ILL-FATED JOURNEY™

Chapter 55

She had to pause to compose herself before she could continue. Shudders wracked her ageing

frame and I almost felt sorry for her. But she was bringing me into a decades-old silent war she

was waging on the Alexandrovich's for the pain Mikhail caused her. Vlad wasn't even to blame

but she had already made up her mind to rid the world of the Alexandrovich line. And that

included him...and Irena.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, she went on. "My baby was taken from me that night and

sent...I don't know where. Then an announcement was made. The young heir had died. I went

through the motions of preparing for the funeral wondering what happened to my child. All the

while he just kept telling me to call Nicholai my son! Why was he pretending his son was dead? I 

couldn't say but why didn't he bring my son back I was afraid to ask. Then the funeral came, and

something kept asking me. What was he burying if his son wasn't dead? So, when the

household was asleep, I went and opened the casket and saw my baby lying still in the coffin

dressed in royal robes!

I opened my mouth to scream but somehow Mikhail knew I would be there. He covered my

mouth and dragged me into the den. 'Don't cry my love,' he told me. 'I have kept my promise to

you. Your son recognized as my heir.' I didn't know what to make of it but by the deadly gleam in

his eyes, I knew if I didn't keep the secret, he would find a way to fit me in that box. But as a 

mother I needed to know so I asked, 'How did he die?' then he smiled as if I should be proud 

'Like a true Alexandrovich.'

That night I went to bed and from then his visits stopped as well. I was glad of that because I 

didn't know how I'd feel taking him to bed knowing what he did. Three weeks after the funeral, 

the first one arrived."

"First what?" I whispered, too shocked to stop myself.

"The first one like you." She clarified, "I remember them all. I doubt he did. She was a red-

headed Irish girl. I still hear her screams. He was younger then. Lustier too. She didn't last a 

week. The next one came a month later, an Italian beauty or at least she was in the beginning, 

after a month in that cellar, she no longer looked nor smelt pretty. She soiled herself every

chance she got. Thought to make him lose interest. It did, and he just hosed her down then left

the door open. Fool ran outside soaking wet in the middle of winter. She was a popsicle before 

she made it past the gardens."

I felt sick as the tale brought back memories of my brief time in that cellar. I made a mental note

to properly thank Vlad for saving me.

"Then the years passed, and Nicholai joined him in his sick perverted games." She added