Chapter 3 - Simon
“Raya,” I say her name with such force that my sister is at my side in a moment.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, glancing across the playground, searching for the danger.
“You need to get the kids out of here.” I signal to the security team with a stern nod, and they start moving towards us, also looking around the playground in search of danger that they can’t find.
“Simon, what is going on?” Raya asks sternly, her eyes narrowing and her breathing becoming faster.
“Please, just go, it’s more of a precaution, but get the kids out of here,” I tell her.
She doesn’t like not understanding, but she nods. “Be careful, please, whatever is going on,” she says before she turns to the children and, with a happy, friendly voice, shouts, “Who wants ice cream?”
I wait, still staring at Selene, while Raya ushers the children towards the cars with the help of the undercover security team.
Selene looks ready to run. She looks like she’s seen a ghost, and the fear that has flushed her face pale is so thick I can see her muscles tensing from here.
I take a careful step towards her, and she takes a step backward, her hands still gripping the children’s.
“Selene,” I say her name gently, taking another step. “It’s been a long time.”
She glances over her shoulder.
“It… it has,” she mutters, not sure what to do. She still wants to run, but I’ve managed to approach her in such a way that she can’t. Not as easily as she would have liked.
“The children,” I say, “I had no idea you’d had children.”
“I… I met someone. He’s waiting for me,” she stammers. The little boy looks up at me with glowing caramel eyes, bright in the sunlight that catches his blonde hair. A mirror image of me. Up close, it’s even more astounding how much he looks like me.
My eyes trace over to the little girl on her other side.
These are my children. There is absolutely no way she can deny this.
“You didn’t meet someone and have kids with him, Selene… We both know that.”
“I, I, I did. He’s waiting.”
She shifts nervously, pulling the children closer to her body.
“They’re twins,” I remark. “My family has twinned every second generation. My generation.”
“Simon, you’re wrong, they aren’t what you think,” she says forcefully.
“They are exactly what I think, though. The timeline adds up. They look… they look just like…”
“They aren’t!” she snaps, interrupting me.
The children are staring at me with as much fascination as I am looking at them. The little boy, especially, looks like he understands what I’m arguing with Selene about. I reach my hand out, absentmindedly wanting to touch his hair. He steps back shyly, ducking behind his mother.
“What’s your name?” I ask him.
“Don’t speak to my son,” Selene snarls protectively.
“Your son?” I mutter darkly, losing my patience with her.
Her eyes, impossibly greener than I remember them and more beautiful, pierce into me with the warning a lioness might give someone approaching her cubs.
I sigh, pushing my hand through my hair and shaking my head. Arguing isn’t getting me anywhere. But still—I have no intention of letting her walk out of here without telling me the truth.
“Look, Selene, let’s just…” Movement catches my eye, and my gaze darts to a bench on the side of the park where two men sit. Black suits. Horribly out of place. When did they get here?
I swallow hard when one of the men looks up at me, and the scar down the left side of his face jolts my memory.
A few weeks ago, our warehouse was attacked, and that was the face that appeared on the security camera before the person ran from the scene. That man has already attacked my family. And now he is at the park where I happened to be spending the day with my family again.
Raya is safe. Matvei’s kids are safe.
But my children aren’t. They’re still here.
I draw my gaze back to Selene and notice that her entire body has gone rigid with fear, and her eyes are on the men at the bench. She’s seen them, too, and for some reason, they have shaken her.
“Selene, we need to get out of here,” I tell her.
She nods, swallowing hard. “I… we came here in a taxi,” she says quietly, purposefully not looking at the men anymore.
“I’ll give you a ride. Let’s get to my car. It’s the black SUV parked at the end of the street behind me. Can you see it?”
She nods. “Alright. Walk in front of me.”
Her twins, our twins, move obediently at their mother’s side, not uttering a word as their little feet carry them quickly towards my car.
I glance once over my shoulder at the men who are now standing and beginning to move towards us.
“Faster,” I command, leaning down to scoop the little girl up into my arms. Selene picks up our son, and I tug the car door open for them as we reach it.
She pushes the children into the back seat. “Strap in. Hurry. Stop that, Solenne,” she huffs. Then she climbs in behind them, and I run to the driver’s side and get in too.
The men don’t follow. It’s not like they don’t know where I live anyway. The Volkovs are well known throughout the city. They are already targeting my family, clearly, so they don’t need to follow.
I still keep my eyes on the rearview, watching for a tail.
After five minutes of tense, evasive driving, taking random turns, and going in the wrong direction, I finally slow down and take a breath.
“Are we okay?” Selene asks tensely from the back seat.
I glance in the rearview mirror, and my heart flips. Fuck. She’s so fucking beautiful.
“Yes, we’re okay,” I answer, struggling to drag my eyes off her.
“Um, you can drop us near the mall on Smith Street. Our Motel is just down the…”
“What?” I snap. “A motel? There is no way in hell that I am dropping you at a motel, Selene.”
“Simon, I want to take my children back home. Please drop me where I ask you to drop me.”
I scoff. “A motel is not home. I’m taking you to my penthouse,” I inform her.
“Simon!” Her voice is tight and angry, but she’s trying to maintain control for the sake of the kids, who have clearly already gotten a fright after being whisked away from the park.
“It’s not a discussion, Selene.” My voice has a dangerous edge to it.
There is anger lurking just beneath the surface of my words.
She has kept my children from me for five years, and now she wants to run again.
Does she think I’m stupid? Does she think she is the only one who has rights to them? They are my children.
My fingers grip tightly around the steering wheel as I navigate us the rest of the way home in silence.
Selene doesn’t speak again, and when I glance at her in the mirror, she quickly looks away.
We park underground in my building. I own the whole thing. The penthouse is on the top two floors. It’s much too big for me, but I didn’t care when I bought it. All I cared about was that none of the rooms reminded me of her.
Not that it helped with the pain I was in.
And now you are bringing her here.
The elevator doors slide open, and I usher the three of them inside. Selene is standing rigid and straight, clinging to the kids. The boy is staring up at me, his eyes wide with wonder and questions. The little girl, Solenne, is chatting away about cookies she was promised.
The doors slide open right into the penthouse foyer.
“Where are we?” the boy asks.
“What’s your name?” I ask him.
“Arron,” he says, tilting his chin up, but gripping his mother’s hand tighter.
“It’s really nice to meet you, Arron. My name is Simon,” I hold my hand out to shake his. He looks confused for a moment before taking my hand. Solenne is less cautious. She grabs a handful of the side of my pants when I stand up and says, “I’m his sister.”
“Solenne,” I tell her. “I heard your mother say your name in the car. I’m Simon. It’s really nice to meet you, too,” I say, brushing my hand over her head.
“I’m older than Arron.”
“No, you not!” he argues.
“Yes, I am. I was born first!”
I grin as I usher them into the penthouse and watch their faces flare with surprise. “We are so high!” Solenne squeals, rushing towards the windows.
“Where are we?” Arron asks, narrowing his eyes and letting his gaze pierce right into my soul.
Selene places her hands on his shoulders, ready to answer the question, but I can’t allow it.
They’re here. I’ve been searching for her for five years, and she’s here. And she has my children.
“This is your new home,” I tell Arron. “Do you like it?”
Selene’s mouth drops open in horror, and she throws me a deadly look.
I ignore it.
Arron scrunches his nose and glances at his mother. “Mommy, is this our new home? Why?”
“Because children don’t belong in motels. It’s much nicer here, don’t you think?” I ask the kids.
“It issss!” Solenne squeals, jumping onto the sofa and flopping all over it.
“It is,” Arron agrees, but I can see he still wants to know what’s going on.
I crouch down on one knee in front of him. Half of my mind is saying I should go slow, the other half is telling me she could disappear in the blink of an eye, and I might never have this chance again.
My heart hammers against my ribs when I say my son’s name.
“Arron, Solenne… can you come here for a second?” I ask.
Solenne, full of curiosity and wanting to know everything first, rushes to my side and looks at me with raised brows.
I swallow hard. Selene senses what is about to happen, and I hear her gasp as I say the words.
“You have never met me before, but I am your father. I’m your dad. Do you know what that means?”
“You, our dad?” Solenne says in disbelief.
“I am.”
Arron tilts his head to the side. “But where were you?” he asks.
“I… was looking for you,” I say carefully. “I’ve been looking for you for a long time. And now that I have found you, I want to get to know you. That’s why you are going to come live here with me. So, we can get to know each other.”
Arron glances at his mother while Solenne stares at me. “I like this place,” she says.
“That’s good. But why don’t you look excited then?” I ask.
“‘Cause sometimes I need to first decide stuff before I decide.”
I start laughing, reaching out to cup her cheek. “Well, you take all the time in the world to decide, I’ll be here when you’re ready to tell me what you decide.”
She nods, immediately bolts back to the sofa, and explores.
I stand up, my eyes catching Selene’s. She looks livid.
“I had to tell them. I couldn’t risk you disappearing in the night. They deserve to know who their father is,” I say roughly.
“Arron, go play with your sister,” she says.
Once Arron is out of earshot, Selene turns on me.
“They are five years old! You have no idea how overwhelming this will be for them! You should have discussed it with me first!”
“And give you a chance to deny it or somehow convince them I am crazy and wrong? Absolutely not,” I growl beneath my breath.
“We’re not staying here,” she huffs.
“You are, Selene. You’ll very quickly find that the doors require pass codes you don’t have, and unless you want to try to climb off the balcony, there is no way out of this penthouse.”
“So, I’m your prisoner? We are your prisoners?” she says, her voice breaking even though she tries to hide it.
“You are my family. And you are my guests,” I correct her.
She shakes her head, licking her lips slowly as she stares at me with hatred storming behind her bright green eyes.
She can be angry all she wants. She kept my children hidden from me for five years. My children! My blood! If anyone has a right to be angry here, it’s me.
“Who wants to see their new room?” I ask loudly, turning away from Selene. I can see she’s too angry to see reason now, so I won’t even try to talk to her about fairness. Solenne is by my side in a second. “I want a pink room with dragons!” she says.
“A pink room with dragons? I don’t have dragons in any of the rooms. Where do you suppose I could find some dragons?” I ask.
“I not sure,” she says thoughtfully.
“They live in caves,” Arron says from a few steps behind us.
“What do you want in your room?” I ask him. He looks at his mother, seeking permission. She is angry and tense, but she nods and smiles at him.
He looks relieved, taking another step closer to me.
“I want, um, a spaceship,” he replies as though no one has ever asked him what he wants before. “From space,” he adds in case I didn’t fully understand.
“A spaceship from space and a pink room with dinosaurs. Let’s go pick a room, then we can organize the important stuff afterward,” I smile.
Arron throws another nervous glance at his mother. She nods, smiles again, and shoos him on with her hands. “I’ll come help you choose in a second, baby,” she says, reassuring him.