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-PROLOGUE-

24 years ago...

The sky was filled with darkness, I could hear the cries coming from my father's office, being only ten I wanted to investigate, I've always been adventurous. Well, that's what mother always tells me. She was always telling me off for climbing the trees too high or playing too rough...Now I feel like she can't bear the sight of me. She avoids eye-contact with me at the dinner table, and when I'm out with dad I can see the tears falling from her beautiful eyes, no matter how hard she tries to cover them up.

I toss and turn but I can't bare it anymore. Sitting up I hear the cries getting louder. I tiptoe out of my room and down the cold marble stairs. I finally make my way to dad's office where I hear my father shout in Russian.

"Posmotri na menia, kogda ya govoryu s toboy. Vera." [Look at me when I am talking to you].

I hear my mother's whimpers from behind the door and her words all scrambled together.

It doesn't take me long to realise what's going on, dad's angry at her because of something. He is always saying she stares at her bodyguards too long or she hasn't shown him any love. I look through the crook of the door and watch as the tears fall from my mother's eyes. My father stands in front of her with a furious face.

He raises his hand high ready to give her a blow like he usually does, but I can't watch, so I bolt in and stand in front of my mum.

"No!" I exclaim as loud as I could. Although I didn't have a deep enough voice like father, I still managed to gain his attention. I look up at my mum and find her wiping away her tears as if they were never there to begin with. She stares down at me for a long while, I can't remember the last time she looked at me like this.

"Kristian go back to bed." My father says sternly, he hovers over me with his arms folded over one another. I shake my head in refusal.

"It's fine Demyan, I'll take him." My mother raises and slips her hand into mine. The last time mother held my hand was when I fell of the tree in our garden and that was two years ago. I don't spend a lot of time with mum anymore, I'm always with dad in the shooting range blasting bullets into tin cans and hay-filled sacks shaped as people.

We reach my bedroom, mum watches me get back into bed and comes over to me and whispers, "You must stay in bed lyubov moya." [My love]

She fiddles with the length of my hair and pushes it out of my face, I've needed a haircut for a while. Maybe we'll go this weekend. I nod at my mother's words and relax my eyes. She strangely plants a kiss at the top of my head but I feel the sudden wetness form on my cheek.

She steps back before I can see her face and blows me a kiss, I blow her one back and whisper a small 'goodnight' before she shuts the door.

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A few hours pass and I still haven't managed to get to sleep. I whine and sit up, watching as lights appear from outside of my window. I look out of the curtain and watch as my mother slides in a bag in the back of the car, closing the car boot as quietly as she can. She looks around and quickly rushes to the driver's seat.

The lights seem to go further and further away, and little did I know...So did my mother.