Lost Soul (Book #1)

23|Runaway

Anastasia's POV:

There he was, my father.

He was a stranger in this home. I could see the looks on my brother's faces, unease. The pictures around this house can fool you into thinking that a happy family lives here. I know that the twins view him as a stranger. He had missed out on most of their lives. The fact that they rarely spoke about him spoke volumes on who this man was.

I had seen that he had neared the living room. They had greeted him. I could sense the tension between him and my brothers. It seemed as if the rest of the family was oblivious to the damage that he had caused.

I just sat there awkwardly. What was I supposed to do? Greet him with open arms. Let him into my life knowing how easy it is for him to walk away.

"Father this is her," Adrik spoke. Our eyes met. I now know where I got my eyes from. Only Adrik and I shared the same eyes as our father. His face had visibly softened.

"Oh god, it's really you." He came over to me and took my hands into his. "I mourned you. I can't believe your mother did this to us." I looked around at my brothers. This was too much for me, I needed some air. I heard Alexei scoff at him.

"For fuck sakes can you not pretend that you are any better than her," Alexei yelled making the rest of our family gasp. Adrian tried to take Alexei away, but couldn't.

"Alexei this isn't the time nor place for your comments."Our father spoke with anger. Alexei shook his head.

"Then when is, never because you always leave. There will always be something more important than being here for your kids." Alexei seethed out, I could tell that Grandma Lena was two seconds away from having a heart attack. After that Alexei left, but not without purposefully bumping into the lamp making it fall and shatter.

Adrik sighed and ran his hand all over his face. I immediately got up and went to look for Alexei. I heard our dad screaming to Adrik if it was his fault. The yelling of the living room faded as I walked to Alexei's room.

~

It was Friday, and I had been avoiding my father. I was in the backyard alone trying to collect my thoughts. What was it that I wanted from my father? I did not know and that was what conflicted me the most.

My brothers had been making sure that I was fine, but I was worried about them. There were so many unsaid things between them. I think that they needed answers from our father.

I sat under a tree. I knew that I should be inside it was freezing out, but I liked the way the cold felt against my skin.

"I've been looking all over for you." Grandma Sonia's voice came. "Come take a walk with me." She gestured for me to follow her.

"Tell me about my mother," I asked her. I wanted to know more about her, maybe I can understand why she did what she did.

"Your mother was my miracle child, that is why it hurt so much when she disappeared. We had always been friends with your father's family. She was such a sweet girl always dreaming about her future. It came to no surprise to us when she came home one day and said that she had been secretly seeing your father. Her brothers had been so mad at her that day because they did not like the idea of her dating." She chuckled as if she was remembering that day.

"Were they happy together?"

"I say she was, the look in her eyes when she talked about your father. She always seemed happy. Like every couple out there they had their fights once and a while. I think it was after she had Alexei where she started to keep more to herself. For a while, I thought it was postpartum, but remained distant." She sighed.