The Silent Neighbour ✓

Chapter Twenty Three

Nova Johnson

song: Softcore-Violin by Joel Sunny

"How can I trust you? How do I know that it isn't you trying to kill me?" I whisper, Alexander leans back onto the sofa with his legs spread out as he watches me. He watches my every move.

"You can't. You can't trust me, you can't trust no one around you Nova." A shiver rushes up my spine, Alexander did not hesitate to answer my question. I look back out the window, wiping the tears from under my eyes as I try my best to hold them in.

Now I understood everything, when the landlord told me that every neighbour moves out within a week- it was because of Alexander Solonik. He was keeping the apartment for when I move in, I was more upset with Jane. I thought I could trust her. But listening to Alexander:

I can't trust anyone.

And to be honest, I don't even trust Alexander.

So, i have to keep my guard up around him. "So, what do we do?" I question.

"We need to make a good plan. A plan that my father won't catch us on."

"Wouldn't he have your every move?"

"No, he thinks I'm dead. He doesn't know that I'm alive." The same as everyone else.

Alexander gets to his feet and starts into the kitchen. He opens a closet and pulls out a rolled-up A2 piece of paper. He returns to me and takes a seat on the floor in front of the coffee table. He rolls the paper down and pins it to each table corner.

A blueprint.

He looks back up at me as I lean in closer to see it, "my father is a dangerous man. He works for the mafia." My eyes widen, it all makes sense.

"That's why he killed me mother-"

"Because she figured out his real name and published it." Alexander finishes my sentence.

His father killed my mother because of a mistake-or did my mother know? Did she know who the Solonik family are? Did she know Alexanders father was part of the mafia? She was a journalist after all, this is her job. To know the unknown.

"On the fourth of January, which in four weeks from now, my father is hosting a ball filled with every Mafia Don in the world. It is something he does yearly. This year it is a masked masquerade."

"Where are you going with this?" I whisper.

"We are going to go; it is in Russia. Security will be everywhere. This is my father's mansion where the ball will be held, there are cameras in every corner. Here, here, here, and here are the main ones." He points to the cameras. "But that doesn't really matter because Jane will be helping us switch them off."

"Janes coming with us?"

"Yes. She will."

"So, what is the actual plan?"

"This is the plan; first we take a plane to Russia," he throws two plane tickets onto the blueprint. "then we go shopping, to buy suitable ball clothes-every don in the mafia is richer than one another, so we cannot outshine the richest, but we cannot de-shine otherwise we'll be caught. We'll be going as Sophia and Lucas Ivanov,"

"Are they a real couple?" I ask, Alexander leans his back onto the sofa legs.

"They were a real couple, they're dead now."

"So wouldn't anyone know they're dead?"

"No, I killed them. Everyone thinks they're fucking one another in a late honeymoon and won't be attending. But we will go in their place and shock them. However, there is something about them that everyone in the Mafia knows."