HIS CLAIM

54

Elsa

Four days passed in a blink of an eye, and I had spent every single day trying to come up with a plan, but it was not as easy as I had made it sound to be in my mind. First of all, I was being watched and it was not like I could just pop out and be like 'yeah, I'm just going to the Luxe Palace, and snoop around a little because I think I might get some answers.' I was pretty sure they would drag my ass back by my hair, and this time, definitely call Nicholas.

That, I couldn't risk.

I had to come up with a bulletproof plan, which meant that I had to think like them. Luckily for me, I had spent enough time around Nicholas and his men to help me think in the right direction.

Secondly, I had no idea what to expect in that place, and I said to myself before to always expect the unexpected, but honestly, that held no meaning in the Mafia World. They always took it to some next-level shit. They had absolutely no limitations to their imaginations. Thirdly, I couldn't go to such a place and not expect there wouldn't be at least one of Nicholas's men present and risk exposing me.

I had to become unrecognizable.

I had never felt as determined and confident as I was today. I didn' t know why but I had a great feeling about this that there would definitely be a clue of some sort or some answers that could lead me to what my mother was involved in. Maybe the person she was supposed to meet up with was Mr. Vasiliev and he would be there. If I saw him, maybe I could talk to him and figure something out. It was a long shot, but anything was better than nothing.

As my thoughts never gave me a break, bits of memories came back to me of what happened in the woods. When I had woken up at the hospital, I couldn't remember anything and Mikka said that it was a natural survival skill and a defense mechanism humans develop to protect themselves from psychological damage. I started to get flashbacks to the things that had happened, some things were clearer than others but there was definitely that moment when my mother said he attacked sooner rather than later. Someone was after my mother and she knew it but she was caught off guard when we suddenly got attacked in our own home.

Was she going to talk to Mr. Vasiliev for protection?

There was only one way to find out.

I grabbed the basket I had filled with all sorts of delicacies and a nice bottle of wine and made my way over to Ava and Samantha. I had barely made it to their front porch when the door opened, and I guess since I already knew they were working for Nicholas, they didn't try to hide they were keeping an eye on me. Hence why they opened the door before I even had the chance to step close enough to knock on the door.

"Sup, Elsa!" Ava said happily, making me smile at her chipper mood.

"You're really watching my every move, huh?" I joked to which she laughed.

"Yeah, I don't feel like being discreet anymore now the cat is out of the bag anyway. Plus, a certain someone would have my head if I didn't." She gave me a knowing look.

"I guess you're right." I chuckled.

"Come on in. Cecilia has just baked you a chocolate cake." I stopped in my tracks and looked at her.

"Cecilia?"

"Oh shit, I forgot you didn't know her real name. Samantha was just a cover name in case you would get suspicious of her name sounding Italian." She explained with an innocent grin on her lip.

"That makes sense... Wait, is your real name Ava then?" I squinted my eyes at her a little, making her laugh.

"It sure is. I'm not Italian anyway so I thought it was pretty safe." She said as we made our way to the living room.