Like Mother, Like Daughter
V A L E R I U S ' P O V :
Waking up feels heavier than normal. My eyelids can barely peel themselves open and my body feels too heavy. Honestly, I barely even remember going to bed last night.
The last thing I remember is sitting on the couch with Eleonora, drinking whiskey. Well, she had water.
I try to budge my eyes open but still, I'm stuck. Dizzy, I lean my head back on something.
Soon I register than I'm not laid flat on my comfortable bed. I'm sitting upright and I can not seem to move my hands.
Shit.
An unfavorable feeling punctures my gut.
When my eyes crust open, I have to blink back from the bright lights. Ellie. Where is Ellie?
My mouth drops open and slowly, my hearing comes back. I want to panic but I keep my cool.
What happened?
I close my eyes, thinking.
Why would someone tie me up in a basement? I haven't pissed anyone off recently, I swear.
At least I don't think so.
Ellie. Why would they separate us? Where would they take her? Actually.. I just want to know who the fuck is doing this? I killed the people who were left from Ivan's mob. There is no one left.
No one I can think of who is still alive.
The door creaks and my eyes snap open. He's around my age, but he carries more gray hairs than me. He should probably get that dyed.
But as I look at him. Something seems familiar.
Maybe too familiar. Though, I can't place it. Not yet.
"Valerius." He states, his eyes never leave mine.
"Do I know you?"
"Well, it would be a shame if you forgot who I am."
I think hard. I can't remember. "With a face like yours, it's not hard to forget." I reply to him cooly.
This seems to piss him off. His eyes blare with a rage I've seen in myself before. He storms closer to me, stomping like a little child. Even Ellie is better mannered than this grown man.
"You ruined my life. My family. And now you're insulting me?" He bends down to my level. I don't flinch, honestly I'm getting kind of bored looking at his monotonous features.
"I've ruined a lot of people's lives. You'll have to be a bit more specific."
He punches me in my face. I feel the blood dripping down my nose.
"You're going to rot in hell!" The manic man stands up, eyes still stuck to mine.
I look deeper, I squint.
I know him somehow. But.. how?
"Hell does not scare me."
"Well it should!" He spits. "And you should be scared of what I'm going to do to you!"
I hold back my laugh.
"Where is my daughter." I demand.
He licks his lips, smiling at me. His eyes go too wild for my liking. "Oh don't worry, she's being taken care of." I don't think too much into it, he looks clueless. It's obvious whatever operation is going on here, he doesn't have any real power.
"You better hope so. Things don't run smoothly when I'm angry."
Still, my mind can't seem to pinpoint where I've seen him before.
"I'm going to fucking kill you!" His words are daggers below his breath. Then suddenly, his words bring the memories back to me.
Tito.
Rosetta's husband. Katerina's best friend's husband.
I killed his wife.
I see now why he is upset with me.
"I think I remember you now. I killed your wife. Right?"
I say it just to get a reaction out of him. I know I didn't intentionally kill her but he thinks I did. Katerina always blamed me for it too. She never let me forget it.
Tito is in my face screaming, shouting cusses. I wait for him to release me. I'll never give him the reaction he wants out of me.
He wants to hurt me the way I hurt him. I broke apart his family. The two people he loves most. I won't let him touch my people, my girls. And as I visualize how I'm going to rip apart Tito's organs, I think about my Ellie. Then, I think about my Allegra. In some way I hope he can't read my mind and know that she is the equivalent to his Rosetta for me.
I love my daughter but I think I might love Allegra too. I think I've always loved her.
Wow. Now really isn't the time for this.
The door is opened. Though my face is throbbing, I try and ignore it.
I find myself staring at a smaller version of Tito. A face I know well. Too well. A face that hangs around my Ellie. Someone who hurt my Ellie.
Rowan.
Ellie's friend Rowan. That little fuck who hurt her. I should've known.
Rowan is Tito's son. Rosetta's baby. I held him at the hospital. I remember. I was there.
Shock pulsates throughout my skin. I feel utterly stupid for not piecing this together. I mean, fuck, they have the same damn face.
The shock is quickly replaced with a deep fury. He hurt my Ellie. I can't wait to break his skull open.
I laugh. Suddenly, everything feels hilarious.
Tito, veins popping from his neck, stares at me with such a passionate hatred in his eyes. "What the fuck are you laughing at!" He screams. I can't wipe the smile off of my face.
"You." My face slowly becomes serious. "You've always been a joke, Tito."
He spits on the floor. "You watch! You watch who's the joke! You blind mother fucker! Just wait!" He shouts, pushing Rowan out of the room. The door slams shut hard. It rings through my ears.
I spend the next ten minutes trying to break free from my restraints. I need to get out of here.
I need to find Ellie.
"Oh, we'll don't go so soon." My entire body shuts down. "You've just gotten here."
I pause. That fucking voice.
I don't even need to look up to recognize that voice. That taunting voice. The lure of her feminine siren call. This has to be a dream. A terrible, terrible dream.
Her tight black heels click hard on the concrete floor as she takes exactly two steps closer to me. The door shuts behind her.
I have to be dreaming. I need to be dreaming.
Something claws at my throat. Emotion. Too much emotion. I can't handle it. It's too heavy. Too strong. Too much.
"What is it.. cat got your tongue?"
Cat. What a funny thing she did there. Cat.
Suddenly, I want to watch the life drain from those damn blue eyes.
Those fucking eyes. So emotionless. So real.
I've never been one to back away from a fight. I've never been so broken by the sight of someone. But for some reason. I want to run. I want to run and hide and scream. Because I don't know what to do. For the first time in my life, I do not know what to do. I am lost.
I am lost in the eyes of my very own Katerina Elena Watson. My own personal tormentor. My Hell.
And she is supposed to be dead.
Though she stands so proudly in front of me, smiling so wide.
And I want to die.
Dying sounds lovely right now.
No matter how hard I try, I can't move. I can't move because if I do, I'm scared I might lose my mind.
I have spent half of my life mourning Katerina. She fucked with me, she hurt me. I let her. I had misinterpreted her roughness for love. I was convinced I had finally found someone to love me the way I wanted. I tricked myself. I was a fool then and I'm an even bigger fool now.
"Say something, V." She whispers kindly, her eyes fluttering in front of mine. She bends down so our faces are just two inches apart. "Please?" She pouts.
Then, I snap out of it.
All my regret. All my sadness. It's replaced with a burning pit in the depths of my gut. Suddenly, I want to fucking rip her throat out.
I am stunned that she would try talking to me like that. After everything. After all she broke. After all she took from me.
I am seething. And I think she knows that.
"V..," She tries to reach for my cheek but I pull it tightly out of her reach.
"Don't fucking touch me."
Her eyes turn hard, her hand fists in itself. Surprised, she's speechless.
"Excuse me?" She finally breathes out.
"You kept my daughter from me." I don't know for sure but I know for certain that's she is not innocent.
She slowly backs away from me.
"Don't you say that! You have no idea what I did for that girl!" She hisses tightly, her eyes blaring.
"You're crazy."
She backhands me as quick as the words fall out of my mouth.
"Don't you understand?" She says tightly. "I gave you everything. Your entire life, I let you have it! Her. I gave her to you."
"You don't get credit for her." I pray my emotions don't cloud my anger. I can't lose it right now.
Be brave.
"No." She gets closer again. "You don't understand." Katerina's voice is eerily soft. "I gave that girl to you." I pause, trying to read in between her lines. "Your mother was going to kill her." I can't breathe for a moment. I think I've lost my mind. "I saved her. I made her find you that night."
"Don't lie." I demand, venom tightly pouring from my loose jaw.
"I led her straight to you. I let you think you could have the life you wanted." It takes everything in me to not rip myself out of these detainments and watch the life leave her dull eyes. "Just so I could watch you lose everything."
And then, I understand.
This is still about Rosetta. She still blames me. This is payback. This is payback for killing her best friend and lying to her about the mafia.
Katerina Watson has been planning my demise for a decade. She never loved me. She was never dead. She was never a good woman. She meant every insult. Every hit. I should've known. I always knew she was going to raise hell one way or another.
It's funny now that I think about it. How evil Katerina is. How monstrous I am.
How can Ellie be so good? I guess two wrongs really do make a right.
"You're an evil bitch." My jaw ticks.
"Like mother, like daughter."
"Ellie is nothing like you. Nothing."
But instead of arguing. She smiles. Almost like she's laughing at me. And she is, silently.
"Oh, you must not know our sweet, baby Ellie the way you think you do." She taunts me with her words. Like she knows something I don't.
I wait, I wait because I know she has something.
I play into her game. "I know her better than anyone. And she is my daughter. You have no place in her life." I think steam is firing out of my ears.
She cackles, calling out Ellie's name. My heart beats. Three times. Four. Five.
I knew it, somehow I knew it but still, my heart drops when I see my own Ellie walk through the door. Her eyes look lifeless, nothing like the vibrant blues I know. She stands beside her mamma and I'm frozen in place. She won't look at me. My heart is breaking.
Ellie stands beside Katerina like she's known her all of her life.
Now I understand. I understand all the apologizing, all the worries Ellie has given. I thought she was just nervous about being home but she was really just anticipating this. This moment.
"Eleonora is my daughter." Katerina utters sternly. "I raised her! I gave birth to her!" She says tightly, gripping on to Ellie's upper arm. "And just like the good girl she is, she's been helping me." The fire burns brightly in Katerina's eyes. "She hates you just as much as I do."
Betrayal claws at my chest but still I can't believe it.
As much as Katerina is trying to convince me. I won't believe it. Ellie would never hurt me. She'd never do this. She doesn't want this.
Katerina does not know my daughter as much as she thinks she does.
"Ellie." I call out to her. Immediately, her eyes find mine. I cant stand to see her like this.
"Cute." Katerina sneers, arms crossed. "It's cute you think you understand what's going on."
"Then tell me, Katerina. Or so help me—"
"What. You'll what? Pout?"
It's hard to keep my anger in check. My body is running so far on overdrive I don't know when I'll crash. I'm a mess.
Katerina takes my silence as an opportunity to speak.
"When Ivan found me, I was happy to leave you." Katerina starts, her voice rough with anguish. "He was ten times the man you were. He even kept me when her found out about Eleonora. He took care of us in a way you never could."
Fury strikes me like lightning.
How can she talk to me like she isn't the one who stole my daughter from me? She's going to burn deep in the depths of Hell. That's a promise.
"I was never given the chance to! You robbed me of my own daughter!" I shout.
Ellie tenses up at my raised voice. I've never had to raise my voice in front of her before. I wish she'd never see me like this.
"You never fucking wanted kids!" Katerina screams at me. And it punches me in my gut.
I see the way Ellie's eyes well up and I want to murder Katerina.
"Don't say it like that." My voice is stern. "I never wanted to bring a child into such a toxic environment. Things were different then. If you would have just—"
"I sat there and fed our daughter everyday. I bathed her and kept her safe! You deserve no credit for how she turned out."
Ellie's knuckles turn white. I don't miss the veins in her neck tightening to her skin. She's upset.
I hold back my distaste for Katerina for a moment and try to reason with her. "Let's not do this here." For Ellie's sake. I can't do this.
Katerina cackles. "You've always been a pussy, V. Can never man up, can you?"
"Tell me what you want Katerina. I'll give it to you. I will. Just leave Ellie alone."
I can't bare to see my daughter in anymore pain sitting here and listening to us. I don't want Ellie to become aquatinted with the evil man I can be. I do know that if this keeps going, these restraints will not keep me from ripping Katerina Watson apart with my own bare hands.
"Don't you see, V." She whispers, gazing down at me. "I don't want anything from you." She pauses. "I only want to take everything you love and rip it to shreds like you did my life."
"You're too predictable, Katerina. You can try but I guarantee you will leave this fight a dead woman." I hush to her in Italian. So Ellie does not here.
Katerina steps backwards.
"Let's go, Eleonora. Tell your father you hate him and let's get on with our night."
Ellie's sweet eyes glance down to me. She takes a step forward and bends down. I see all the words she's leaving unspoken. Her eyes tell me all I need to know. I trust my daughter. I always will. Even if it kills me in the end.
My hands are shaking with anger. My body is itching to blow this place up.
Katerina's eyes are stuck deep onto Ellie.
Ellie's mouth opens but nothing coming out for a moment. She seems to choke on her words before she can finally mutter something out.
"I.. hate you."
My jaw is stuck in place. My earth is shattering. My chest is heaving.
It takes everything in me to stay calm.
Ellie's eyes don't leave mine for three moments long.
I can practically feel Katerina's smile.
"I love you, Ellie." Her eyes soften for just a moment.
Tears burrow in Ellie's eyes. She stands up.
"Doesn't that feel good, Eleonora?" Ellie faces her mamma. She nods.
"Sì, mamma." My heart is beating outside of my chest. I want to throw up.
The door finally shuts and hot tears stream down my cheeks. I bite my cheeks.
Focus, focus, focus.
Katerina is alive. She's alive. And Ellie knew. Ellie has always known.
Betrayal is a funny thing. A thing I'm acquainted with well. But Ellie. My sweet, darling Ellie.
She could never betray me.
I reach my fingers to grab ahold on something that lays behind me. I inch it closer so that I can grab it with my hands. I use the sharp blade to cut through the thick rope and then I snap my cuffs on the bar I'm tied to.
My daughter is a very smart girl. She takes after her papà obviously.
I stretch my arms out and hold the knife Ellie managed to give me in my palm. I enclose my hand around it.
I stand wobbly. I catch my balance.
I need to find Ellie.
• • •