Growing Up and Other Tall Tales

Chapter 67

Loki sleeps on my knee with my hand in his soft fur and my eyes trained on Aiden who is carefully avoiding my eyes. He lifts the fork wrapped in spaghetti and sauce to his mouth with his gaze heavy on his plate but his fingers give him away. I drop my utensils loudly and he looks up slowly.

Finally.

"Hi," I say and he looks down at my untouched plate and then back at me

"Are you not going to fini—hello," he relents and indulges me, tosses down the napkin and leans back on his chair making it tip a little, "What now? Did you perhaps leave your vocal chords in your ass given your curious labeling of the anatomy?"

I don't give into his jabs.

"When are you going to ask me about what happened?" I ask. He falters but collects himself so quickly that I could've imagined the momentary firework display of emotions in his eyes. "It's been two weeks, Aiden."

"I don't care for it—"

"Don't lie to me," I say angrily, "You lie to whoever you want, Romanov, but you do not lie to me."

He breathes in sharply and sucks on his incisors before leaning forward raising his hands defensively, "What is the appropriate way to react when you find out that your biological sister kidnapped someone you...know and tortured her because she is the biological daughter of my foster mother who stole me from my crib?"

His voice is even and flat toned; dispassionate and cool, like he is reading off a dictionary definition. It's fucking terrifying.

"Maybe," I swallow, "You can start by talking to me,"

"What is there to talk about, Lyra?" he says tiredly

"Don't you even want to know her name?"

"Rowena Romanov," he tastes out the wording, "I did some digging. The family runs casinos and clubs all over the world. Home based in Russia. None of the top handlers make public appearances. Old and strong money so old and strong connections."

I open my mouth and closed it again wisely.

"Justice plays in their favor," he murmurs his clever eyes poring over me

There won't be any arrests made on the kidnapping and torture. I nod.

"The Adara Empire is what Mother runs. I run some parts of it: software, healthcare, pharmaceuticals. Mother looks primarily after textiles, estate, hotels. Sandy and a bunch of others are stock holders and are on the board of directors. It's a family business."

"You were to inherit the Romanovs' business." I let out uncomfortably, "They think their son is dead."

"Their son is dead," he says clearly and he means it, "The kidnapping of the boy was hushed. They soon stopped searching. Five months, in fact."

I look for any disappointment on his face. The anger that lingered around the corner of his eyes at how he was abandoned so easily by his family. But there was none. Not for the lack of it ever existing, there are still scar marks of his bitterness, but he has had a long time to think about it.

"How or why exactly Mother stole a toddler, I have no idea," he looks away as if to say she had you if she wanted a child so bad

"How do you know your real name without knowing about your birth family?" I ask carefully after pausing for a little

"Everybody, sans me, knew where they came from." Aiden's fingers tighten subtly around his fork, "She hired a private investigator; made a whole show of it. And when I found out who I was I asked her to leave me at an orphanage." He laughs now. Not bitterly or sadly. Just emptily. "I thought someone might miss me or might be looking for me."