Valencia
"What?" I looked at him with disbelief. How could he so quickly tell that he had been the one to circulate those rumors?
"The rumor of Demyan trying to kill was a rumor to always begin with. I put the seed in everyone's mind and let it grow until it became apparent that it was useless going after you," he leaned back on the couch with the glass of whiskey in his hand. "I planted the seed even in his mind and thought it was a long shot. It was justifiable."
"Justifiable?" I asked with anger pulsing through my veins. "You call it justifiable? You fucked up my life and it seems justifiable to you."
"I did it to save you and you are alive. You don't have any idea how many people were going to come after you." I gaped at the words he said.
"I'm not alive. I'm a fucking dead. Do you call how I live to be even living? Do you have any idea how much fucked up in my mind I'm?" I was raged by his words. Taking a step towards him I was ready to fight this man. What did all the men think around me? Were they potheads because it felt like that? Demyan, his uncle, Viktor, and I had no idea about Cillian, they all were fucking playing with my head.
"You need to calm down," Cillian stood up coming between him and me, saying the perfect wrong words.
"I would have calmed down if nothing of this would have ever happened. Do you have any idea what I had gone through all these years? All the pain I had gone through. It made me want to kill myself. I wanted to fucking die as I suffered through all of this. So don't tell me to fucking calm down!" I barked at him but his face seemed unfazed. He didn't show any change in expression.
"I know how it feels," he put his hand over my cheek. "But I can tell you that what you had gone through doesn't compare to what I had to go through. I lived in the same house as my father did and yet he didn't recognize me as his. I had no one besides him, Valencia. I had no dotting mother or family all I had was him. Someone else got precedence over me. Some other guy became his favorite and I had to work under him." It was the first time he spoke and suddenly it felt like he was no longer the same man I knew.
"I wanted to leave the fucking hell hole and I did but it didn't matter at all. Nothing mattered to him you know. My existence was fucking joke, dead but yet alive. Yet, my father brought me back and no it wasn't to tell the world I existed," he spoke with all he felt. I saw the pain in his eyes. Anger and agony dripped through his voice yet his hold on me didn't change.
"He had sent his man to bring me back by hook or crook all because he wanted me back under him. You say you are dead but I'm a rotting corpse on the inside. He made me like that, all of their fucked up decisions did. Do you think I don't have a personal vendetta towards Viktor? He fucked up my life, so many people did and I killed a few too many. I have blood on my hands but at least mine would be a bit cleaner than theirs while yours are bloody clean compared to mine," I just stared at him she he spoke those words. It was now that I could see clearly in his eyes. The misery and agony he suffered was nothing compared to mine.
"You are my half-sister and the only other blood-related family I have. I had hated you for so long but when Viktor brought you in, all that hatred just melted away like ice. You had no idea what world you had been dragged into. I stand beside you only for one reason now and that is because you are my sister," he stepped closer to me wrapping the hand around my shoulder.
"All your secrets are safe with me, and so are you and who you seek to keep safe including my niece," he whispered quietly. I was startled by his words yet there was no malice on his face. No threat in his voice as he whispered those words to me. I looked behind me and Dimitri looked over us with curiosity as I turned my head slightly I saw Demyan. He stood there with the same expression on his face as his uncle did. None of them had any knowledge about the child. Only four people did me, Cillian, Viktor, and Karl.
"Does Karl know anything?" I asked suddenly as the thoughts of him came crashing down. He was my brother too, I had brought him in. Pulled him into this world, and dragged him down with me in this hell. Now I wish I had seen Viktor's real face. All I wanted was to have someone to confide in and he was already spiraling down. What I thought to be a saving grace was suddenly nothing but pushing a step closer to death.
"He doesn't," Cillian's expression changed and I could hear the hurt in his voice.
"I care about him," I tell him straight because there was no beating around the bush. "I brought him with me. I made the decision to bring him in and he is my responsibility."
"I know," he replies. "But I can't promise you anything over him." I expected an answer from him telling me that he would take care of it but suddenly I realized that the world didn't rotate around me and those who I cared about.
"Be practical Valencia," he returned to being the stoic guy he was. All the expressions he showed me were gone now. "We are fighting Viktor and god knows who else. We can't save everyone. I can't be even sure about myself."
"Some sacrifices will have to be made in the end. I don't think he ever expected you to become like this. All he wanted was to use you to kill Demyan," his eyes turned toward Demyan.
"You need to bring your sister back home and her child too. We have no idea when Viktor could strike, they could be the first one ." Suddenly the image of Demyan and Zach killing my parents flashed through my mind. Turning around I faced him.
"Why did you kill my parents?" My question had him stand straighter. Silence fell like a blanket as I asked him this. His eyes didn't look away from mine. There was no remorse in them and it made me feel angry.
"Because they put you and my family in danger," he paused. "Do you know Viktor knew all along where were you but he couldn't make a move until you were out of that house and town? So he needed someone's help with that and your parents helped him with it. The money for your father's gambling and mother's expensive taste came right through his money also, I bet something you had missed."
"So you killed them for it." I closed my eyes and I could surely see the people who were called my parents doing so. When did they stop being human and turned into addicts? Revenge and addiction ruined my home. Flashes of childhood memories had me entrapped. What was once my home, my safe place was no longer there. Torn and disintegrated was all of it.
"No, I killed them for more. They took your form me but they were stealing my secrets and telling him. I killed them because they were caught red-handed doing so and asking money to make you run away. I made them bleed for what they shouldn't have done." He was angry but I could see he was still holding back.
"What were you planning to do with me, if I hadn't run away?" I needed to know what his game plan was.
"I wanted to bind you with me forever. I was going to keep you as my possession, make you a slave to me that you had to beg me to let you leave. All I wanted was to keep you in misery because that was how I thought how your father had kept my mother," I could see in his eyes that he was telling the truth. The expression on his face told everything yet my once-broken heart couldn't believe in him fully. A broken trust was harder to mend than a broken heart.
"Viktor won't let you live at any cost, Valencia," Dimitri spoke up as I stared at Demyan.
"And why is that?" I asked turning towards him. "Because he loves Sophia," I didn't know what kind of woman she was but I was betting that she was a cunning one.
"Because he wants to claim something your father left for you." Confusion marked my face. My biological father, Ivan left something for me.
"The very reason why Viktor married you and makes you an important part of all of this," Cillian added making me curious altogether. I looked towards Demyan trying to know that did he know something but I could see that he was as confused as me.
"Remember this piece of paper," Cillian unfolded a paper. I certainly had no idea what it was. He handed over it to me. It was my marriage certificate that I had signed with Viktor. As I held it in my hands I realized that it was an original and as much as I could remember this was to be submitted in the office. This was something we had signed in private in front of a judge. There weren't any vows we had exchanged. I was covered in blood from a kill and he had told me that we were getting married.
"What is this doing with you?" It was absolutely bizarre to see it. Taking the paper from my hands he pointed to where my name was written there was surely a mistake in my name. It read Velaneria but my name was Valencia.
"What do you mean by all of this," I was stunned by what was going on. It felt like I was falling in a rabbit hole knowing nothing about it. I stared at Cillian but I already had a hunch about what he was going to say.
"Looks like you never got married, Sis," he smiled before tearing off the certificate to shreds while I just stood there baffled.
Suddenly all the past seemed unreal, everything felt like a lie. I couldn't grasp everything. Lies that was all I had. All my life was built on them.
I needed to be alone, I needed my space. I opened the door to walk out of there to the place I know where my room was.
I needed more time to process this than any other thing. Betrayal and lies, that was it all about.
"Don't leave just because it's hurting too much," Demyan stopped me with his hand on my wrist while mine was at the doorknob. I no longer knew who was who. Who was the villain in my story and who was the hero, suddenly it felt like there were never one. In the end, we were just humans with our desires running us.
What do you think Ivan left her that Viktor wants more?
And the end of a marriage like this?
Do you think Viktor had something else in his hands?