31. Maksen
31
MAKSEN
W e all went to our rooms the moment we arrived back home. There was a need for quietness neither of us spoke out loud, but we all knew that we wanted it.
I saw Annalise and Katya’s last pieces of souls getting shattered once again at the funeral today. I tried my best to take care of them so they would not feel alone, but it was the day they buried their aunt and nobody could take away the pain in such a situation — not even me.
As I sat down on the bed’s surface, I wondered what Annalise was doing now. Was she taking a long bath like she always did when she wanted to clear her head? Was she reading? Was she crying?
I wanted to go to her, to make sure that she was okay, but at the same time, I wanted to give her the space she needed. My little one has been through so many hard times lately that I simply didn’t know what to do best for her. So I was just waiting for her to open up to me whenever she felt the right moment to do it.
I sighed heavily as I pinned the ceiling with my gaze. The last couple of weeks started to replay before my eyes and it felt like I was on a rollercoaster ready to break at any second. So many things I didn’t see coming happened, things I would’ve bet would never occur, like the fact that Annalise and Katya truly moved in with me.
I knew Lukyan, and I knew that even though he fulfilled Katya’s wish after she almost committed suicide, he had planned something to destroy our happiness. It was just a matter of time until we would find out what it was. It felt just like the calmness before the…
“Maksen?”
Every thought I had going through my mind disappeared and the beautiful image of my angel was all I could look at. She opened the door and stepped further into my room, her soft fragrance tickling my senses as I took in a deep breath.
I stood up from the bed, walking towards her and the moment I stopped in front of her, she raised her gaze and pinned me attentively.
“Maybe it’s not the right moment to do this, but I need answers and I need them now,” she demanded, and this was the first time I heard her being so confident in her words.
I furrowed my brows, looking down at her and trying to figure out what she was referring to.
“Ask me anything you want, Anna. Did I do something wrong?”
“Who is the little girl you’re hiding under our roof?” she said, dodging my question.
It was just a matter of time until she would find out about Lysandre, but I thought I would have more time until I would introduce her to Annalise.
“You met Lysandre I suppose,”
“Why are you hiding her? Are you keeping her locked here?”
“I’m protecting her, Anna,” I said between gritted teeth and her breath quickened instantly when she heard my words.
“Protecting her from who?” she spat, with her eyes burning with anger. “I’m done with people offering me half truths, Maksen. I want you to tell me everything, no more lies, no more secrets.”
She had a confidence I’ve never seen before, and even if I was shocked with her attitude, I loved seeing her like this. Everything that happened to her slowly transformed her into the woman I was going to love even more — if that was even possible.
“Come with me,” I demanded and she didn’t say anything but waited until I started walking out of the room.
This was the moment when I had to tell her the truth. No more lies.
She followed me down the hall, her harsh breath almost hitting on the back of my neck. When we stopped in front of the mahogany door on the right side of the hall, I turned to her and made her face my gaze. I could see the mixed feelings she had by the way her parted lips were trembling, and I wanted to kiss her so bad right now just to calm her down and assure her that I wasn’t going to hide anything from her anymore. But I could only prove this to her this.
“Do you trust me?”
“I don’t know who I should trust anymore. I just want to know the truth,” she said, not even blinking.
I took in a deep breath, then I opened the door, letting Annalise step inside. She quickly walked in front of me, and the moment I closed the door behind us, my gaze fell on Lysandre who was sitting on top of the bed with a book opened on her legs. Her blonde, straight hair was resting on her narrow shoulders and I was happy to see her this relaxed.
“Annalise, she is Lysandre, one of the children I saved from being trafficked,” I explained and I saw her not moving from her spot.
She looked at me, then she looked at Lysandre and I could see that her eyes were filling up with tears. I wanted to pull her into my arms, but I chose not to. I wanted to give her the space she needed so she could assimilate the information I just gave to her.
“Hi, Annalise!” Lysandre finally spoke and she managed to bring a smile to my girl’s face.
That was the moment I knew I had to let them be alone.
“I’ll let you two talk. Anna, you’ll find me in our room.”
Our room. It was still something new to me to call my bedroom our room. It felt strange, yet comforting.
I’d spent my time by checking the map my IT guy has programmed for me so I could track every child I’d saved and sent to loving families across Europe. I was happy seeing all those green points on the map because I knew that for every green point, there was a child that got his second chance to a better life, away from this cruel mafia that spread across the United States.
But the moment I wanted to dig deeper into the application, my bedroom door opened and Annalise walked into my room, pulling me completely out of my work.
Her face was brightened up now that she had the talk she needed with Lysandre and I couldn’t be more happier to see her like this. She came closer to me, then sat on the edge of my bed and the moment she raised her eyes to me, her lips curled into a soft smile. Her eyes were gleaming with gratitude, or at least, that’s how it felt.
"You were saving children all this time, weren’t you?”
I smiled, nodding and closing my laptop. “Yes. I wanted to tell you more about this, but I just didn’t feel any moment as being the right one to do it.”
“I’m so dumb for believing, for even a second, that you could be an abuser too. The moment I saw Lysandre on my balcony, so scared and alone, I thought of her as me. I thought that she was abused, just like I’d been when I was a child and I thought that you…” she spoke fast, the words coming out of her mouth with such speed that she couldn’t even breathe.
I stood up from the bed as I saw her chest rising up, because I knew she was on the verge of bursting out crying. I didn’t want to see her like that again.
I sat beside her, pulling her to my chest and placing a kiss on her forehead. She sighed, wrapping my torso with her arms and even though I was sure that she was going to start crying now that she had me hugging her, she didn’t. She raised her gaze to me and her lips didn’t even move from the smile she had when she first came here.
“You know, Lydia told me that Sylvian escaped from the sanatorium when I saw her for the last time,” she whispered, as she started playing with her fingers in her lap.
“He escaped?”
That shocked me and angered me at the same time. How could have I missed this? Now I was thinking that all those threats were coming from him, but I couldn’t tell Anna this. I didn’t want to scare her even more.
“Yes, but that’s not what I want to talk about right now. I’m scared that he is free, but I’m more scared of myself. Because of what I was thinking in a moment of weakness.”
“What do you mean, Anna?” I asked, completely confused at her sudden change of words.
“I’m sorry for having these thoughts about you, Maksen. Deep down in my heart, I knew you weren’t an abuser, but there were so many things happening to both of us that I didn’t even know what to believe anymore,” she explained, brushing my jawline with her fingers.
Her touch sent shivers down my spine and I hated myself that I had such teenager reactions when I was around her. It was like I was experiencing everything for the first time when it came to her.
“You don’t need to be sorry for it, Anna. It’s perfectly normal to have those thoughts when you were a victim yourself,” I whispered and gave her a comforting smile. “But now that the truth is out, I want you to know that I have a whole organization for saving children. Since I started going with Lukyan to those auctions, I knew it was wrong to sell and buy children like that and I knew that those billionaires that were trading them were going to make their life miserable. And I just couldn’t stand there and do nothing, so that’s how I put up the base of this.”
“And how do you save them? How does Lukyan not know anything about this?”
“In order to make him believe me, I had to buy some children for him and let him do what he wanted to them. It hurt me like hell to see them suffering, but it was the only way I could’ve saved more,” I lowered my eyes, seeing her eyes flinch with pain.
“So he really is hurting innocent children,”
“Yes.”
She buried her face into my t-shirt, and I felt how her arms gripped stronger around me. Her warm breath was hitting my chest, while the rhythm of her heart was vibrating through my entire body. We were just sitting there in silence, while she was probably digesting what she just found out. It wasn’t easy to accept that your so-called father was trafficking children.
“I’m happy that you’re saving them, Maksen.”
I chose not to say anything back because I knew she already had tears rolling down her cheeks. I was happy that she knew the truth now, but I was happier that she was still in my arms, hugging me like I was the only person that mattered in her life.