Valencia

I looked at all the photos I had laid down on my bed. Each one of them had been carefully placed from old ones to new ones. Standing there I just stared at all of them with a burning cigarette in my hands.

In the phase of chaos, it was better to stand still in a place and think. Cigarettes and the smell of nicotine always helped me when I was caught in my own mind. Right now I needed a picture of clarity. I needed to process whatever that has been ever told me and choose sides according to Cillian.

Which was even the right one? It felt like fucking Hobson's choice.

I looked at the letter that I had read numerous times. It talked about the purest love and cheesy lines. A princess who had fallen in love with a potter. The more I read it the more and more I hated Viktor. He was loved. The asshole was still fucking loved by a woman to whom he had lost his virginity at seventeen in a fucking barn on a cold winter night with fire as the only companion besides Sophia. I could see why he had kept that letter. It was a precious memory of that night that I even I could see how Sophia had described on a piece of paper for him.

Sophia and Viktor once had a daughter for sure. Where she was no one knew and if people did then she was best kept secret no one knew about. There was a small girl in some place who was as old as my child and Viktor was playing the role of papa for him or her but who was the fucking mama.

My good guess was Sophia but how could they have been visiting? How could they have been going to come to a place together without anyone knowing? I could think of Viktor being able to pull that off easily but Sophia was engaged to Demyan for half the time and with a lot many people guarding her. Could she have fooled them all somehow? Was she as good as me at manipulating and fooling people? Could it have been that she had been hiding her true self from everyone? How good she was at this game? Had her hands dripped in blood or were they pristine clean?

Taking a drag of the cigarette, I exhaled the smoke watching it dismiss.

Who she really was, was only known to one person and he himself was a number one manipulator. He had manipulated me too. I won't deny his sad story he spoke the truth but there was always a power of words and emotions that drove a person to believe in the worst. At eighteen he had come back to the States and in his early teens, he had begged Demyan for help only to be denied. He just added a bit of story of it to make him look pitiful enough to make a fool out of me. He had taught me how to play with emotions while he had been playing with mine all along.

They had a beautiful daughter that was for sure but where she was now. I needed the answer to this question as much as I needed to breathe to survive. What made Viktor fall out of place and reach Ivan? Yet what made him kill the man who had given him everything aka my biological father? Why did he need me? Why was I needed to be here? It couldn't have been for revenge on Demyan and Natalia. He could have done that without me.

Zach had married Natalia, they had a kid. He could have got his revenge by killing the child or torturing Natalia through Zach. Demyan and Viktor could have killed each other but yet they didn't. If all Viktor wanted was revenge he could have done that easily but I didn't fit into any of the equations.

Neither on this side nor on that. I felt more like a fucking side character in a story.

I needed the depth of knowledge of someone who had been wise and old enough to know everything. Someone who had been here since the beginning and that too before Viktor strikes. I was sure that it would be soon enough with the stunts I had pulled today on Saint Sophia.

Dimitri

He was the one person who knew it all. The old wise man who has been here long enough to put all pieces together. It was fucking four in the morning but I needed to get hold of him at all costs. Even if it meant breaking into his house and waking him up. However, I could always try to go with a soft approach for once because if my breaking into his room caused him a heart attack then I would have no one to give me answers.

I didn't have a fucking phone and his number was not on my tips. Walking out of my room I moved through the house like it was fucking mine.

Being four in the morning it was silent. The guards for now were guarding the outside of the house rather than the inside. If I wanted to kill Demyan this could have been the best time. Just a vicious thought.

I didn't knock on his door just barged in. The idiot could have been sleeping and I still wouldn't have any mercy on him. Natalia was still with Zach at his house which means there was a hell lot of privacy I had.

"Wake up," I just ripped the sheets off him making him jump in the bed. His hand went to the bedside table to pick up the gun but I beat him to it slapping his hand away hard. Did he really think he could point his gun at me?

"What the fuck, Valencia?" he yelled rubbing the sleep from his eyes and getting up. He was stark naked and it didn't affect me at all. Maybe my desire for him had already run its course.

"Give me your phone, I need to call your uncle," he looked at me and then at the clock behind him.

"It's four in the morn-," I was not in the mood for bullshit so I slapped him hard.

"Maybe this will have you awake. Now call your uncle and tell him I got to talk to him right now," I emphasized on the now and was really hoping that I won't have to beat the shit out of him to get what I want. He had no idea what mood I was running through. I could fucking kill someone for my answers.

"I swear to go-," another slap in his face. "When I say I want to talk that means right now, Demyan. If I had time to waste I wouldn't be here right now and at your uncle's house but I don't want to risk him having a heart attack because of me showing up out of the blue. So do as I say because I'm already fucking frustrated and I really won't mind taking that on you." I stepped into his personal space not minding his naked body and if he got a hard-on from this I would have kicked him in his balls.

"I-," he stopped himself from doing anything. With both of his hands up in the air and eyes shut close he just took a few steps back away from me. I knew he was practicing his self-control but he needed to do that fast because my patience was running out.

"First let me wear something on, then I will make the call," he spoke calmly. "And for heaven's sake keep your hands to yourself," he snapped at me before turning behind and walking to his closet. My eyes turned to the clock. I had wasted good five minutes. If only some men could be as serious as women and I could be carrying a phone with me. I found his phone on the bedside table and it had a fingerprint lock so I had to fucking wait for him. He took his own sweet time getting out of the closet wearing a t-shirt and pajamas. Was he fucking matching his attire in there?

"You will make the call from my room," I just told him as I walked ahead only to not have him follow me.

"Are you waiting for something?" I asked amused while he stood there with his hands crossed at his chest.

"Ask nicely," he said with an attitude.

"Demyan," I whispered his name turning around. "I'm this close," I showed him my finger and thumb pressing together. "Like this tiny bit close and the space here is almost over. This close to cutting one of your fingers and taking it up to my room to call Dimitri, so don't fucking test me." We stared at each other and he was the first one to move. I was ready for retaliation as he walked towards me but he just walked past me and I followed him up to my room with his phone in my hands.

"Wait," I told him as his hand reached the knob on the door to my room. Taking the lead I opened the door slapping his hand away from the doorknob.

"Keep your hands to yourself. Whatever you see don't dare to touch anything at all," he looked at me with confusion. If he touched anything I was going to shoot him with his gun and let him die.

"Okay," he replied. I opened the door and I knew instantly something was a miss. I walked right towards the bed and there were photographs but they all had been replaced. I looked at them in confusion. I remember what I saw. Looking around the room I looked at the windows and they were open. Someone had been here. Walking towards the window I looked at the cigarette bud that rested on the sill. It was still burning.

Fuck, he had been waiting. Viktor had been fucking waiting for me to leave so he could change the pictures. He fucking knew.

"Is everything alright?" Demyan dared to ask and all I wanted to do was take out my anger on him but yet I stopped. There was no use for it. What was done was done? When I looked out the window I was hoping to see him flipping me the bird but no he wasn't there. He was gone by now and that meant he was getting ready for war colors.

Demyan was looking at the pictures that were on the bed. Picking up the letter I chuckled at the fact that he had changed it. Now it seemed to be something I had written to him. Looking at those pictures I saw they were photoshopped to perfection. I had been replaced by Sophia and whoever had done this had gone to great lengths to find photos of the younger me or did the photoshop even that.

"You have been playing family very well with him," Demyan said from behind me with his tone telling clearly that he was raging mad. I started laughing as a maniac making him take a step back. I was laughing at how complicated this fucker had made my life. If only this fucker hadn't been set bent on finding me I wouldn't have been here in this mess where this other guy was fucking me up on new levels.

"I wish I had a family. A really not at all fucked up family but a sweet one with whom I had a house with a white picket fence, dog, and kids. I swear to god that was what I had wished for but god really had fucked up plans for me," I was raging on but yet controlled my anger.

"Call your uncle," I handed him the phone as I looked at the photos. In all the photos he had changed my face and even the babies but there was this one where he had forgotten maybe. I picked it up looking closely. The face was hers, of the cute little baby girl. All the pictures of her were of being one and under as much as I remembered. There were none of her being more than that.

"Hello, Dimitrio, Valencia wants to talk to you," Demyan said behind me and I took the phone out from his old as soon as he completed his words.

"At this time?" I heard him.

"Yes, because it is very important," I told him as I moved to the window with the photo in my hand.

"I'm all ears. Speak," the old man was up and crackling.

"How old was Viktor when he first met Elijah and got into their house?" I fired up my questions. There was no point in delaying this. If Viktor had been here and changed everything then he might be already up and getting ready to attack.

"He was fifteen. Demyan had just turned twenty-one and came to Russia from the States. It was a hard time for everyone with lots of people trying to have the upper hand and politics was at its worst back then. Elijah had volunteered to take Viktor in when he approached me and Demyan," he answered after a bit of thought.

"And at what age did he leave for the States?"

"When he had turned eighteen. Things had been really tense ever since things got really tough between us and Ivan. Demyan was fighting with him and had involved a lot of people. I won't lie but people were divided between Ivan and us. There were different sides and people were busy filling their pockets. I won't lie but I had to be as much blamed for this as others and Demyan. If only had everyone told him the truth earlier sucking up their pride." I looked at Demyan who was busy staring at the photos. Why did he have to start a war without knowing anything? More than that it was the fact that people couldn't call a spade a spade but preferred covering up everything. I sighed.

"Why did he go there?" Something big might have happened to make him move to the States. It couldn't have been just fucked up revenge from Demyan.

"Elijah said something about it being too much difficult to handle him," this was new. Too hard to handle or maybe it was the fact that he was involved in a relationship with his daughter. "He had made a deal with Ivan and sent him there. I asked around about it and it was related to Ivan not going after Elijah and his business. Ivan had attacked his house and his daughter had barely survived the attack. Elijah had struck up a deal with Ivan and the with Demyan too."

An attack that Sophia barely survived.

"How was Viktor and Sophia's relationship?" Demyan's eyes turned towards me and my eyes turned away from him.

"Normal, like between a soldier and boss," I chuckled at his words. Did they fuck each other? I captured a photo of the child's face and sent it to him.

"Look at the photo I sent you. Does it ring any bell?" I waited for him to look at the photo. There had to be something about this child.

"Sadly it doesn't. I won't lie but I have seen enough babies in my lifetime not remember at all. All of their faces seem to blur for me by now," his reply didn't help at all but there wasn't much I could do. This photo was almost ten years old. How could someone remember it at all and especially Dimitrio, who was almost on his deathbed?

"What happens if I die? You were talking about something that Ivan left me. If I die, does it goes to Viktor? " I needed to know my position in all of this.

"No. Until you are alive it stays with you. You can't sell it even if you want to but in case of your death, it can only go to your offspring. Ivan was smart enough to bring up that clause but your child had to wait till he or she turns eighteen," my mood went from high to fucking low in a span of a few seconds.

"And to whoever is the guardian," Viktor never needed me. It wasn't me who he was after.

"Unfortunately, yes but they won't have any right over it," I knew how that went. My parents were able to fucking sell half of my trust fund. Nothing was fucking safe. Viktor never wanted me he wanted that property and he did all this just to get it.

"What it's worth?" I had this gnawing curiosity to know how much this property cost.

"A lot, Valencia. You can build an empire of your own through it Valencia. Something neither Viktor nor Demyan can afford right now without the right contacts," he replied making me feel like shit. I took in a deep breath. I was just a pawn in all of this.

"Be prepared for the war, Dimitrio, Viktor can attack any moment," I ended the call.

"Demyan," his attention was all on me.

"Make a call to Natalia, make it seem casual but tell her to be prepared. She needs to be strong enough to kill her own husband if it comes to that because this war will not end without casualties." I picked up the cigarette bud that was still burning.

Viktor's face was all I could see and I burned a hole through it. Viktor was the paps, Sophia was the mama and my daughter was the baby who was talking.

I'm putting my everything into completing this story.

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Thank you for reading and all your support.