Chaper 38: My Sister? Your Sister?

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ADRIANPOV

"Babe, I know it's been a really good few days, but it's time to go back to reality," my wife told me as she packed up her stuff from our illegal hotel room. I groaned stretching out lazily on the bed.

"Are you going to go now?" I asked. She nodded.

"I want to get a head start. It's a long drive and I'll probably stop to rest for a few hours."

"You could always fly," I told her.

"I know, but the drive was beautiful. It's too bad you can't come with me."

"Yea, well stupid school rules and all." There was nothing more I hated than to leave her to drive alone, but I couldn't help it unless I wanted my cover blown.

"See you at home," she said kissing me tenderly.

"That I will," I told her. "Be careful."

After a nice long soak in the tub, I decided it was time to get back to my other room and pack up the few odds and ends I'd left in there for show.

As I went to grab my things my bag hit the desk and one of Christian's books fell to the floor. I reached down to pick it up realizing that something had fallen out of it. I picked up the item realizing it was a photograph.

My fists clenched and my teeth gritted as tears pricked my eyes and I began to shake. There in the photo that had fallen from his book was a picture of my sister Rosemarie. She looked exactly as she had the last time I'd seen her only thinner and dirtier. She was even wearing the same dress clutching her favorite stuffed rabbit. What the hell was a photo of her doing in Christian's book?

"Hey man, are you ready to go?" Christian asked exiting the bathroom. I turned to him with fury coursing through my veins.

"What the hell are you doing with a picture of my sister! Where is she?" I roared thrusting it at him. It took everything I had not to throw him to the ground and throttle him to death before he gave me an explanation. He seemed surprised by my outburst, but not threatened.

"What the hell are you talking about? That's Rose," he said giving me a funny look.

My jaw dropped and I fell to my knees clutching the photo in my hands. It couldn't be. Had she really been right in front of my eyes for the past six months? My wife had been right all along. How stupid had I been? Rose, my best friend was the one I'd been searching for all these years. My sister was alive and she was happy and I knew her. Tears poured from my eyes as I cradled the photo in my hands.

"Thank you!" I sobbed to no one in particular as I stayed there kneeling on the floor unable to move.

"What's the matter with him?" I heard Belikov ask as he entered the room.

"I don't know. He found an old picture of Rose in my book and started freaking out demanding to know why I had a picture of his sister. Then he started sobbing hysterically," Christian said with a shrug.

"Did you know?" I croaked my voice hoarse. He remained quiet with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Did you know?" I menaced jumping to my feet and grabbing him by the shirt.

"I suspected, but I wanted to make sure. I have the DNA results right here," he relented holding out an envelope.

I snatched the paper out of his hands. "You didn't open it?" I asked.

He sighed. "No, I was waiting until we got home. I didn't want to cause a scene on a school trip." His words made sense, but I had waited long enough for this moment so I ripped open the envelope with vigor.

There was a bunch of scientific charting and bullshit at the beginning, but the last line was the only one that mattered. It read:

There is a ninety-nine percent certainty that the candidate is biologically related to Adrian Mazur.

I dropped the letter watching in slow motion as it fell to the ground.

"She's my sister," I gasped. "It's really her." I'd been waiting for this for so long that now that I knew, my body was going into shock.

"Shhh, keep your voice down," Belikov growled closing the door to the room.

"What the fuck is going on?" Christian asked. He had been watching our exchange curiously.

"Who's your sister and what does any of this have to do with my sister?"

"Your sister?" I hissed jealousy raging through my body. "She isn't your sister. She's my sister!"

"Dude you're on crack. What the hell is your problem? Is he having some sort of mental breakdown?" he asked directing his question at Dimitri.

"Christian it's a long story and we don't have time to get into it right now. All I can ask is that you keep the events of this morning to yourself until we can properly discuss them," he requested.

"I don't think so. I want to know what's going on. Stuff doesn't fit. I've been researching our past and something isn't right. Something is different about Rose. I can tell. What is it? What am I not getting?" he begged.

I looked at Dimitri. "Well if you don't tell him I sure as hell will." I was done playing around here.

"Okay okay, but like I said. You need to keep this to yourself," he restated.

"I'll agree to that for now," Christian replied.

"Short version, Adrian's sister Rosemarie was kidnapped and hustled out of the country by her mother at age six. Your mother didn't give birth to Rose. Her birth certificate was faked three months ago. Your parent's found her or acquired her somehow at age six. I don't know how or why or what circumstances lead her to your family and I'm not placing any blame, but Rosalie Ozera and Rosemarie Mazur are the same person. I have a DNA test to prove it."

"What are you a cop?" Christian accused backing away.

"Who the fuck are you people? You're not really a high school student are you?" he guessed.

We both shook our heads in negation. Mine was still spinning from the truth of the matter.

"I am a private detective hired by Rose's father to find her and bring her home." I could tell that his admission did nothing to soothe Christian's frayed nerves.

"I need some air," he said opening the window to the balcony and closing the door behind him.

"What's the plan?" I asked still a little in shock.

"Call your father, I guess."

"No, not until we get back," I rushed out. He gave me a look.

"I thought you'd jump at the chance to tell him about Rose," he replied.

"I don't want her to get hurt," I told him honestly.

"I want to know what happened before I tell my father anything and he goes off half cocked. Plus you know she's going to have a breakdown when she finds out we've all been lying to her especially her parents and you," I mused.

He sighed rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. "I know."

I almost felt bad for the guy. He was so in love with her and when we told her the truth, she was going to fall apart. As much as I wanted to be reunited with her, part of me thought that maybe it was better if she never knew. She seemed happy. Her family was nice and I could still be a part of her life. That would never work though. My dad deserved to know the truth, just not yet, not until we had all the facts.

"Do you think he's going to be okay? Do you think he'll say anything?" I asked watching Christian sit on the balcony. He looked like he was having some sort of conversation with himself. He kept slamming his fist into the wooden frame of the balcony and I could hear him cursing.

"I don't know. Let's hope so for her sake," he said looking nervous.

A few minutes later he came back inside. I ducked just in time as he belted Belikov in the back with a metal rod from the balcony. He went down like a ton of bricks growling in pain.

"You ass! How the fuck old are you? You've been playing her this whole time, lying to her to get close just so you could rip our family apart!" he shouted taking another swing. This time Belikov was ready for him and grabbed onto the rod yanking it easily from his hands.

"Christian stop," he requested sputtering. I could see he was injured.

"Let's just calm down here," I said trying to get a handle on the situation.

"Calm down! Calm down. You are here to ruin my family! Why should I be calm? Why shouldn't I call my parents right now and tell them what's going on. I'm sure they'd like to know that you're some pedophile that's been no doubtedly statutory raping my sister. And you," he said pointing to me.

"You're just a drunk who likes to provide her with alcohol. I'll tell the cops everything," he menaced.

"If you do you'll hurt her even more," Belikov told him standing upright.

"More than you two already have?" he asked. "At least I haven't lied to her."

"While that is true, I believe it best to keep the police out of this for now in order to keep your parents out of jail if you're at all interested in doing that."

"What do you mean jail?

"Well for starters there's kidnapping, forgery, arson. Need I go on?" Wow he really was a pro at this.

"They're not like that. Whatever happened, they didn't take her. I'm sure of it," he insisted.

"I am inclined to agree with you, but Rose's father, her real father isn't the type of man you want to anger. Until we have the truth about what happened, we have to keep this quiet. You telling your parents is only going to make them act more suspiciously or possibly make a move to leave town. We can't have that."
"What are you going to do? Are you just going to take her away and we'll never see her again?" Christian asked in defeat.

"Technically we can't make her do anything. She's eighteen. She is free to make her own choices. Depending on what went down twelve years ago, she will be able to do what she wants.

"I don't want to take her away from you. I know what It's like to lose her," I said tearing up again.

"How are you going to tell her?" he asked sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I have no idea," I replied. "I've been waiting to see my sister again for twelve years and yet I'm totally unprepared for what I would say. She doesn't even recognize me," I said sadly.

"Can you shed some light on that?" Dimitri asked directing his question at Christian.

"How would I know? My whole life has been a lie!" he spat angrily and rightly so.

"Well what are your first memories of her?"

He sucked in a breath of air pondering the question for a few seconds.

"She used to throw hysterical fits when she was around six years old. She's scream for someone named Anne and wake up terrified in the middle of the night for no reason. She fought my mother at just about every turn and then one day it was like she woke up and didn't know that anything had ever been wrong. She was just calm. I don't know what happened. I don't remember much myself from back is Anne?" he asked looking thoughtful.

"Anne is the pet word for Mother in Turkish," I replied trying hard to keep my emotions in check. I couldn't help but feel sick at the thought of her screaming for Janine. I'll bet Oksana Ozera was ten times the mother Janine had been. It was no secret I hated the woman.

"She also screeched Abi Addie in her sleep until she was twelve," he said.

"She did?" I asked raising my eyes to meet his.

"Yea, what does that mean?"

"It means older brother and then my name. She called me Addie," I whispered still mesmerized by the photo of her. I couldn't believe that she missed me.

"So what's the plan? The bus leaves in twenty minutes."

"We do nothing until we find out what happened," Belikov ordered.

"Are you in?" he asked looking at Christian.

He gulped, but nodded.

"Good, then your job is to find out how your parent's brought Rose home. Search through everything."

"I will check orphanage records for around that time and Adrian, just try to act normal, well normal for you anyways. If we want Rose to have even a shot at coming out of this in one piece, we have to work together."

"For the record, I didn't know that the girl I was sent here to look for was Rose until she had the allergic reaction," Belikov told Christian, who snorted.

"I'm not using her. I'm in love with her."

"You're still too old for her. What are you thirty?" he scoffed.

Belikov sighed. "Twenty-four," he admitted and I winced as Christian clenched his fists in anger.

"You're sick you know that," he growled. "I have half a mind to have them lock you up. If you're her brother how can you stand by and watch this asshat grope her? She deserves better than that."

"He really does love her. I want her to be happy and right now she is. It's too bad that it won't last," I said with a sigh. Who was I to keep the two of them apart? In fact, I was the one who had encouraged their relationship. I recognized something in them that I'd seen only once before. He looked at her the way I looked at Avery.

We all agreed to keep the peace for now and meet up later at home. As we walked solemnly to the bus, I tucked the photo into my wallet for safekeeping.

"Hey guys what took you so long?" Rose asked greeting us with a big smile. I couldn't help but notice now the similarities she shared with me and with my father. She had his eyes and his hair and the way she smiled reminded me so much of when she was a little girl. I must have been blind not to see it before.

"Are you okay?" she asked me. "You look sick."

"I'm just fine Little Cupcake," I told her hugging her tightly. She hugged me back and for the first time in twelve years I felt whole. She was the missing piece of the puzzle and I was determined to keep her in my life.

"Sit with me Comrade?" she asked.

"Of course Milaya," he said putting his hand on the small of her back as he led her to the bus. I could only imagine how hard this must be for him. I mean hell it was hard for me to be sitting here so close to her and not tell her the truth, but I wasn't the one who was lying to her. She would forgive me, I was sure of it, but I had serious doubts as to whether she'd ever be able to get over Belikov's betrayal.

It made me feel a little bad for the guy. I watched as she snuggled close to him a content smile plastered across her face. Christian just glared from his seat with his jaw clenched gripping the armrests until his knuckles turned white. I felt bad for him too. He was innocent in all of this and would have to deal with the fallout of his seemingly perfect family. I knew how that felt and I didn't wish it on my worst enemy. I leaned my head back against the seat trying to calm myself after the events of the morning. The next few days were going to be one hell of a bumpy ride.

ABE POV

"Yes, ready the jet. I want to be in Portland Oregon by tomorrow evening," I told my pilot. It was high time I went out there to see things for myself. I had a distinct feeling that I wasn't getting the whole story from Detective Belikov or from my son and his lovely wife.

So what did you think of Adrian's Reaction? Uh oh Abe is on his way to Portland, you know what that means don't you?

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