With This Secret

My mind was so full of fury, I saw nothing while my soul was brimming with the need to kill that monster. To end him for the absolute and complete nightmare he had turned my life into. Yes, I would go to him. And I would somehow find a way to kill him, whether I poison him, stab him, it didn’t matter. Then my dad, Levan and I could be free to live our lives.

I turned around to exit the kitchen … and froze.

Someone stood in the doorway.

For a moment, I thought that it was one of the guards, but as he moved out of the shadows and into the light I saw that it was the Don himself. It was as if I was looking at Levan in about fifty years. Only there was no kindness in his eyes. He had kept out of sight and I had wondered just when I might meet him and this was probably the worst possible moment as I was still shaking with fury.

“Come with me,” he said.

At first, I didn’t know whether to follow him, but then I realized that meeting with him was not something I could put off. If Levan were to be in my life then he would be too. I remembered his less than favorable opinions of me only a few days earlier. And if he’d wanted to get rid of me, he could easily have done so by now.

Under normal circumstances, I would have been more nervous standing before Levan’s father as he sat behind the heavy oak desk in his gigantic study, but right now not only my own father’s life was at stake but also Levan’s.

He studied me quietly, and it made me wonder if it was an intimidation tactic, but I was too distraught for it to work. I stepped forward and cut to the chase, “Can you please get me back to New York? I have an emergency to attend to.”

“Is it an emergency bigger than the mess you’ve put my family in?” he asked calmly.

The accusation cut deep. I took a deep breath, and put my hands together in a sincere plea. “I am so sorry that my love for your son has caused all this to happen. I never even dreamt things would deteriorate to this extent, but I’m going to try my best to fix it all for everybody.”

“Really?” he asked, a note of mocking awe in his voice, “How are you going to do that?”

“First of all, I need to get to my father. The man that … the man causing all of this trouble and tormenting Levan has him.”

He kept silent and gave the impression of listening intently.

So I went on, “If we can get to him, then we will be able to find the Solicitor General’s grandson, and that will help Levan’s case too.”

His question was simple, “So are you actually trying to save your father, or to free my son?”

I stopped. It was as though my brain had scrambled to a halt and when a response didn’t come forth, I blinked. “What do you mean?”

“English is your first language, is it not?”

At his rudeness, I straightened my back. The truth was my only real interest was in saving Levan somehow. My father had made his bed and it was time he lay on it, but I was not going to be disloyal to my father in front of this stranger. “I’m going to help them both.”

He watched me, quietly, and then rose to his feet. My instinct was to back away, but I caught myself before he could see it.

He headed to the shelf of nameless books that looked more like props or encyclopedias. With one hand, he cleared the books away, and I jumped as they fell to the ground with a loud thud. With the books gone, I could see a safe which he opened. I wondered what was in there.

He pulled out a jewelry box and came around to the front of his desk. He opened the box, placed it on the table beside him and he leaned against the desk.

From where I stood, I could only see that it was either a necklace, or a bracelet. I couldn’t tell.

He held my gaze and addressed me. “I met the mother of my boys when I was sixteen. I’d just gotten paid from beating up a boy three years my senior because his parents couldn’t pay their debt and I was walking down the road. And there she was. Her mother was selling blini by the side of the street. It was her laughter that stopped me. Ah, she was beautiful then. Next to me was a jewelry shop and I walked in and bought this bracelet for her. Then I walked up to her, gave her this bracelet and told her I was going to marry her.”