It was always written ✔️

Chapter 42

She took yet another deep breath to attempt to calm her nerves.

A step ahead, he had halted and began knocking at the makeshift door made of nailed together pieces of wood.

It was pried open by burly men, after giving Mikhail a once over they allow him in. Just as Alayna was about to step forward, she was met with an arm blocking her way and a grunt.

Instantly the arm was pushed aside, and she was pulled through the door.

"She's with me." Was all he said.

They had gotten the message, quietly nodding their heads.

A chuckle rumbled from behind them, its echo bounced from the walls.

"Welcome my lion, welcome!"

They turned to see an old man with a bolding head and a face covered with wrinkles.

His strikingly sharp features despite his age, and his eyes that practically cut through you as they bore into you. That was what was so intimidating yet memorable about him.

"Come over," he beckoned Alayna over, "left me see my nephew's wife."

She took a singular step forward making him chuckle.

"She's a beauty Mikhail. Made for you." He spoke with a thick Russian accent, coughing ever so often.

Mikhail brought her back to his side, keeping his arm around her waist.

"Alayna, this is Nic, my father's best friend. He wanted to leave the cartel when they killed my father and he tried to take custody of me as per my father's wish, but... I guess it wasn't destined. Since he couldn't, he stayed to look after me."

Nic looked down solemnly, "If only, I was able to honour that wish." He looked up at Mikhail, "We all wouldn't have had to become monsters, shells of the people we once were."

Alayna watched his face, she could feel her husband's hold tightening, begging for comfort.

She couldn't give him that right now, she needed closure.

Finally, Mikhail spoke.

"I wish to enquire about someone."

He nodded for Mikhail to continue.

"Do you remember any women that he might have brought over from Pakistan?"

"Who's 'he', your grandfather or your uncle?" He lifted his eyes to challenge Mikhail, Alayna sensed a threat, a big one.

"Uncle." Was the curt short answer.

He sat in silence, thinking for a moment.

"Are you perhaps, asking about the infamous Ayla?"

A quick look was exchange between the couple, yet they didn't yet answer.

"I suppose it is, because I don't think I can ever forget that woman. Nor her screams."

"What do you mean?"

"Her screams revisit me when I'm unassuming. I can still hear them from time to time."

He took a breath, as if he was experiencing physical pain.

"It was abominably pure evil what he did to her."

"What did they do to her?" This time it was Alayna, impatient and his dramatic storytelling manner was making it worse for her.

"We were told to not let her leave our sights, every movement had to be reported to Aleksei. We were in and out of her flat, and she definitely knew she was being watched.  We watched her give away her daughter." His eyes zoned to Alayna. "And then we tasked with drugging her. That was when we were ordered to strike, we took her that day. She had collapsed in the graveyard, in the early hours of the morning. We had been instructed to take another woman's corpse and make a mould that matched Ayla's face to attach to the corpse and to leave the corpse there. I didn't understand what was happening but later, when the articles were released, it all made sense."

He took a long drag of a cigar he lit.

"So we flew her into Russia, and as soon as we brought her to the Romanov's mansion she was locked up in a room, he had assigned a group of female maids to her. No other person was allowed to go near her, nor that room. We were given all these orders over the phone, he had left Russia for work purposes. She was beginning to lose it, the topic woud be a constant among the help of the mansion. Multiple times a day, they would have to restrain her and force feed her her medicines. One day, orders at that team was suddenly doubled, he was returning with one intention - marriage. He was going to marry her, nothing stood in his way. On the marriage certificate a thumb print was taken from her as she was too weak and drugged to be able to function. That night was their wedding night, exactly one month after she had given birth. The screams from that night are what haunt me. After a while, news had gotten round that she was with child. He had managed to kidnap, marry and impregnate her, but she was too far gone. Whenever I stood before her, those hallow eyes pierced through me, it was a horrifying scene, because you never know what truly went on behind those doors. Her eyes would accuse me for letting this happen, for bring her here and letting him torture her. She managed to get rid of the baby by throwing herself off the bed multiple times. When the news reached Aleksei, he had no apparent reaction, however that night her screams were higher pitched. He definitely punished her that night. 2 months passed, and she seemed to be getting worse. He had flown out of the country again and at the stroke of midnight I was given a new set of orders. Dump her back in her homeland. So that's what we did. In the same city, but on the outskirts of a town, we dumped her at night and returned and that was it. We never heard that name again.

Alayna could hear her heart beating rapidly. Beating rapidly with a need to kill.

In this moment, she wanted gauge his eyes out, rip out his organs as he cried, peel his skin off and feed his limbs to wild animals.

"I want to leave." She whispered, she only hoped that Mikhail had heard her plea.

Soon enough, they were walking through the quiet streets of Moscow.

Another couple of minutes later, they were walking into their room.

Alayna was so riled up yet so numb.

She felt like she was going to collapse, her lungs needed oxygen desperately.

A hand sat firmly on her back.

He supported her head with the other hand.

And they remained silent as she tried to bring herself back to reality.

Finally, her chest felt better, her breath elongated slightly.

"Mikhail, I don't think I can make it through this. Please keep going without me if I die. I will always love you. I always have. It was only ever you."

Floodgates opened, Mikhail turned away trying to hide the tears, she pulled him back as a reflection of his emotions.

And the both of them weeped, in fear and in truth. But they were together.

For now.