Dark Times
Chapter 30: Katerina
Song: Heart — Yiruma (I suggest you really do listen to it through the whole chapter! It's also one of my favorite pieces)
Third person point of view
It was a rainy August morning; the storm in the clouds above couldn't be kept from entering the barn. There were footsteps, small ones, splashing all around the hay. But that wasn't the only thing that was bothering the horses; they were scared of thunder, you see, and frightened by screams: that morning they heard both.
"You need to push, okay? It will all be over soon."
"No I can't, Anne I can't, it's too much."
"Benjamin and Des will be home soon, Veronica, they're getting a doctor here but that baby needs to come out right— Gemma for the love of God come get your brother before he gets a cold!" Anne yelled out, waiting for her daughter to come grab the toddler running around in the rain.
All of this reminded her of when her Harry was born. He too didn't make it to the car, nevertheless, a hospital. Except back then they lived in
Worcestershire. Worcestershire was unrecognizable now. Much like her, Veronica went into labor while helping Anne grab the clothes she had put outside to dry, but the storm ended up running anyway.
Veronica couldn't even make it inside. So they had set up outside, right in front of the stables inside the barn.
Eight year old Gemma listened right away, with a slight attitude, of course, since this was the third time today she had to come out and pull her brother inside.
"Do you have your baby yet?" She asked, while keeping Harry's wrist in her hand.
"Not yet Gem, she still has to push a little more. Don't look now, go inside and let Harry borrow some of your toys. Nica, honey, we're gonna start pushing again okay?" She turned her attention back to the pregnant woman, who laid in front of her.
"But mom!"
"Inside Gemma!"
This time, Gemma listened, and when Anne turned back to look at Veronica, she heard her husband's car pull up outside. They came running in.
"Where's the doctor Des?"
Benjamin went straight for his wife, kneeling down next to her and taking her hand. "Any progress? How are you feeling honey?"
"He's in his way. Mad storm I tell you, I don't know how long he'll be he had a patient when we arrived." Des replied, grabbing one of the warm towels to press against Veronica's forehead. "Guess we'll be doing the hard part here right Nica!" He excitedly told his friend. Des was the kind of man who could make any situation seem positive. He always found a silver-lining.
Benjamin got behind his wife, putting her upper body on top of his torso, and grabbed her hand. "Puoi farlo, my love. Ti amo tanto (you can do it, my love, I love you so much)."
"Alright I'm gonna need you to push again, okay? Push." Anne told her, and Veronica looked at her husband and cried, before letting out one hard push.
"Oh my god.." Des murmured breathlessly as the head peeped out.
Veronica took a deep breath and pushed again, squeezing Benjamin's hand so hard he thought she'd break a bone. But he didn't care, he continued whispering how much he loved her.
"One more push! You're doing great! Just one more!"
And she cried, she cried in pain, and happiness. This time she screamed so hard it felt like she was causing the storm, and thunder, which only roared loudly when the screams of a smaller voice filled the room.
And they were all in awe.
"It's a girl." Des whispered.
"A girl?" Benjamin looked up at his friends, his eyes full of tears.
Anne wrapped the tiny thing in a towel, and attempted to clean as much as possible before passing her to her mother, who just silently stared at her daughter.
Her daughter.
Veronica took her in her arms, and wordlessly let her fingers caress the baby's small face. She had her grandmother's blue eyes.
"A girl." Benjamin whispered again, looking down at his wife and daughter. It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his entire life.
"Katerina." Veronica said, her first word since bringing this angel into life. Katerina — like her grandma's name.
KATERINA L. WILD
Some point after I stopped crying Harry fell asleep. I didn't really realize it, but we had shifted in the couch so that Harry was now laying down on it with me partially on top of his chest, and my face buried in the crook of his neck.
I did a lot of thinking during those hours... mostly about my dad and what had happened to cause all of this. I also thought a lot about my adoptive parents, and what they must be going through without knowing where I have been or am. I just hoped they were okay, and safe from this madness.
I thought about the war... and how the government was supposed to protect the people but eventually they let their avarice control them. It was no wonder it escalated so much. They had only preached about Harry's cartel being the only one they were against. It was as if Felicity's never existed.
I also thought about Harry; not that it surprised me, I thought a lot about Harry these days. But I thought about how nice he smelled, which is weird but it was the only scent I was receiving since I was in his arms. I thought about how safe I felt, and how I had never felt this safe and stable before.
And that eventually led to Stella, and how I understood why she wanted Harry so badly. But I decided I wasn't going to let her have him so easily.
Which led to me thinking of seducing Harry, or something. I don't know I wasn't well mentally and being literally on top of him was confusing me.
But at some point during that time I really couldn't handle the silence, it just made me think of things I didn't really want to think about, and so I very carefully got out of Harry's arms and when I thought I was safe, fell on the floor. Loudly. Thankfully he didn't get up.
I looked at the clock hanging off the wall, it read 3:57AM. By this point I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep tonight, so I grabbed one of the sheets of the bed and draped it over Harry who looked angelic when he slept.
What I was about to do now though, would probably take that look right of his face if he knew where I was going. So I very slowly closed the door when I left the room, and walked along the big halls of Harry's mansion... or was it Arthur.. my fathers?
I didn't take the elevator, I still had to come up with what exactly I was going to ask when I saw him, but by the time I made it to the door leading to where I saw the men took Damien I knew I'd just have to go with my gut.
The place felt oddly familiar to the place Harry took me when I first arrived to his London Home and tried to escape. I smiled at the memory.
The room was full of cells but there was just one prisoner, and it seemed like I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep last night.
"Katerina..." He called, looking up from his bench. "What are you doing here?"
"Don't you think I need a proper explanation?" I approached his cell, and stood right in front of it. Close enough so that he could see me in the candlelit room.
He didn't move from the spot on the floor where he sat, but he leaned his head back and played with what looked like some fabric from his shirt. "Does it really matter anymore? You know what you need to know. I'm the bad guy. He's the good guy. What is there else to know?"
"Your feelings for me, where they real? Or was it all part of your stupid plan to kill me or Harry or whatever the hell it is you were doing?"
"Again why does it matter? Aren't you with him anyway?"
I stood right in front of the cell now, and gripped one of the bars in my hand. "It matters to me! Dammit! Just answer!" I plead. Part of me knew I needed closure in order to move on. The other part, the part that once was in love with him just wanted to know.
He stood up from the floor, but stayed where he was, his face was a hurricane of emotions. I imagined mine probably was too.
"Yes. God." He shut his eyes, and then he was by the bar in a matter of seconds. "God, I love— I loved you with everything in me! That's why I left. If Felicity found out I felt this way she would have killed me, or worse, killed you faster than she planned."
"Fuck," I whispered, wiping off a tear that managed to escape. And here I thought I was done crying.
"Did you?" He asked, "did you love me?"
"Do you even have to ask that?" I murmured. "I thought Harry killed you... I wanted to rip him to shreds. I tried. Thank God I didn't succeed." And then my face was hard again. The thought of not having Harry with me scared me.
I think he understood that too, and with his defeated face he walked back towards his bed and took a seat. But I wasn't done with him. I wanted to know what happened that night.. the night he left.
"What was her plan.. or your plan or whatever? Before you left."
"I wasn't meant to hurt you. If that's what you're asking, I was just sent to watch you and to make sure Styles was down; so the government made it easy for me to infiltrate. That night we pretended to be Harry's customer's for the gun shipment he remembered me from..." He paused for a second, shaking his head and shutting his eyes. "From a fight we had before and he already knew who you were. Your father and him had been watching you for years... and so he injured me, and trapped me, but during one of the raids to his house I was rescued. But Felicity didn't allow me to go back since he knew who I was and they had already infiltrated one of his men to watch over you and lure you to Harry."
I stared ahead in amazement. How could I have been so blind for so long. I wanted to leave, and go back to Harry's arms and never ever leave.
"Why didn't she want to kill me?"
"Because she was waiting until she could trap Arthur, then I was meant to capture you.. and she was going to kill you in front of him." He explained in anguish. "As I began to fall for you I began to think of ways in which I could've spared your life but.."
"You were to weak to disobey her." I finished for him. He was, and just then I understood even if he had feelings for me, it wasn't love. "If you had truly loved me you would've dropped it all for me. You would've told me everything and we would've found a way out."
He looked down. He knew I was right.
"I just have one more question. Then I'll leave."
"What?"
"Why does she hate me... and my father so much.. what did he ever do?"
"I think that's something you need to ask him." He sighed, and pointed behind me.
I immediately turned around, and was met with Arthur's warm eyes watching me from a distance. I didn't say anything, I simply walked forward and passed him to the stairs. And as I expected of course, he followed me through the kitchen, and then outside towards the beach.
We both stood close to where the waves hit our feet, waiting for the other to speak.
At some point I did.
"So why does she?" I asked, turning to look at him. "Why does she hate us so much?"
"Katerina..." he began, the word felt so foreign on him. There was just something about the way he said it. It hit me right where it hurts.
"I need to understand. My whole life I've felt like there was something missing — like something was wrong. I thought that joining the people who fought against who I thought had murdered my family was going to fill that hole, and then Harry abducting me just widened it. He brought me into this world where I don't know where I fit and I just need to understand who this woman is, and who you are in order to get closer to finding who I am. So please."
The look my father had on his face then was heartbreaking, and I felt like I had been transported back in time to the look he had given me before going back in the fire.
He really is my father.
"It all began nearly twenty three years ago, in Colombia. As you already know the war between the government and the mafia and cartels escalated around that time... maybe a couple years more but... Felicity and I started that. We used to be in love back then but..." He stared ahead at the waves. "The power got the best of her. She became this person I didn't recognize and as we distanced ourselves from each other I began to notice someone else who had always been by our side since the beginning."
"My mother." I whispered.
"Your mother — Veronica, she was always so kind, and I guess even though I was with Felicity, her sister, there was always this connection between Veronica and I... and so I did what any stupid young man does when he begins to fall for someone.. and before you know it your mom tells me she's pregnant and we make plans to escape — we knew if Felicity found out she would kill us both.. and so we did."
I took a long breath and sat down on the sand,
Arthur decided to stay on his feet. "I know it was the wrong thing to do.. cheat on Felicity like that, I know it makes me seem like the worst scum on Earth but I really did love your mother. So we eloped to what once was the United States and got ourselves married. We ended up staying with some friends I had made in England who moved to the U.S after the English War broke out. Those friends.. the Styles... were Harry's parents." He explained and I shut my eyes. It was all making more sense.
"Harry was just a toddler back then, barely four when we arrived but his parents Des and Anne took us in for a couple of months, and after you were born Veronica and I decided to build a home not far from the Styles and settle in... We spent a long time there as farmers... and we were so happy, your mother, you, my gattina, my kitten, and I. By the time five years had passed we thought Felicity would never find us. And we were wrong, of course. One," he shut his eyes and shook his head; I could tell he was in pain, "one terrible night, we were woken up by the smell of smoke and the bottles being thrown through the windows full of gasoline and fire... and as you've told me you remember the rest."
I nodded, looking ahead at the waves. "You grabbed me and took me outside, told me to look for help if you didn't come out."
He looked back at me, and I saw the tears in his eyes, then he finally took a seat beside me and dug his fingers into the sand. "We were all supposed to come out. Your mother and I woke you up, but before we could leave a piece of wood blocked the way from the doorway, separating us and her. I put you down to try and break her free but she... she begged and screamed that I take you outside first.. she loved you so much."
The tears were now freely running down his bearded cheek, and he wiped them away with the hem of his shirt. "I think I took too long trying to get your mom free, but when I got to her she was already..already dead and when I went back outside you were gone."
"I.. don't really remember much of that anymore. I remember my time in the orphanage, and then getting adopted by the Wild family."
"I looked for you everywhere, and when I couldn't find you I walked to the Styles' Home. They were only around ten miles away. I walked the whole way and they helped me look for you. Not soon after Anne discovered that you were found walking on a trail back to the road, and that you were in an orphanage while they figured out what happened to you."
"Then why didn't you come get me?" I asked, turning to look at him while the tears pooled in my eyes.
"I know I did wrong but I wanted you to have a chance at a normal life.. I had plans to get revenge for your mother's death and I didn't want you to be in danger. I thought it was best if Felicity thought we had all died in that fire. So I changed my name to Arthur.. it used to be—"
"Benjamin." I told him. I remembered.
He smiled, "yes... I had to let it go along with my family and.. with the Arthur name I grew my own cartel, I had experience, so I built my own power, and I was determined to take her down. Des, Harry's father also joined me, and we moved back to England in order to be able to expand our business to Europe... She didn't know who I was but she recognized me as a strong competitor and sent people to take us down.. amongst those men was that guy you caught.. Damien.
He was only around sixteen or so back then, I knew Felicity liked to collect young men as soldier when she ploughed through cities. He must've been one of them. That was our first battle with her, and we lost a lot of men that day including Harry's father who went head to head with Damien. It was then that he decided to join me, and I knew one of her men must've recognized me so the façade was gone. I decided to put Harry in charge then, while I went into hiding in order to prevent more attacks. Harry is a good man, a kind man, and he didn't deserve to lose any more family members because of me."
Damien killed Harry's Dad. It all made sense...
"While I was away I looked into you.. and your family. I saw that you joined the government a couple of years later, and I knew that was enough to get you in Felicity's radar. You were supposed to stay away completely." He continued, shaking his head while I took a deep breath.
"I wanted to know the truth about you." I explained. "I found myself really liking the practice, and the fighting."
"I get that." He nodded. "But she found out who you were, and sent that scumbag to work with you.. so I sent my own man Zain."
"And here we are." I whispered.
"Here we are." He turned towards me, and I did the same. "I'm sorry I've put you through all of this pain. Not just you, the whole world is crumbling because of us, and I'm so sorry."
"I understand that wasn't your intention."
Silence grew after that again, and by then the sun was beginning to rise.
"Your family, your adoptive family, are they nice?"
"They're great." I smiled, thinking about my mom. "My Dad works in the family business — they own some stores around the better parts of the city, and my mom is an amazing woman."
"Dad.. huh.."
"Yeah he—"
"Do you think we'll ever be able to build a relationship like that?"
I looked at him and I understood. It wasn't his fault we had lost so many years. But now I knew, he had lost so much and I wasn't going to deny him a chance to get close to me.
So I placed my hand on top of his in the sand, and tried my best to muster up a smile. "Probably. I'm pretty cool, so don't love me too much."
He chuckled. "A little too late for that."
"Is it okay if I.."
He enveloped me in his arms then, and I felt the many years of his absence shorten in that one hug. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to do this. Since the moment I got off that plane." His voice was cracking.
"I'm here now." I whispered in his arms, and
hugged him back as tight as I could.
We went back inside shortly after, but halfway through the living room I stopped and looked at the piano in front of the windows facing the beach.
"You can go ahead, I just.. need to do something." I explained.
"Do you play?" He asked, pointing to the piano.
"I do." I replied, sitting on the bench running my hands through the keys. "I haven't in a while. I only play when there's too much going inside that needs to be released." I explained with a smile.
"I'm guessing there's a lot right now isn't there?"
"Well I just met my father who I thought was dead for years." I joked, playing a simple scale on the keys.
[play song now, or restart if you had it playing]
My fingers pressed harder on the keys, playing a melody I knew by heart. I paused for a second and looked at Arthur, who stood by the piano watching my fingers in amazement. But then I kept going, my lips forming a smile as I felt the music fly through me.
I was unstoppable now, insatiable as the piano itself felt like it was shaking every time my fingers met one of its keys. And I closed my eyes, when my eyes were closed I was able to feel it more. I knew this piece so well that I didn't need to see.
And when I stopped, my father turned to me.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who is just astounded by you." He whispered, and I looked behind him to Harry, who leaned back against the wall watching.
"If only your mother could see this." He continued, before walking towards Harry and telling him something I couldn't quite catch. I turned back to the piano and started the piece again as Harry walked toward me, and my father towards the stairs.
He took a seat next to me on the bench, and smiled, "so you know everything now?"
"I do." I replied, swaying with the music.
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you anything, your dad he—"
"I get it Harry. I understand everything." I said
cutting him off. "Looks like I've known you all my life.. without actually knowing you." I said, finally looking at him. "And I'm sorry about your dad... and Damien.." I looked over at him, and his eyes met mine for the smallest second, and then moved to my hands. Mine moved to his lips. I wanted to kiss him.
"It's.. alright.. and yeah, I was surprised you didn't remember me that first time we saw each other at the Gala. I remembered you right away, running after you in the barn. I mean you didn't get far you always did have some skinny legs." He joked, and I smiled. I didn't remember any of that but I'm glad he did.
"Who would have thought you were the good guy in this whole situation."
There was this look in his eyes every time he looked at me. It was distracting. He watched my fingers move. "Yeah, there's still a lot about me you don't know."
"Maybe," he continued, "maybe one day you'll give me a chance to show you just how good I can be." He moved closer to me on the bench and I looked back to the piano. I was sure I knew this piece but being close to Harry made me forget everything.
He made music, which was the one thing that could ease me seem like nothing.
And then his hand stopped mine, and his other turned my head towards him quickly, so he could kiss me. A short kiss, a kiss that told me everything I needed to know.
But I pulled away quick from the shock, the word forming on my lips 'but.. Stella' I wanted to say, and then I realized—
Stella didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.
He made my world stop.
And I grabbed the back of his head and kissed him.
a/n: sorry for the long ass paragraphs, but now you guys know the truth!
Please comment and vote and share it really helps!
I hope you guys liked the piano piece!
Love love
- Delilah ♥️