CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Fyodor
They say life can be quite comical at times, and yet I can’t help but feel like life is playing a rather cruel joke on me.
Who would believe that ten years ago, Anastasia and I met?
As she recounts her story, I can't help but feel this sickening feeling come over me.
Yes, she is right; I killed her brother, but not in the way she thinks.
For months, I had been unable to sleep as I kept dreaming and thinking about the man I had left to die.
The fact that I failed to pull him out of that wreckage would always be something I could never get over.
Perhaps if I had tried my best to drag him out, then I wouldn't have had to deal with this, and then I wouldn't have been beaten up by the fact that I failed to save him, and Anastasia would never have lost her brother.
Now, I understand exactly what Dylan was referring to that day.
It wasn't that Anastasia and I chanced upon each other that night.
No, she had intentionally sought me out.
She came to LA just to meet with the man who killed her brother, and not only did she get pregnant by him, she married him.
Realizing everything only makes me feel sicker, and as the plane slowly starts to descend, I wonder how exactly I am going to share the purpose of my meeting with Matteo.
If she thinks I am the killer, why did she keep digging into it?
Why did she even agree to get married to me in the first place?
I can only imagine that the only reason why she would go that far is because she is desperate for revenge, and that breaks my heart.
Her desire for revenge must be so great that she would condemn herself to a marriage with the man she thinks killed her brother.
I might not have shot the gun or blown up the car, but my failure had resulted in Alexei’s death.
One of Matteo's men is waiting for me as I get down the stairs, and he tells me that Matteo is ready for me.
“What brings you here?” Matteo asks as he meets me, kissing me on the face as I hug him. He asks if everything is all right, and I assure him that everyone is doing fine. He invites me into his home, telling me that he would love to take me to his study.
Matteo is an impressive man, and if Anastasia and I had dated properly, maybe I would have loved to get to know him better. Once we are settled in his study, he orders one of his men to bring us a bottle of fine whiskey, and I watch patiently as he pours the two of us a drink.
I take a look around his study, a little amazed at the number of books that are in here.
On one side of the wall is what seems to be a nineteenth-centurypainting of the Winter Palace.
Anastasia doesn’t talk much about her father, but she once mentioned that he has an obsession with art from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
He hands me a glass and proposes a toast to both Anastasia and the new relationship between his people and my people. I sip my drink as he goes into casual conversation, wanting to know how Anastasia is faring.
The only reason why he isn’t aware of what truly happened with her is because I asked Oksana to give me time to meet with him first. Putting my glass on the table, I tell him that there’s a really important reason for me to travel out here to see him.
“And what might that be, Fyodor?” he asks with genuine concern.
I take a deep breath, not sure exactly how to broach this matter, but he needs to know what has happened in the past few days.
I narrate to him how someone tried to kill Anastasia, and I notice how he seems to be listening in rapt attention, his face turning cold as he realizes how close he came to losing both his daughter and grandchildren.
“Is she fine?” he asks me, and I assure him that she is doing fine now; then he inquires about the identity of the men who tried to kill his daughter. I know he won’t be pleased to find out that we don’t yet have them, but I assure him that we are still looking into it.
“I’m sure you didn’t make the trip out here just to inform me about all that.”
Blunt as a knife, isn’t he?
I adjust myself on my chair and inform him that what I am about to mention is something I would love to discuss with him privately.
He looks at Pavel, his right-hand man who is right behind him, and tells him to leave the room.
Once Pavel is gone, I clear my throat and tell him that ten years ago, he lost his son.
Almost immediately, his body language changes, almost as if he is on guard about what I am about to discuss. “Somehow, Anastasia is convinced that someone murdered her brother, and for the past two years, she has been digging into it.”
I expect some sort of drastic reaction from him, but strangely, he’s calm. I mention how she traveled to Los Angeles to meet with the man she believed played an important role in Alexei’s death.
“And what exactly does this have to do with anything?”
“Do you remember what happened in San Francisco ten years ago?”
He picks up his glass and takes a sip, telling me that day was a very dark day for him and his family, which is why—unless I have a very good reason—he would like it if I didn't remind him of it.
I apologize and clarify that it isn’t my intention to cause him grief, but the events from back then are now causing a bit of an issue. He raises his eyebrow, and I explain to him that back then, I stumbled upon an accident scene—the one that involved Alexei and Anastasia.
“I carried Anastasia out on the request of Alexei, and before I could go back to get him, the car exploded.”
“You played a major role in rescuing my daughter. That’s something I am well aware of. I’ll always be grateful for the fact that you are the only reason why Anastasia is alive.”
His admission takes me by surprise, as I thought that he didn’t know who I truly was.
“Why do you think I had no problem with you getting married to my daughter in the first place?” he asks. “I arranged for you to work under Ivan. Yuri is an old friend of mine, and I told him that as a reward for saving my daughter, the only way I could pay you back is by having you work for Ivan.”
Now, I have even more questions, and I throw one of them at him. Matteo chuckles and explains that the reason why he had me work under Ivan and not him was because Yuri was closer to Ivan, and Ivan was the best person I could have worked under at that point in time.
“Trust me, I know exactly the kind of person my daughter got married to.” Matteo waves his hand dismissively.
His little tale distracted me from my story, and I quickly return to it, telling him that the reason why I brought it up is because Anastasia is somehow convinced that I killed Alexei, and she traveled down to LA, bent on destroying me.
“She intentionally approached me, though I don’t think she got pregnant intentionally,” I clarify to Matteo, who still isn’t giving me the reaction I expect. “The one thing I want to know is why you never told her that I wasn’t responsible for her brother’s death.”
Sitting up, Matteo answers that he never saw a reason why he should share that piece of information with Anastasia, since it wouldn’t change anything.
“And now?”
“Still don’t see the reason. She doesn’t need to know about how you saved her.”
“Even though she thinks I am the one that killed her brother?”
His usual enthusiasm has now disappeared. He begins to scratch his chin, telling me a story of how, when he was a child, he had a dog he had raised with care and loved so much. Everything was going fine until one day, it started barking at him, and he just couldn’t explain why.
“There had to be some reason, I thought back then, and I begged my father to let me take him to the vet. Do you know what he did?” He rises to his feet as he walks to his desk. “Right in front of me, my father shot the dog, telling me that he has no need for a dog that would bite its own master.”
I am not really sure exactly what the essence of the story is, but I know for a fact that he is subtly trying to pass a message to me.
“The both of you are married, and my son has been dead for ten years, with the people who are responsible for that act buried a long time ago. I don’t have any reason to revisit it, and I intend to keep it that way.”
This is exactly how Yuri sounded, and I wonder if they decided on this response together or if there’s something both men intend to hide.
“Do you mind me sharing that with Anastasia?”
His reluctance to let her know the truth will only put her in danger since she’s determined to continue to dig into the story. Yuri’s warning still bothers me, especially since I have no way of knowing if he was referring to Matteo or the real individual who killed Alexei.
“Why do you want to do that?”
I sigh heavily, my frustration rising to the surface. Matteo’s calm demeanor is slowly getting on my nerves. “She is very determined to get to the bottom of this, and I have this feeling deep within me that if we don't stop her, she will go to very extreme lengths.”
“She’s an adult; we don’t have control over her actions,” Matteo answers as he walks to the painting I was admiring previously.
“And most especially, she is your wife; I don't have control over what she does. That’s your job; if you can't stop her from digging into the story, then you will bear the consequences of whatever happens to her.”
Something about the way he says those words sounds like a threat. Matteo is a very strong man, a man of respect, a man who has paid the price and knows how to play the manipulation game.
I never stood a chance against him, and I give in. “I’ll see what I can do, but I need a bone she can chew on. Something that will convince her that I didn’t kill Alexei.”
“Will the original police statement from that day be sufficient?”
The original statement being in Matteo’s possession isn’t something I should be shocked about, but still, it’s difficult to believe that he had it removed from the police station. He presses the phone on his table and asks Pavel to bring the document.
A couple minutes later, Pavel arrives, and Matteo hands me the document without a fuss. “Is that the reason why you came out here?”
“Yes. That, and I needed to clear the air with you,” I admit to him.
Matteo claps, telling me how he knew that he had made the right choice for Anastasia, even though she has yet to see it. His confidence bothers me, especially since he’s heavily convinced that everything he has been doing so far is purely for Anastasia’s benefit.
Alexei’s death is really mysterious, and perhaps his killer might be way closer than we think. For all we know, he might be someone both Anastasia and I have already met.