Chapter 9

Secrets Revealed

I felt like I honestly was in a dream. That perhaps all of this was some sort of nightmare and I would eventually wake up and realize that my life wasn't in a perpetual state of hell. But alas if there truly is a God. Well. Let's just say I'm the reality TV star of his or her favorite television station.

When I finally came to I could hear the beeping of the machines again. I was back in the hospital? Great. My father was going to go ballistic. But as soon as I realized where I was I sat up quickly and looked around. Not a good idea. My head was spinning, my leg was throbbing in pain and I felt so drugged up that I figured I should be numb.

"Boris! You're okay!" A voice came from beside me as I looked over to the blurry person. It was Nadia.

"Of course I'm okay. I just blacked out that's all. But what the hell am I doing back into the hospital?" I asked slightly annoyed.

"Borya! Language!" Natalia said as she entered the room. "Why do you worry me so? I just don't understand your reasoning of always getting into fights! And with guns?!"

"Natasha. What happened?!" I asked looking over to Nadia.

"She was taken by the security and I haven't heard anything since then. Felix is just down the hall and Andrei. I don't know what's going on with him. He's in critical are up above." Nadia informed me.

"Was he badly wounded?" I asked her as I laid back down slowly to try and get the room to stop spinning.

"She shot him in the side." Nadia said and then looked away as though she was remembering a traumatic event. "It all happened so fast." She said before sitting on the edge of the bed and looking to me.

"I heard the gun shot go off and then Andrei fell to the floor. I quickly rolled out of the way just in time for me to miss getting his by him. He yelled out in pain and cursed as he held his side and scrunched up in a ball. Natasha looked as though she was surprised she had really done it. She dropped the gun and then put her hands up to her mouth. It was then that the security guards and a whole bunch of people ran over and the whole mall was in lock down and chaos."

I listened to Nadia's story as I closed my eyes for a bit. Faintly remembering the sounds of multiple footsteps as I was blacking out.

"The security took Natasha away and confiscated the gun before anyone else could get their hands on it. The paramedics arrived soon after to take Andrei first. Blood was everywhere. I thought he was going to die there for a second." She admitted and then took my hand. "I went over to you and began shaking you but you wouldn't wake up. It's been about five hours since the incident. And...now we're here."

"I still can't believe that Andrei would go to such drastic measures just because of that. I mean. He really was going to try and hurt you. But the real question was why was Natasha carrying a gun to begin with? I mean I knew she was strange but..." I started.

"I'm grateful that she was carrying the gun. Who knows what would have happened had she not been. I probably would have..." Nadia started and I squeezed her hand.

"I'm sorry I couldn't have been more helpful to you. I feel like I failed you when you needed me the most." I said softly.

"No. I'm the one who was being selfish. I shouldn't have asked you to do something like that knowing your leg was already injured. And now you have to wear your cast an even longer time because of me." Nadia sighed and then stood up.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. I honestly would have done whether you asked me to or not." I said and then looked to Mama as she sat back listening to the conversation. "Mama. Would you please go and tell Felix that I'm okay?"

Natalia nodded her head and smiled. "Of course I will."

"Nadia. I want you to go and find out what happened with Natasha. I need you to let them know that she only shot him because she was protecting you and it wasn't out of insanity or malice or something." I said and closed my eyes again.

"Alright. I will. It's the least I can do since she practically saved my life." Nadia said as she stood up and then leaned down kissing my cheek softly. "Get some rest. I'll be back soon."

I wanted nothing more but to rest but unfortunately my mind and body wouldn't let me. So for the rest of the night I drifted in and out of sleep. The next day I was released from the hospital and luckily it was Saturday. I wasn't ready to face my peers at school and who knew what kind of rumors were circulating around about what happened at the arcade.

Nadia still hadn't gotten back to me about the update on Natasha. Of course knowing her luck she wasn't able to find anything out. Natasha's father was a high ranking official after all. If anyone had the power to keep their business out of reach of others it would be their family. Still I couldn't help but worry so I decided I would try giving her a call. There wasn't much else I could do while I sat around anyways.

Grabbing my cell phone I scrolled through it and found the number and pressed the dial button. I was hesitant for a moment. What if her father answered? What would I say? Or worse what if she did answer? I still didn't know what I would say? It wasn't like her and I were on the best terms and that she would actually want to have a long hour chat about what was going on in her life right now. For all I knew her father was putting her through punishment like he would a soldier or something.

Luckily for me the answering machine picked up and once the beep arrived I paused for a moment. "Hey...Natasha it's me. Boris. I just wanted to call you to see how you were doing. I really hope that this incident didn't get you into any trouble you can't get your way out of. I hate the fact that you had to get involved with this to begin with." I said and then let out a sigh. "Uh. Call me back if you want to talk."

With that I hung up the phone. I wasn't really sure how she would respond to the message or if she would even hear it at all. But I wanted her to know that I was at least grateful and thinking of her. Despite what she may think of me. The weekend went by still with no news and it was pretty quiet. My mother didn't want me going back to school so soon thus I ended up missing Monday and Tuesday.

The next day at school the halls were awfully quiet. I walked over to my locker and grabbed my books before I saw Natasha walking down the hall alone. Strange. I didn't expect her to be back so soon. She stopped at her locker before she opened it and then clenched her fists before turning around to look at the group of girls behind her.

"Shut up!" She yelled causing them all to jump and scurry away. Once they were gone she grabbed her things and slammed her locker before walking towards me and then stopped.

"Are...are you doing okay?" I asked her with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she said as she walked past me without anymore contact.

"I know what happened Natasha." I said looking to her back as she stopped walking. "You don't have to act like you're going through this alone."

She didn't say anything but that was all the proof I needed to know how she was really feeling before she shoved past other people and made her way to class.

Looking down at my books I realized this had gone on far enough. If you wanted something done right you had to do it yourself. Shoving my books back into my locker I made my way over to the elevator and pushed the button for the fourth floor. The halls were clearing out now and I managed to sneak by the teacher's lounge and over to the student council room. It was about time I seek advice from an old friend.

Opening the door to the council room I walked in and closed the door without even looking. But when I did finally look up I saw an interesting sight. Felix was leaning over the table and Katiya was laying under him. The two were making out and when they looked over to see me the expressions on their faces were priceless.

"If you're going to get nasty at school at least have the decency to lock the door." I grinned looking between the two.

Katiya sat up and shoved Felix off of her and began fixing herself as she cleared her throat. "I...I apologize Boris. This isn't the type of behavior a student body president should have." she said as she smoothed out her hair and skirt before hopping down off the table.

"And you!" I said looking over to Felix. "Why is it that I didn't know about...this?" I asked motioning to the two who were clearly together. "I mean you don't even come to tell me you're okay or check up on me all week and I catch you doing this?"

"That's a bit irrelevant right now." Felix pointed out. "What are you doing here? Class is about to start?" he said desperately trying to change the subject.

"Well. If you must now. I came here to talk to Katiya. I need some help." I said walking over to a chair and taking a seat in it.

"If it's about more information on Andrei then Boris I've given you all I could. The boy has a way of covering his tracks and his family's information. How or why I have still yet to figure that out." Katiya explained.

"I know why but that isn't the reason I came here." I said and then looked to the two.

"Well then what is it?" Felix asked as he looked to me confused.

"It's Nadia." I said and then looked to the table. "I want to know the truth behind the power of her family."

"Power of her family?" Katiya asked before looking to him a bit confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Andrei has to be pretty afraid of what her parents could do to his family if he was willing to get shot for even a small opportunity to keep her from telling her parents about what's really going on. I know they come off as just ordinary people. But even my mother said that she can't help but feel they are hiding something from everyone." I started.

Katiya took a seat at the head of the table and then thought for a moment. "Well it would make sense as to why Andrei wouldn't want anyone finding out about her secret. But as far as her parents are concerned perhaps they are blackmailing his family in someway. As a sort of exchange in keeping the secret just that. A secret."

"But if they were blackmailing then that would mean they knew about the secret. And if they knew Nadia said they would have disowned her. So there is no way they could know right?" Felix asked as he also took a seat.

"The people you get yourself involved with Markov. I swear you have a death wish." Katiya said shaking her head.

I only sighed. "I don't mean to bring you guys into this. I guess I just didn't think I could figure this out on my own. I mean normally I would be all for going and investigating these things on my own but given my current situation." I said pointing to the crutches.

"Listen. You came to the right person." Katiya said. "If it's intel you want then it's intel I can give you. You're just going to have to give me some time. Things should be quiet around here now that Andrei is in the hospital. But I assure you as soon as he is released we are going to have a war on our hands."

Felix and I looked to each other and then stood up knowing that was our cue to get going to class. "Thank you Katiya." I said and then made my way to the door. "Please keep us in the loop on what you find out."

"Oh I will." She smiled and nodded her head before waving to Felix who only had a goofball grin on his face before I pulled him out. "Come on lover boy."

(OMG! Okay so I'm gonna stop there for now cause I'm pooped and I need to sleep but I think I liked the original idea I had first don't you? Or do you like the whole money grubbing vs baby mama drama idea?)