FAMILY MATTERS
Eyghon
Sloane could only assume that Irina Derevko had finally learned what he'd done to their daughter while Irina was in Elena's clutches. He collapsed on the ground, thick blood still coming out of his mouth in a slow trickle.
"Sloane is not your father, Nadia."
They waited in silence for Jack to arrive and dispose of the body. Nadia was lost in thoughts, wondering about what she would say to her father when he arrived but also what he would say to her.
Chapter 19: Tying up loose endsLess than twenty minutes later, Jack's sedan pulled up next to the late doctor's car. He briefly looked at the body before settling on Irina, Sydney, and Nadia. His three girls. It was the first time he thought of them as such. When Irina had called him and explained the situation, he'd first been angry with her for dragging Sydney into this. It was after all, a murder. Then he'd felt left out, excluded from his family. He was tired of being Sydney's father. He wanted to be Sydney's 'and' Nadia's father. Irina told him he was, that she'd told the truth to Nadia, and that they needed him to clean up for them.
He gave a small smile to Nadia and discreetly sighed in relief that she returned it. Nobody spoke and 'his three girls' merely watched him wrap the body of the monster who'd raped his younger daughter and throw it in the trunk of the doctor's car. He drove away with it and came back some half an hour later to pick up his own car. Sydney, Irina, and Nadia were still there and talking.
"Is it done?" Asked Irina when he approached them.
"Yes. I trust you cleaned up here as well?"
"We did," answered Sydney.
"Jack, the girls and I were thinking…it would be nice to have breakfast together. It's been a long night for all of us and…well, the four of us are here so we might as well go somewhere and eat."
"I think that's a very good idea, Irina." He gave his wife and eldest daughter a real smile, the first in a very long time for Sydney, and they left the way they'd came. Jack leading the way in his Lincoln sedan and Irina, Sydney and Nadia in the SUV Irina rented.
To the women's surprise, Jack stopped at 'Denny's', a family diner, of all places. They gave him odd looks and he merely shrugged before holding the door open for them.
"A table for four, please," he asked the hostess. It was still early so the place was deserted, which suited them just fine.
"You can settle anywhere you like," answered the hostess while grabbing menus.
Jack chose a corner booth with view on the entire restaurant. They slid in the red banquette one by one. First Sydney, then Nadia, followed by Jack and finally Irina. The hostess handed them each a menu and promised to come back in five minutes.
"So, Nadia, do you like diner food?" Asked Jack, a little uncomfortable sitting between his wife and youngest daughter.
"Yeah! It's the thing I missed most when I left the US to go back to Argentina when you first found me. That and Sydney, of course."
Jack felt warm inside. Here, sitting in a diner with his family. He had no idea how they'd all ended up here, but he could see now, why he'd made this choice. The place was quiet, not stuffy, or fancy, and it was a place to take your family.
"Really? Then, what do you think I should order?" He eyed the menu dubiously.
"Everything is okay. However, the spicy chicken with potatoes and country biscuits is good. It comes with eggs and a plate of pancakes."
"Spicy chicken it is then. Thank you."
Sydney and Irina exchanged a knowing look; both relieved Jack was trying to connect with Nadia on his own, without them needing to push him. He'd made progress since he'd first 'reconnected' with Sydney so many years ago.
They ended up ordering the same thing. Spicy chicken with eggs, country biscuits and gravy, and pancakes on the side. Jack declined Nadia's advice to order a glass of diet coke to go with it, but ordered coffee with cream.
Sydney suddenly bowed her head and coughed.
"Syd? You okay?" Asked Nadia, worried.
Sydney lifted her head but couldn't hide her smile and chuckled at the look on her counterpart's faces. "Sorry. I'm fine. I'm better than fine actually. It's just that…I feel funny being with you guys. Don't you?"
"Hell yes!" Nadia grinned. Arvin Sloane would have never taken her to such a place. Since she'd learned her father's real identity, she couldn't help but take note of all the differences between the two men. She was glad for each one of them.
"I'll admit it's not what I had in mind when I suggested we have breakfast together but…I suppose it's only fair to be here. We're a family. Where else could we get breakfast at six in the morning? And no, Sydney, despite what you always thought when you were a child, MacDonald's doesn't qualify as breakfast to me."
"You remember that?" Sydney was surprised, and even more so when she spotted her father's lips twitching. She turned to Nadia and explained. "When I was little, I'd always begged them to take me to MacDonald's on Sunday morning, because their pancakes were better than Mom's…"
"They were not," interrupted Irina in a very serious tone.
"Whatever." Sydney gave her a teasing smile and her mother replied in kind.
"Don't "whatever" me young lady!"
"Or what, I'm grounded?" Sydney froze before she even finished her sentence. She couldn't believe how stupid she was. Thankfully, her mother quickly recovered her ability to speak, though she was clearly shaken by Sydney's choice of words. Neither Jack nor Nadia understood the heavy silence, but they didn't dare interrupt what they felt was an important moment for Sydney and Irina.
"Sweetheart, I love you very much. You know that, right?"
"Of course Mom! I'm so sorry for what I said, I didn't realise…"
"The past always comes back and haunt us. It's what it is. But its okay, as long as you know it is the past."
"I do. Know." She hoped her eyes conveyed what she felt inside. Love and trust. For doubting her mother's love was nothing but a bad memory.
In the past.
Arvin Sloane woke up in a hospital bed, with no idea of what had happened since his collapse in his cell. His mouth felt like it was full of sand, and his throat was painful. A woman hovered over him. He would have gasped if not for the fact that his vocal cords had been severed by the glass he accidentally ingested.
"Did you think I would just let you die there, Arvin?"
He gave her a slight smile or something approaching one.
She smiled and came closer as he gurgled. "I wanted to do this myself. I wanted you to suffer and I needed to get you away from that bunker you were buried in. Call it killing two birds with one stone."
He looked around him, desperate. "Now you are mine, Arvin. No one is coming for you. We're alone. Just like you were alone with my Nadia. How fitting. My only regret is that Sydney and Nadia couldn't be here."
"Before I forget, Nadia is not your daughter. She's Jack's. He knew it; he only lied so you would feel compelled to protect her. Instead, you scumbag, you hurt her. It was a terrible miscalculation on the part of Jack and I have rectified it before coming here. You should have seen her face at learning you weren't her father. How delighted she looked. Like a child at Christmas."
He couldn't speak but winced at the pain in his heart. He couldn't believe how much it hurt, to know he'd been played, but mostly, to know Nadia didn't love him after all he'd done for her.
"I'm not like you Arvin. Family matters to me. I'll always protect my girls. Always."
She brutally brought up the knife she was holding and stabbed him in the heart. He gasped, and his eyes were wide with surprise and pain and it was delicious to her. She left the knife in place, not bothering to wipe off her prints. She didn't hide from the cameras on her way out either. She wanted them to know Irina Derevko was not out of the game. She wanted them to know whomever messed with her daughters would, eventually, be punished.
First and foremost, she was a mother and a mother protects her children against the evildoers of the world.
THE END