"This is Jacob Preston, he owns
the Preston furniture company," Aleksander introduces
The name Preston makes me think
of a stuck-up frat boy with daddy's
money, but I can't judge people
by their names, my name basically
belongs to a cartoon character.
"Nice to meet you," he says, shaking
my hand, I nod and gently squeeze
his hand "The pleasure is all mine,"
Aleksander laughs and wraps his arm
around my waist,
slightly glaring at his furniture friend.
Jacob pulls away and stands beside
Aleksander "So what are Mr.
and Mrs. Petrov looking for?" I look
around the building that's an open
and filled with expensive furniture.
Before either of us could answer a
phone starts to ring.
Aleksander pulls it out of his suit
pocket; when he sees the number, he clenches his jaw and excuses himself
He kisses my cheek and hands me
his wallet "I will be right back,"
I would normally believe him, but the
fact he gave me his wallet makes me
question how long he's
going to take and who was on the call.
Jacob leads me to the seating area,
mostly things for the interior of the
house; it's filled with sofas,
recliners, office chairs, and barstools.
I'm mostly focused on getting a
dining table and chairs because
that's the main thing we need,
Especially if Louis, Celeste, Izabella,
and Xavier are going to be
at the house almost every day.
After telling him that he takes me to
the dining area,
making jokes about the type of wood
that certain tables are
made of and talking about Aleksander.
I run my hand against the table I like,
it's a brown and black wooden table;
it's held up by a tall circular stone
that's connected to the center of the
table so there isn't a chance of it falling.
The stone is soft to the touch but
because of how it is stone,
a baby or Louis could get hurt if
they crawled under the
table so it's not the greatest idea.
"Do you have a table that's entirely
made out of wood but
still looks similar, like the same tile
design but it's wood?"
Jacob laughs and grabs my hand
"Follow me," he says, even
though he's pulling me with him.
We walk through large double doors,
entering the back where different
materials are on tall shelves "Pick the materials you like and the design, I'll
do the rest." I smile and nod my head
He laughs and seems more
excited than me.
"So have you talked to Aleksander
about the church?"
I run my hand over a white stone
that feels too much like sand.
"What church?" I question, he hands
me a green tile and runs his finger along
the line "I don't know the name, anyways
he wanted me to work on the glass;"
I nod even though I don't know
what he's talking about.
•~~~~~~~~~~❀❀❀~~~~~~~~~~~•
I tried to wait for Aleksander.
Since it's his house too, he should
have an opinion on the furniture,
but he called and told me that he had something that couldn't
wait so he went to his building.
And I didn't know which card
he wanted me to use so
I briefly explained things to Jacob
and he gave me his number to call
him when I figured things out.
Now I'm headed toward the house,
this is one of Aleksander's drivers who
refuses to talk to me, unfortunately.
My phone starts to ring, and I assume
it's Aleksander but it shows an
unknown number. I decline the
call and put it back into my pocket.
It rings again, the same number
I declined, I consider blocking it
but don't; I put my phone on silent
and back into the pocket of my coat.
The buzzing stops briefly, but then
goes off again. I groan and
put the phone up to my ear "Hello?"
A familiar laugh sounds against my
ear, my heartbeat quickens, and I
start to anxiously laugh "Marceline"
I don't respond, I wait for him to
speak first "Did you like your file?"
I scoff and hang up the phone,
luckily he doesn't call me back.
What I hate the most about this
situation, is that I have
no idea what could be in the file.
Not to sound annoying but I've had countless bad things happen to me, and
I've done countless bad things to people;
Frankly, that file should've been bigger.
But I can't do anything about the file
situation until Aleksander gets back;
I don't understand why Max Becker
still wants to be a whining little bitch.
Yes, he liked Aleksander, and yes I'm
with Aleksander but what is breaking
us up going to do for him?
This only ends with blood
Probably his own, Max is powerful
but Aleksander is also on that level,
if not higher; the only reason he
didn't figure things out sooner is that
his emotions were involved with it.
But Aleksander angry, with nobody
that matters to him in danger, and
loyal workers; he could kill Max easily.
The problem is that emotions are
heavily involved with all do this.
"мы у вас дома, госпожа петроваl"
I smile and thank him; he closes the
black window and I step out of the car.
[ᴛʀᴀɴsʟᴀᴛɪᴏɴ: ᴡᴇ ᴀʀᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏᴜsᴇ,
ᴍʀs. ᴘᴇᴛʀᴏᴠ]
The car drives away while I'm walking
inside the mansion; I glance at some
of the bodyguards around the
room and realize this is my life now;
I live here, with Aleksander, I'm
technically a Petrov and married
to him. I think I'm okay with that.
There are definitely multiple
problems I have to deal with,
I need to talk to Hannah and Dylan,
I also need to figure out what Dylan
plans on doing and if he
wants to take over our father's mafia.
Now I know that I do not want it,
and I don't feel like my life
has been a waste just because of that.
Marco wanted me to take over;
I only wanted it because he told me
I did, realizing that, I understand that
he probably thought
he was making the right decisions.
Obviously, he was wrong, I killed him,
and he's not coming back, eventually,
that won't hurt; right now the only guilt
I have for the situation is taking
him away from my brother and sister.
It takes time to figure out how I will
work here, in Russia, in this new life.
And I will figure it out, I don't want to completely give up working,
but I won't be taking over any business.
•~~~~~~~~~~❀❀❀~~~~~~~~~~~•
I run my fingers along the book spines
I'm not familiar with any of the titles
and most of the books are in Russian
so I can't read them; finally,
I find a book that's in English
and pull it from the wooden shelf.
Unfortunately, it's one of those
self-help memoirs by a man that
probably cheated everyone out of
things so he could make
an insane amount of money.
The book has a small layer of dust
on the top so I gently wipe it
off and lift the book to the shelf.
An odd space catches my eye,
I stand on the tip of my toes to get
a better look and struggle to grab the
clipboard from the back of the shelf
I barely feel the clipboard against
my fingers and drag it toward me.
The black clipboard drops onto the
carpet and falls open; Revealing
a yellow file, with my name on it.
I rush to open it and I'm surprised to
see clear white papers and a small USB.
Quiet laughter leaves my throat,
and why shouldn't it? I found it.
Trying to stay calm, I carefully run
down the hallway, into Aleksanders
office, plug the USB into his computer,
and sit in the black leather chair.
I click on the small file and notice it's
a collection of videos, videos
that could contain a million things.
I go quiet, making sure I'm not moving
so I can hear if anyone is inside with
me, and by anyone I mean Aleksander.
Unexpectedly, I put too much
pressure on the mouse
and the video starts to play.
Marco, me, and a group of people
appear on the screen, my heart races,
and when Marco moves the camera
I realize how serious these videos are.
___________________________
𝟦 - 𝟣𝟢 - 𝟤𝟢𝟤𝟥