HIS CLAIM

55

Elsa

His comment made me smile and pride filled my chest. He looked around at my face with a slightly soft and pained expression. A lump in my throat slowly formed as I knew why he looked at me like that.

He knew.

Mr. Vasiliev got up and snatched the note out of my hand, his eyes scanning over the words before he looked at the man in front of me with an angry look.

“What is this, Nestor?” I took a couple of steps back as he glared at Nestor, demanding an answer. He didn’t look bothered by Mr. Vasiliev’s angry tone and he took a quick glance at me before looking at him.

“She reached out to me.” He said and I noticed Mr. Vasiliev’s body tensed.

“Why?”

“She said she needed to see you. I sent her a message that she could meet you here.”

“And why didn’t you inform me of this?” He was angry and I kind of felt worried for Nestor now.

“She didn’t want you to know considering how you left things the last time.” He explained giving him a knowing look but having me confused as I observed their conversation.

“Wait, what happened?” Mr. Vasiliev turned around to face me. He had a stone-cold expression but his eyes showed anger.

“That damned woman tried to kill me.” I dropped my jaw in shock.

“Are you talking about my mom?!”

“Who else? She’s the only person crazy enough to pull that kind of shit on me.” He scoffed and my eyes widened.

“To be fair, you tried to kill her too. She was just faster.” Nestor pointed out, making Mr. Vasiliev whip his head to him so fast with a frown on his face.

“After all these years, you’re still loyal to her?” Nestor gave a small smirk and shrugged his shoulders.

“I should kill you for being loyal to someone else.”

“It’s not someone else. It’s Solnishko.” He said as if he hadn’t just got threatened to be killed.

“Whoa, whoa, back up ! You tried to kill my mom?!” I was so confused by the whole situation.

“Nothing new about that. We tried to kill each other many times.” Mr. Vasiliev said casually.

“We all know if she really wanted to kill you, she would have.” Nestor said, making Mr. Vasiliev scowl at him.

“That damned woman stabbed me.” He erupted. One of his men chuckled but immediately stopped when he got one sharp glare from him.

“I need to sit down…” I was overwhelmed by everything they said.

“That doesn’t sound like my mom at all… Well, not that I would know because I just found out she had a whole different side to her life I had no idea about.” I sighed. Had I really been that naive and so oblivious to everything that had been going on? But it was not like there was anything to make me suspicious-

“Where is she? Why isn’t she here?” Mr. Vasiliev looked at me. I looked at Nestor, seeing his expression darken. I let out a breath as I looked at Mr. Vasiliev, feeling my eyes fill up with tears.

“She’s gone…” My voice came out in a whisper and the room fell silent. It was so quiet that I would be able to hear a pin drop.

“Mozhet yeye dusha upokoitsya s mirom.” Nestor and the two other men said in unison. Mr. Vasiliev didn’t say anything at all, his face and eyes blank as he looked at me. But the look on my face was enough for him to close his eyes and face away from me, and went to look out of the window.