An Angel in Serpent's skin

Ch.10-Unsteady

Angie's p.o.v

You knew her as Michaela.

Those words had been circling my head and thoughts ever since they were spoken through the phone. A week. It had been a whole week since I found out and I had not been handling it very well.

Sweet pea was worried, as was Sara. They both tried to get me out of the house, away from the situation, but it was like there was an invisible barrier preventing me from leaving.

The office was my safe haven. It had been ever since that call. I continued to look for reasons why what the person said wasn't true, but still couldn't find anything. I'd been through files, and drawers, and everything else in this room and still came up with nothing.

Because my mind was so consumed all the time I'd fallen very far behind on school work, and I knew that if I was gonna make it to my job interview in a couple of days I needed to get my act together. Easier said than done. I groaned and let my head fall to the desk wishing I could have a drink right about now.

I was so caught up in my self absorbed misery that I almost missed it. I held my breath and prayed that it hadn't just been my imagination, and knocked on the desk. It's hollow. My fingers quickly slid underneath the desk and realized there was a panel. I pushed up and the panel released dumping its contents to the floor.

A letter, a huge stack of cash, and a gun. I hesitantly picked the items up and set them on the desk, my mind retrieving a forgotten memory at the sight of my name scrawled across the front of the envelope.

"Ooh, a letter, with my name on it. How exciting." Michaela laughed as she looked up to see me coming into the room.

"Not for this you though. It's for a future you." She smiled before sealing the letter and putting it to the side.

Well hopefully it was for this me, because I didn't hesitate to tear into it.

Dear Akira,

My little flame. You have grown to be so beautiful. When I let you go I was so young, I didn't want to do it but I knew it was what was best. It broke my heart when I saw you on my doorstep begging for passage into the Angels because your family didn't treat you right. I was so angry. Especially when I got to know you and you were so perfect. It didn't take long for me to realize who you were after we'd met. You were the perfect balance of me and your father in both looks and attitude. There were times when I thought you might've caught on to the fact that I was your mother, and part of me wished that you would've. The part that hates herself for ever letting you go in the first place.

By the time you're reading this I will be gone, it is sad, but it's the only way. I don't know what will happen, and I never wanted this life for you, but my mother used to have this saying. "Shit happens, and it sucks, but if it happens it happens for a reason. So rest easy in that knowledge."

There's a lot that I need to address in this letter, and eventually I will get around to it, but before any of that I need you to know that I love you. I fell in love with you the moment I laid eyes on you and knew you were mine. I regret that I will never get to say it aloud or to your face, but as long as I know that you know, I can rest in peace.

I've done some horrible things, my little flame, things I will never forgive myself for. Things, to my deepest regret, you will have to face when I am gone. One of them being your father.

I have no illusions that he will stay ignorant to the fact that you are his daughter forever, and lord help us when he does find out. He's not a good man Akira. His name is Dmitri Petrov. He's Russian and quite frankly gorgeous. I fell in love with him when I was young, and was stupid enough to think that love would change him.