Page 144 of Capuleto
The door closed behind her swaying figure.
"Do you believe her?" I asked my father once she was gone. He kept his gaze fixed on the photograph Jelena had left on the desk.
"I think it's true she didn't know anything about her son. But something tells me she's not telling us everything she knows. We need to stay vigilant."
"Do you think we should watch the video Segarra gave me?"
"Yes, but let me call San Juan first to alert all the men. We'll comb every last grain of sand on the Costa del Sol; I want to see my grandson's face too."
59
I need you to do something urgent
Jelena
Iclimbed the stairs with the certainty that only a mother can have.
As soon as Romeo showed me the photograph, I immediately knew who it was. I wanted to divert his attention by offering a plausible possibility that would put another likely target in the spotlight.
The Capulets weren't going to stop until they found the person responsible for all their unanswered questions, and I had to protect my family. I may not have been a conventional mother, but I was going to do whatever it took to protect my cubs.
The news that Yuri was alive was like a bucket of cold water. I confess that I had my suspicions when I saw how little it affected my husband. He kept locking himself in his office and taking trips, and I didn't see a single tear fall from his eyes. I attributed it to his position because my mind refused to believe he could do such a thing. The only truth was that while I was breaking inside with my daughters, the two of them were planning the perfect coup.
Now everything made sense. Now I understood why they accepted Nikita. She was a means to an end. Women were never considered anything else by them.
As I told my son-in-law, a mother knows the weaknesses of each of her children.
Yuri was always an evolution of his father. He was raised and educated to be the pride of our family, the bloodiest heir of the Bratva, with everything that entailed. If my husband was cold, calculating, and ruthless, my son was even more so. Vladimir taught him emotional detachment. Once, when Yuri was six, my husband told him that the Bratva stood above all, even family, and that he had to learn to make great sacrifices for glory. He put a small hamster, a gift for Yuri's sixth birthday, into his hands and made him kill it. There wasn't a single tear, just a slight tremor in his fingers as he held the tiny lifeless body.
I ran to the bathroom and vomited. I couldn't intervene; my husband would never have allowed it. Yuri was his heir, and he took personal charge of his education, as he reminded me repeatedly. They would share a bond different from what I could have with my son. Yuri was his, and my role was to ensure he lacked nothing. The girls were another matter because my husband considered them secondary.
When Nikita insisted on following in her brother's footsteps, I tried to prevent it. I knew the suffering and frustration it would bring. They would never allow a woman to have so much power. That's why I urged Irisha to go with them; I wanted Nikita to find support in her younger sister when she realized she would never measure up to her brother because she wasn't born with a penis. However, to Nikita, Irisha was a nuisance. She never paid attention to her, and the day Irisha got lost, I knew I was wrong. Nikita would never feel for her the same way she did for Yuri, that blind adoration that made her younger sister an obstacle.
I understood that no matter how many rocks I placed in front of a wild river, I wouldn't be able to break its course, and if I tried, my eldest daughter would end up destroying everything.
That's how she was, as stubborn as I was. In Nikita, my personality and my husband's converged. I saw a lot of myself in my daughter; no one stopped me either when I set my sights on marrying one of the most dangerous men in Russia to achieve the life I had always dreamed of, far from all misery.
I reached my room and went straight to the wardrobe; I needed to confirm what I already knew. I stood in front of my collection of day suits, specifically in front of a Chanel garment bag. If there was one thing I knew well, it was my repertoire of clothes, jewelry, and accessories. I unzipped it, and there it was, the outfit from the photograph. I had recognized it immediately in the image and also the person wearing it.
I closed my eyes in sorrow. I didn't know what had led her to do this, but I knew what needed to be done. I had to get rid of it, along with the black shoes that were also mine. Fortunately, I hadn't worn any of those items in a long time, so the Capulets couldn't recognize them. If Vladimir taught me anything, it was how to hide evidence in the most unimaginable places. The advantages of being married to the head of the Bratva.
For now, I would simply hide it securely and send it to the right place to implicate the person I had pointed out myself. I thought about the photograph. In the bottom right corner of the image was the date. If there was any trace, no matter how small, that my daughter had been there that day, I would erase it. I didn't want a single damned suspicion falling on her.
I searched for the second phone hidden in the false bottom of the jewelry box, the emergency one. After that call, I would get rid of the card; it would take a few days to get another one, but it didn't matter. I dialed the number that was only in my memory and waited until someone picked up.
"It's me. I need you to do something urgent."
60
Let's negotiate
My body still ached a bit, but I no longer felt so heavy.
I stretched my arms and legs, and a slight pull reminded me of the wound on my arm. I blinked to focus my vision and noticed that I was in an unfamiliar environment. It was almost claustrophobic, with no natural light and a fluorescent lamp that gave no indication of whether it was day or night.
Next to me, I saw an IV drip connected to my hand. I remembered my fall and the darkness that followed.
"Finally awake," murmured a female voice.