Chapter 12. – Truth hurts.

Dimitri's POV

Letting her go was one of the hardest things I'd ever done.

When she'd begged me to stay and her eyes got glossy with unshed tears, my heart all but broke.

Now as I ran my hands through my hair, the dull headache that had begun to form was now threatening to become a full on headache.

I wanted answers and results fast. I didn't know if it was the CEO in me or just the madman that wanted to have his wife by his side again.

Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap… if I heard the sound of another keyboard, I was going to go batshit crazy.

"Gentlemen," Albert sighed. "We've been reviewing every piece of security feed for hours, there's absolutely no way in hell this son of a bitch is smarter than us. There's got to be something we're missing, we just have to be more thorough."

"I don't mean to imply anything, Sir, but…" said Steven, Albert's right hand man, "we've reviewed all the tapes and there's no one down here that doesn't have an authorization badge. As I mentioned before, I don't want to imply anything, but a thorough check would also imply that we investigate those employees that have had to access the floor in the last week."

I didn't want to doubt my employees, especially because even though we were successful, we still viewed each employee as a part of our family. But desperate times and all…

"Let's do it. It's better than sitting here with our hands in our laps. I expect the investigation to be kept secret. I wouldn't want for the rest of the employees to feel uncomfortable or in the worst case scenario, if we do find the leak, we wouldn't want that person to disappear. That's all for now, I expect you all tomorrow morning to see what we have so far."

As the men nodded, I made myself a promise. If this time Viktor had anything to do with this, I would find a way to get rid of him. I was done waiting for him to hurt my family, this would all end one way or another.

I rubbed my eyes, staring at my watch. How was the damn party going?

"Stop it, you'll only make it worse on yourself." Ivan said as he looked at me.

"I can't. I feel like shit for sending her out there by herself. You should've seen the look on her face when she begged me not to let her go."

Handing me a glass of whiskey, he sat down next to me. "You did it for her safety, if she'd stayed here and something were to happen to her, you'd never forgive yourself for it."

I groaned. "You know when you start making sense, I really don't like you."

"I'm secure enough with my masculinity to tell you that I love you, Dimitri. You're my brother from another mother. I know what you feel before even you do and I love her, too, for making you a better man and a happier less stressed out version of yourself."

"Thanks, man." I mumbled. "Now let me wallow in my misery, and please find that girl so you can stop being a sappy mess."

"You'll be happy to know that in between this mess, I found her."

"So you were the cause of the fire, were you Facebook when the whole server shot up in flames?"

"No one uses Facebook anymore, you weirdo. I stalked her on Instagram and found her address and then digging a little further I found her phone number. Apparently, I now am the CEO of Zeeklos Enterprises and I'll be seeing her tomorrow."

"If I didn't know you were a good person, I would've been worried for the poor girl. Can you leave me alone now, brother?"

Ivan grinned despite my foul mood. "There, I knew you also loved me in your own weird tsundere way."

"I have no idea what that means, but, I love you too now leave."

"Fine, only because you said you love me." He said before kissing me on the cheek.

I tried not to laugh, because that would only encourage him more. I knew he was doing it only for my sake, he hated seeing me down and his only choice was irritating me. I didn't tell him enough but, he was the best friend a man could ever ask for. Especially as he was here with me trying to find all the places where people would contact an arsonist.

"See you tomorrow, Ivan." I said heading upstairs to see if I could contact Rose.

Lissa's POV

"Baby, stop kicking mommy in the bladder. I need to find your aunt Rose before the bad man finds her," I said as I rubbed my belly.

I swore as I hit the last step on the stairs and held onto the banister, running out of breath.

As I walked to the corridor that lead to Rose's bedroom, I heard loud cries.

Forgetting the fact I was six months pregnant in that moment, I waddled towards the door as fast as I could and tried to twist the knob only to find that the door was locked.

"Rose, breathe, fuck. Please. I'm a fucking bastard for appearing like this, I didn't mean to, but please breathe."

Looking for my phone, I called Christian and thanked the heavens when he answered immediately.

"Where are you, babe?"

"Christian, I need your help. I think there's something wrong with Rose but I can't open her door it's locked. Please, help me." I sobbed.

"I'll be right there, Liss. Don't try to open the door, someone could be hurting her and I don't want you near that without me there, do you understand?"

As I was about to hide, the door to Rose's room was pulled wide open and there was Adrian looking as pale as a sheet. "Lissa! She can't breathe."

"What did you do to her?! You're not supposed to be up here anyway." I yelled as I ushered into the bedroom and found her on her bed, unconscious.

"She started crying and suddenly she couldn't breathe and held onto her throat."

I sighed. "Don't worry she'll be fine."

"What do you mean she'll be fine, Lissa? She passed out for heaven sakes!"

"Step away from my wife before you regret ever yelling at her again." I felt my heart speed at the sound of Christian's voice.

"Christian, I appreciate the backup but I really don't need this from both of you right now. We know she'll be fine because when we thought you were dead, she would wake us up from the panic attacks until she passed out. She's had them every once in a while and we would be the ones looking after her."

I looked over my shoulder and at least he had the decency to look ashamed.

"Christian, can you check the bathroom and see if you can find a bottle of alcohol, please?" I asked while I checked her breathing.

Steady, the same as her heart beat. My poor girl.

As Christian passed me the bottle, I finally took my attention from Rose to the men that were waiting nervously behind me. "I need you both to leave. I don't want you near her when she wakes up, I think she's been through enough. Don't you think?"

"I need to talk to her, Liss." Adrian said.

"Don't you Liss me, Adrian. The time to talk to her was years ago, not now that she's moved on. You know that I don't curse, but fuck you for being so damn selfish. Couldn't you just disappear for good, you had to come back didn't you?"

Christian cleared his throat. "Lissa, remember the baby."

Taking a deep breath, I tried to reign my emotions.

Rose needed me and I needed to be objective.

"I'm calm but I really need both of you to leave. And Christian if you love me, I need you to make sure he isn't around to bother her anymore."

"I'll leave. But you have to tell her that this conversation isn't over. We will talk, it's just a matter of when."

"Lissa doesn't have to tell me shit, Adrian." Rose said as she propped herself up on the pillows. "Have the guts to do it yourself, let's see what lame excuse you'll come up with. Were you buying cigarettes all this time? Were there no cell phones where he sent you?"

"Rose, I can explain—"

"I know you can, but I don't want to hear any of it tonight. It will be on my terms and when I decide. I won't do you and my father anymore favors by bending to your will just so you can sleep comfortably at night. Though taking into consideration that it took you all of this time to tell me the truth, I don't think you'll have that problem. You know what fuck this, I can't stay here a minute more."

"Wait, Rose!" I said holding onto her shoulders before she could fall. "You need to rest, we'll stay up here."

"Stay here with Lissa, Rose. I'll make sure he can't come up here again." Christian said as he helped me hold onto her.

She sighed and leaned back on the pillows. He squeezed my shoulder, and I smiled feeling him soothe my emotions like he always had. "Thank you, Christian."

Hearing the door close behind us and Adrian curse in the background, I took a ball of cotton and dipped it into the alcohol before putting it under her nose. "Here smell this until your head stops spinning."

"I hate the way antiseptic smells, Liss. Please take that away from me before I throw up."

"Not until you tell me how you feel."

"I'm okay, I just feel shaky. Considering everything that has happened, the fact that my head is still part of my body is a miracle. Can you believe this? The audacity to expect something from me, how stupid could I've been to fall in love with someone who would do this to me? Am I that naïve?"

I removed my heels and got into bed with her, holding her as she cried.

"Everything will be fine, Rose. I'll disappear him myself if I have to."

That got a smile out of her. "Blood makes you uneasy, Liss. But thanks for the support, it's nice to know that I can count on you for murder."

"That's what friends are for." I laughed. "Are you really going to talk to him?"

She nodded. "I'm afraid of what he has to say, but not because it will change how I feel about him. What deep down really spooks me, will be to hear how he could live with himself knowing he let me live with his death on my shoulders. So no matter how scared I am, I'm more tired of always being the victim."

"You were never a victim, Rose, you're so much braver than any made man out there. They're the cowards, their bravery comes from hiding behind their guns and yours comes from being a badass female. Whatever you decide, you will always have my back and I will always have yours. So as soon as you're ready, I'll get Christian to set up a meeting somewhere you'll be able to talk privately but still be protected by our guards. They won't say anything to anyone within the organization about what they've seen or heard, they're exclusively loyal to Christian."

"I love you, Lissa. If there's something my parents did right was to let me be your friend. I'll take you up on your offer, Adrian and I will talk, but like I said will be on my terms. I want to send them both a message, Rose Belikov will never be messed with again. "

I clapped my hands, terribly proud of her. "Very well then, but I'll do it under the condition that you stay at my place tonight after I've made sure you rested. Not to be mean, but you look like shit my friend."

"Jeez, thank you for the morale boost." She smiled through her tears. "Not only do I look like shit, I feel like it too. I haven't been feeling all that great these last few days, but it must be from all the emotions I've been through such a short amount of time."

"What do you feel?"

"My stomach hasn't been feeling very good, I must be coming down with the flu."

I looked at her, really looked at her. "Are you sure it's that? Because that was me six months ago, Rose."

"I said I must be coming down with the flu, I am not pregnant."

"Fine, you say whatever you like but if you suddenly feel your flu start kicking then we'll see who was right."

*.*.*.*

Rose's POV

"There you were, child. What were you doing inside the house?" my father said, noticing my existence. Must have been because of the expensive bottle of scotch the men kept on refilling his cup with.

"I just came to I wish you many more years of health, father. I'm going to stay at Lissa's house tonight since she isn't feeling well due to her condition." I said awkwardly, not knowing if I could stomach the thought hugging him.

"What do you mean you're leaving? With who's permission? If your husband isn't here, you ask for my permission, and I say no. The best part of the evening is just beginning."

I felt my ears turn red. "I'm leaving with Lissa, she's pregnant and half the room is smoking. Are we not to care that she's expecting baby?"

"Well now that you mention her condition, what are you waiting for to give Dimitri an heir? Are you even incapable of that?"

I felt my hand tingle, and before I could slap my father and sign my death certificate for disrespecting the boss, he took the microphone on the other hand and made his way towards the center of the stage.

The entire room clapped for their leader. "I want to thank everyone for coming to celebrate, not only another year, but also to see new alliances forming that will only bring more prosperity to the family. First, it was the marriage of my daughter to one of the richest and most powerful men in the country. Now one of our own has also sealed an important alliance with the Alchemists which will help us move forward as an organization, let's give it up for Adrian, my boy."

And there he was standing next to a beautiful blonde woman, her hand linked around his and the gold band that adorned their fingers was shining. Then she looked up at him and I could see nothing short of sheer adoration. I waited for his rejection, but instead he leaned forward and kissed her before making his way towards my father.

He had fallen in love and he'd married into another important crime family, the Alchemists.

So he hadn't been kidnaped by my father after all, he'd been in on the lie.

I had been a joke to them.

I was going to be sick.

Hello guys :)

Everyone thank you for all the reviews, i love hearing from everyone and i'm glad you still enjoy my updates.

These days i feel more inspired to write, thankfully, so if any of you have any fun ideas or plots for me to give a try i would gladly do so i can get my creative juices flowing.

Gracias y saludos ! :)

—M

PS. my sister gave me the idea to upload the story on wattpad, if any of you would like to read on there i've only uploaded the first 4 chapters because i dont understand how it works yet but here's the link on there. I'll be uploading some of the pictures i've used for inspiration.

user/yellowdandelion1618