfriend in the other one. You squeezed your fingers together.
- It will be just fine, okay? Don't worry about it, you need a rest. I got you.
Lena leaned her head back and smiled weakly as a little crystal-clear tear ran down her cheek. Lights outside lighted her eyes up making them look like golden-green glass. Lucky girl.
Pushing the gas pedal down and placing both hands on the steering wheel you drove off.
Skipping the time again to one and a half hours later.
Finally you were done. Although the room was such a mess and arm's muscles were aching, you both were satisfied.
- Should we make a little party as a housewarming?
You asked Lena as you both were breathing heavily sitting on a big green sofa.
- Sure. I'm going to turn radio on and you will order pizza
She agreed as you felt how her mood changes to the better one. Pulling your phone out you opened the app for food-delivering and picking the Margarita one, chose to pay by a card. Suddenly your phone buzzed, showing you a notification:
"Declained"
‐ Weird, it's declined. Can you order it? I'll pay the next time. Probably they have some problems in bank.
- Yeah, sure. Don't worry about it. Here we go.
The blonde girl said turning the radio on.
But music didn't start playing. Instead of it you two heard something that made your eyes go wider than they possibly could.
"32 minutes ago a huge mansion of a well-known business man Carl Vicriemsky was blown up by an unknown gang. All place is in fire now, the number of victims is unknown"
Lena slowly turned her head to face you. Carl Vicriemsky was your dad.