Emily Kmetko, a young 16 year old gymnast, found herself one rainy night running to the same old trailer that she knew to be her coach's home. She had no idea why she was running there; she just knew that she had to get away from him. She kept on running until she got there, and when she did, she kept questioning herself, wondering if he would help her even though it was one o'clock in the morning, on a day that they would be training, only five hours later. Five minutes later she built up the courage to knock on the door and right after she did, she started mentally berating herself over and over again. About a minute later and tall man with blonde hair, and wearing only a pair of sweatpants opened the door. This man was known by the name of Sasha Belov.
"Emily, what are you doing here? It is One o'clock in the morning. You should be sleeping." Sasha, who isn't very keen on rule breakers, was beginning to get very mad at Miss. Kmetko not only for being up this late at night, but also waking him up from his deep slumber.
"I'm so sorry Sasha, I was hoping you could help me, but I see that I was mistaken. I'll just be on my way then," Emily then noticed Joe was walking up quickly to the trailer and her breath then hitched in her throat.
"I'm so sorry Mr. Beloff, Emily, my dear, come on home, you have been sleepwalking again. She has sleepwalking issues, and when she sleepwalks, she says random stuff" Joe inquired and took Emily by the arm a little too firmly for Sasha's liking and began to pull her in the direction of her house.
"Excuse me sir, but I believe I was the one talking to Miss. Kmetko over here, and we were having a private discussion, that I don't believe you were a part of, so if you could let me talk to her, I'd be much obliged" Sasha said in a deadly tone. This tone was one in which Emily knew that if he was using it, she better not be smart back at him.
"Sir, with all due respect, it is one o'clock in the morning and my dear Emily needs her sleep for her day of training tomorrow. And her mother is worried sick about her, and I need to bring her home so that Brian and Chloe won't worry anymore." Joe sounded very convincing; however, Sasha wasn't buying it.
"With all due respect sir, I can call Ms. Kmetko myself and tell her that I will need to talk to Emily if she is that worried. No worries, I will take her home myself when I am done having a talk with her. Now please go home, as it looks like it's going to pour any second again," Sasha retorted after Joe, because now Joe was beginning to piss him off.
Joe, knowing he was now defeated, sulked off back to Emily's house. Sasha then noticed it began to pour. Sasha then took Emily inside before she could get too drenched. He gave her the comfy chair, while he took the couch. "Emily, what's wrong? I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier, I didn't mean it." Sasha looked like he truly did mean it.
"I need help, I didn't know who else to turn to but you," Emily sighed and put her head in her hands. "And I can already see that you don't like Joe," Emily stated before going on. "Well I'm just going to show you, is that alright?" Emily asked, wanting to get it over with and hoped that he would help her.
Sasha nodded signaling Emily to shoe him what was wrong with her. As she lifted up her shirt right above her stomach, she couldn't stop the tears anymore. She broke down in tears as Sasha gasped at the hand shaped bruise on her stomach. He then got up and walked to her, all the while putting his arm around her shoulders. Sasha noticed that right as his arm touched her shoulder; she instantly flinched, causing his anger for Joe to burn with the intensity of a thousand suns.
"Emily" Sasha sighed and decided that now would be the best time to tell her the truth. "I need to tell you something, something important." Sasha led her into his bedroom and had her sit down on the bed while he went to go fetch something. When he came back Emily noticed that he was holding a certificate in his hands. "Now you have to promise, you can't get too mad at me after I show you what this is okay? I had no idea until about 2 months ago that this was true. It is something that your family has been keeping a secret from you for far too long. I know I should not be the one to tell you, your father should. But due to recent events I feel I have no choice."
"Sasha, nothing could ever make me mad at you. You saved me from that evil man. I am forever in your debt" Emily smiled and looked straight into his eyes and noticed that he felt horrible for whatever he was about to tell her. "Please just tell me, I really want to know, I don't like being kept in the dark."
Sasha then decided he was going to get it over with and handed her the certificate. He watched as she began to look at the certificate her eyes going wide with shock as she saw who her real parents were. She had no idea that she was adopted. And her mother was Nadia Comaneci! She would have never guessed.
"Oh my god, why the heck did you decide not to tell me, you knew about this and yet for two whole months you didn't tell me a thing. How could you?" Emily was a little beyond mad. Of course, who wouldn't be? She looked at him with her beautiful hazel eyes that were glassy from tears.
"Now Emily, before you go off on me, I did not know about you until about 2 months ago, when I went through everyone's birth certificates. Nadia, your mother, is in Romania again. I have no idea why she didn't keep you, I have been trying to call her for a while and she never returns any of my calls." Sasha confessed and sighed, happy that he got that off his chest. "We had a long affair, 4 years to be exact. We loved each other very much, and then one day she just up and broke it off with me. I now know it is because of the fact that she got pregnant with you. I was thinking actually of going on a trip to see her soon." Sasha confessed.
"I don't know if I can trust you again yet. You lied to me for 2 whole months. You might not have known what I was going through but you still should have told me." Emily responded to Sasha's story. She knew she was going to have to sooner or later. And she was quite happy that he was her father.
"I am going to try everything in my power to get custody of you. Your 'parents' don't deserve you. Especially Joe, he is an ass." Sasha said and went to go get his phone. "You can go to sleep if you would like, I am going to be on the computer." Noticing it was 4 o'clock Sasha changed his mind. "Actually, you can still go to sleep if you would like. I have to go to the Rock so I can get ready for practice today. You can sleep in my office just in case Joe returns. You won't need to come out until 10, okay?" Sasha smiled slightly and they both left together under the umbrella.
Once they arrived at the Rock, Sasha opened his office and cleaned off the couch so that Emily could sleep on it. As she went to sleep, Sasha sat in his office working on papers and watching her sleep peacefully on the couch until none other than Payson walked in.
"Hello Payson, I'll be right with you in a few moments. I need to go run an errand. Make sure no one comes in here under any circumstances unless they are a gymnast. Not even parents at the moment okay. If you have any problems with that call me and I will be down here and settle them okay?" Sasha smiled and then walked out to go see Chloe and Joe Kmetko.
When he got to their house, it was worse than what he expected. It looked like a small shack that barely even one person could live in, let alone four. He knocked on the door, with the custody papers, and Emily's birth certificate in hand, to the house. He glared at Chloe when she opened the door. "Hello Ms. Kmetko, may I come in?" He said in a sickeningly sweet voice.
"Of course, I'm going to go ahead and assume that this has something to do with Emily." Chloe said with a fake smile. She offered Sasha a seat which he, as politely as he could, declined. "So, what did Emily do this time?"
"She didn't do anything," Sasha told her. "I have some papers, and I would like for you to sign them. For you see, I am Emily's biological father, and I know what you two have been doing to her, and I will not stand for it anymore." Sasha ended his rant yelling at them.
"That bitch!" Chloe screamed. She definitely did not want Emily telling anyone. You could now see a purple vein popping out of her forehead. She also remembered Joe threatening to kill her if she ever told, and then began to smile wickedly.
"If you sign the papers, then maybe I won't call the police and have you sent to prison for what you did, and if I ever catch you near Emily again, I will not hesitate to kill you." Sasha said threateningly. He handed them the papers and they quickly signed them. "I better not see you again ever," Sasha threatened, took the papers and walked out the front door.
"By the way, Emily has a job, and she has a boyfriend. I know she has been keeping those a secret from you. But what kind of mother would I be if I kept secrets from her biological father." Chloe yelled as he walked out of the door.
When he arrived back at the Rock, It was then ten thirty. 'I hope Emily is up and training now. And I wonder if she really did break the two biggest rules of the Rock' He thought. 'I need to get two tickets to Romania.' Sasha then walked into his office and ordered 2 plane tickets for Romania, for 1 week, starting in 2 days. He then walked back outside. "Emily I need to talk to you for a few moments," As Emily walked over to him, he pulled out the adoption papers. "I am not going to hide anything from you anymore. I went over to your adoptive parent's house while you were sleeping and I got them to legally sign you over to me. I am going to have a part in your life, is that okay?" Sasha smiled and hoped that Emily would be okay with it.
"Really, that's awesome!" Emily exclaimed and hugged him. She still didn't fully trust him, but it was getting there. Emily was so happy that she didn't have to go back to that hell hole of a house.
Sasha then led her out to the gym for more training. After she won first place over China, she had been training to increase her DOD on every apparatus. She was getting along good and had every one down except the one on bars. Whenever she tried to land that trick she always fell and landed on her back. A few hours later around 4 Sasha walked up to Emily again. "Hey we are going on a trip in two days. We are going to Romania to see your mother, is that alright with you?" Sasha asked.
"That would be wonderful; I have always wanted to meet her. She's the most famous gymnast ever!" Emily smiled and then it faltered. 'How will I ever live up to what she has accomplished? What if she doesn't like me?' she thought as her low self-confidence returned.
"What is wrong, my dear?" Sasha asked worried about her. He wasn't used to her being this way and noticed that everyone else had left, considering practice ended at four today because of it being Saturday.
"What if mother doesn't like me?" Emily confessed sighing. " There's probably a very good chance that she won't because I'm so not like her, I mean I'm not that good at gymnastics, I'm so much uglier than her, I mean look at my face."
Emily sighed and sat down on the mat. She began playing with her hair in the process.
"There is no reason of you to think of yourself in that sort of way. You are an amazing gymnast, you are definitely not ugly, and you have a great personality. There is no reason why she would not like you." Sasha smiled and hugged her daughter. "We need to go shopping for you before our trip. We also need to go today since tomorrow is Sunday and everything is closed on Sunday," Sasha smiled and helped Emily stand up and they walked out of the Rock together.
The rest of the day was spent buying Emily the necessities she needed. She got an iPod, a laptop, a cell phone, and many clothes. What she didn't know however is that during the two months that went by that Emily didn't know about Sasha being her true father, he had bought a new house. He took her to it, and when they arrived there she looked up at it in shock, this was as big as the Cruz's mansion. "Is this our new house?" Emily asked smiling.
"Yup, the mansion is all ours." Sasha smiled as she squealed, hugged him, then ran inside to look around. He chuckled as he walked in to see her in a room on the first floor, not the master bedroom, but still a big bedroom. "I see you like that bedroom. Therefore, it shall be yours; However, its way past time for us to be in bed, Emily. I guess I will see you in the morning. Good night," Sasha then went upstairs to his bedroom and they both went to sleep.
The next morning they both woke up around eleven. Sasha went straight to the Rock to do paperwork and write a letter to Summer telling her that neither he nor Emily will be there next week. Emily walked around the house looking in awe at the scenery. She was so zoned out, that she didn't even notice that Leo Cruz walked up right behind her.
"Hey Emily what's up?" Leo asked smiling as she jumped and turned around to face him. He smiled at her blush. "Are you okay? That was really funny; you should have seen your face. By the way, what are you doing here?"
"Shut up, Leo" Emily swatted at his arm. "You're a butt face do you know that? And just for your information, I live here now. So I guess I live right behind you because I can see that your house is right there." Emily smiled secretly excited about the fact that they were neighbors now.
"Really, that's awesome. Yup, that does make us neighbors. That's exciting." Leo and Emily talked for the rest of the day until sundown. They talked about Emily's situation with Sasha and Nadia. When Sasha came back, Emily decided that it was time to go. "I guess I will see you in a week, bye."
"Bye, Emily, I hope you find everything you are looking for and more." Leo smiled and gave Emily a long, big hug before returning to his house. Emily returned it and then also went to her house where she and Sasha went to sleep rather early since they had an early flight.
The next evening, right after they had landed in Bucharest, which was about 6 o'clock in the morning they left the airport and went to the hotel first, then they went to go find Nadia which she still taught at the Romanian National Gymnastics Center (which was translated from Romanian). Sasha and Emily walked into the Gymnastics Center around noon, after taking a nap.
Nadia saw them immediately as they walked in and told her student, in Romanian, to keep working on what she was working on. She then walked over to Sasha. "What are you doing here? And whom may I ask is this?" Nadia had a clue who Emily was, but dismissed it because she believed Sasha would never meet his daughter.
"I am here, because of my daughter, Amelia Comaneci-Belov. Whom, around two months ago, I learned to be my daughter. Why did you never tell me that I had a daughter, Nadia?" Sasha looked at her with broken eyes.
"I didn't tell you of Amelia, because you told me that you never wanted to have kids. And because you said that I decided, since it is against my religion to have an abortion that I would give her up for adoption, right after I had her. And that's why I left you, because I didn't want to burden you with the responsibility of having a child." Nadia confessed sighing. "Oh, Amelia, you are so beautiful. I can't believe you are here. What a pretty young woman you have turned out to be," Nadia smiled and looked at her more closely. "You have Sasha's eyes."
"Nadia, I was sixteen when I said that, of course I did not want kids then. I wasn't ready, but you left me when we were 21. Of course I would have wanted kids with you, I loved you. I still love you." Sasha confessed and looked at the floor and began to shuffle his feet.
Nadia, noticing that she really crushed him when she left started her way towards him; however, Sasha started walking backwards away from her. "I'm sorry Sasha; I didn't mean to ruin your life" Nadia felt tears begin to trail down her cheeks.
"You shouldn't be sorry for me; it's Emily who you should apologize too. Did you know who you were giving her too when you gave her up?" Sasha asked, and would have gotten mad if she would have nodded, however she shook her head.
"I had no idea who the orphanage would give her to; the lady there was really nice, though. She promised me that you would go to a good home." Nadia felt so horrible about leaving her love, and her daughter. She never really wanted to, but if she had then Sasha would have known about it and she still then thought he did not want kids. Little did Sasha and Emily know that the day Nadia gave Emily up was the hardest day of her life.
"Yea, well that lady lied." Sasha then pulled up Emily's shirt to reveal her stomach and to show the dark purple hand shaped bruise that still had its imprint on Emily's stomach. "Her adopted father did this to her." Sasha stated.
"Oh my goodness, how could anyone ever do this to you." Nadia could help but let the tears run down her face. She ran up and hugged Emily really tightly. "I am so sorry Amelia, could you ever find it in your heart to forgive me?"
"It may take me a while to build my trust up in you again, but I think I could" Emily smiled and hugged her back. "It is okay mama, please don't cry" Emily rubbed her back and smiled.
Sasha took this opportunity to get out his camera and take a picture of them two hugging. He then stuffed his camera back in his pocket and smiled. 'they look so much alike' he thought smiling.
"You can train here for the week if you would like, Miss. Emily Kmetko, all the gymnasts that train here know English so you can train with them. Let me introduce you to Anton Tudor, and Ana Maria Tamarjan. These are the best gymnasts in the gym." Nadia motioned them over with her hand.
"It's very nice to meet you, I'm Emily Kmetko." Emily smiled and took out her hand to shake both of their hands. They looked at her strangely for a moment, and then remembered that she was American, and shook her hand as well. She could barely contain herself though because Anton was very handsome looking.
"We know who you are Emily Kmetko," Ana Maria said sweetly in a heavy Romanian accent. "You are a great gymnast. We are happy you are here for a few days," Ana Maria smiled and looked at Nadia.
"Yes we are very happy to have you here Emily" Anton spoke in a deep bass Romanian accent. Everyone in the room could tell that he was turning on the charm except for Emily who is completely oblivious to men hitting on her because she has never been allowed to have a boyfriend.
"Okay Anton, that is enough, take Emily over to the bars with Ana Maria and then you two can train." Nadia smiled and then looked over back at Sasha. She then took him back into her office so that they could properly talk.
"So Emily, no offense at all, but what are you doing in Romania?" Ana Maria asked completely confused about why she was here. "I mean, Romania of all places. That is really random to me, but of course I have no idea why you're here, so please tell us."
"Well, about 2 days ago, I found out that I was adopted. I found out that my coach, Sasha Belov, was my father, but Nadia Comaneci is my mother." Emily smiled and laughed at their shocked faces. "Yes, and my real name is Amelia Comaneci-Belov." Emily started her bars routine as they seemed to get over the fact that she was Nadia's daughter.
A little later, Emily was watching Ana Maria do her floor routine when she got a text message from Payson. The text message said 'Where are you? Are you somewhere with Sasha? If not he is going to be so mad at you when you get back.' She replied to it saying she was in Romania, and that she was with Sasha and that she would be back in a week. After Ana Maria was finished with her floor routine, Emily walked back up to see if Sasha and her could leave, however she looked in the window and saw them making out in her office and decided to let them be and walked back down to Ana Maria and Anton.
"So my parents are making out, what you guys want to do?" Emily asked them smiling. She was really happy about that and hoped that they could be a family again maybe soon.
"We could take you sight-seeing. That would be fun wouldn't it?" Ana Maria suggested. "Could we pick up my boyfriend on the way though?" Ana Maria, as Emily had learned, had been dating her boyfriend, Alexei, for 8 years now. And she recently became engaged to him as well. Emily was very surprised though, that Nadia let them have boyfriends.
"Sure, that would be fun" Emily smiled and could not wait to have some alone time with Anton. The two of them were flirting like crazy with each other, usually in French, since they both spoke it because they were multilingual. They left the gymnastics center after Emily left Sasha a note, to go sight-seeing around Bucharest. After picking up Alexei, they visited the Arcul de Triumf, in which they all got pictures underneath it, with Emily's new camera. After that they went to Herastrau Park. After that they noticed it was getting kind of late, so Anton decided to drop Emily off at the hotel and Ana Maria and Alexei went back to his house. When Anton and Emily got to her hotel, they noticed that Sasha was still not yet back, and so Emily invited Anton inside.
"Today was a lot of fun Emily, I hope you do come back tomorrow," Anton smiled and sat down on the chair next to her bed. "I really like you, and I know that we just met, but I was hoping that while we were here that we could maybe date or something. I know that Sasha doesn't allow you to, but maybe he would give an exception for this week." Anton smiled and kissed the top of her hand.
"Absolutely not!" Sasha yelled, walking into the room with disheveled hair and his buttons misaligned. "Anton, it is time for you to go home," Sasha yelled when Anton started to hesitate a little. "Now!" about 5 seconds later Anton was out the door running home.
"Dad! What was that all about, you went completely overboard right then. Anton is just a friend" Emily tried to reason him, however, as Sasha always is, he didn't listen. He just continued to go off on her.
"No! Emily, you know the rules, no boyfriends! You may have broken it once, but you will not break them again, you will not, under any circumstances be alone with that boy ever again. If I do catch you two alone together, I will assume the worst and you will be grounded for 2 months."
"But, Dad!" Emily exclaimed. "I never got to answer him. Also, it's not like we could have anything big, we are half a world apart from each other. When did you have your first girlfriend?" Emily asked.
"When I was… That does not matter, the point here is that you are not allowed to have one. Just because you are my daughter does not mean that I will give you special treatment, actually, it means I am going to treat you more harshly than the others, to show that I am not kidding, and so they know I don't play favorites." Sasha went on a long rant about how she needed to follow the rules, and how he knew about her job and Damon.
"Well, I didn't ask you to become my new dad! All I wanted was to have Joe out of my life. If that's how you're going to be about it then I don't want you as a dad!" Emily got up and made her way to the door. "Oh by the way, I broke up with Damon because I decided to put gymnastics first." And after that statement she ran out of the door and into the dark streets of Bucharest.