Poison Ivy Ch 18

ROSE

Saturday

"You did not really hit Jesse did you?"

"I swear."

"I'm sorry, but you don't seem like the type that could get in a good punch." I laughed. After getting over the initial shock that my newly discovered dad was the one to beat up Jesse, I was now finding it quite comical.

"No he really can land a good punch, that's kind of how he finally won me over. I don't condone violence of any kind, but that night I was thankful he was there." Said Sydney Adrain's fiancé. They were the complete opposite and I was dying to hear this.

"Now that's a story I'd love to hear."

"We went to the same college and shared a class together, but I never talked to him."

"Your loss."

"Will you let me tell her the story? Anyways, I was working for his dad, well your dad for a couple months before I realized that I had seen him around at school."

"I recognized her the first day she walked through the doors of our office."

"He tried and tried to get my attention. Asked me out so many times I lost count. I wasn't having any of it. I was here to do a job and go home, I wasn't going to mix my work life and my private life."

"But I was persistent, I wasn't giving up. There was just something so special about her." He looked at her so dreamingly.

"One night after work I was walking to my car alone. I had barely made it to the parking garage when someone came up behind me. It all happened so fast I didn't have time to react. My parents had insisted on me taking a self defense class when I left for college, but in the moment I froze. He was going to drug me and take me god knows where, when all of a sudden he was pulled off me. I fell to the ground only to see that my one and only savior was Adrian." She grabbed his hand and he kissed hers. They were so cute and it made me miss Dimitri.

Wondering how I got to this place to where I was at my brother's house that he shared with his fiancé listening to the story of how he won her over? It didn't come easy, we had to get through a lot of heavy stuff to get here.

FRIDAY

"So he really had no idea I existed?"

"No, your mom left and that was it. My dad, our dad searched for a couple years for your mom,but eventually gave up. He's a very well connected man and she knew that. She really made sure he wouldn't find you two. He never stopped loving her and was devastated when he found out she passed away. Again I'm so sorry for your loss."

"Thank you. The last year of her life was hard, but we managed to mend our relationship. Can I ask about your mom?"

"There's not much to tell, she married our dad for his money and never wanted children. When she got pregnant with me she wanted an abortion, but our dad forbade it. She wasn't happy, but kept me because she wanted his money. I was a month old when she cleaned out his bank account and left. We haven't heard from or seen her since."

"Then my mom came into your life and left. I'm so sorry."

"Hey, I thought we agreed to no more apologies."

"Then maybe we shouldn't talk about our mothers."

"What would you like to talk about? I'm an open book." We had already gone through the entire photo album with him explaining the pictures and reliving the memories. I didn't want to go that route again.

"You never answered my earlier question about why you had a file about me in the first place?"

"That's because I didn't want to paint a bad picture of our dad."

"Now I really want to know."

"Our dad had a rough time growing up and got involved with some, let's just say, not so nice people. Anyways his best friend Pavel, our surrogate uncle, owed a lot of money to someone and didn't have a way of paying him back. This man would have killed him if it wasn't for our dad. To make this story short our dad eventually took over his business and yes before you ask it wasn't legal. He's really cleaned it up and what we do for the most part is legal. We have known detective Croft for years, he came to us and asked us to help locate Jesse." At that moment it all clicked.

"You, you're the one who put Jesse in the hospital."

"Our dad and pavel did, yes."

"I can't believe it, why, why would you do that?"

"He deserved it." I started to panic,

"If Jesse's family finds out about this." I couldn't breathe.

"Stop, and take a deep breath. No one and I mean no one is going to know who it was. Our dad is a very powerful man, Jesse's family won't be a problem."

"Are you sure?'

"I promise, he will never lay a hand on you or anyone else again." With that I started bawling. It was all too much and too soon. He grabbed me and hugged me hard.

"I'm serious, you won't have to worry about Jesse."

"What if we have to go to court?"

"Then we go to court, uncle Pavel is a lawyer, you don't have to worry. Trust me when I say Jesse will never say a word about what happened to him."

"God what are you guys, the Mob? Please tell me I'm not the daughter of a Mob boss?"

"Well, I wouldn't exactly say he's in the Mob, but he does have that reputation."

"Has, has, he you know, people?" I made the gesture like I was slicing my neck. He got real quiet and didn't answer at first.

"Adrian, please tell me he hasn't killed people."

"Not directly, but that was a long time ago. He hasn't done any of that stuff since I was little."

"That's why my mom left. The only thing she ever told me about him was that he was a dangerous man."

"I promise you he is a good man, he may not go about everything the right way. He is always looking out and sticking up for those that can't." That made me feel a little better.

"Is it ok if I don't want to meet him right away?"

"That's fine. I get where you're coming from, this has been life changing for all of us. I will say he is very excited to meet you and gave me quite the lecture because of what I did at the restaurant."

"It's not that I don't want to meet him. It's just, I don't know how to explain it."

"You are fine and when you're ready i'll be there by your side."

"Thank you."

"How about we take baby steps and you come over to my house tomorrow for lunch and meet my fiancé?" I thought about it for a second and decided I wanted to. Plus I really needed to get out of my apartment.

"I think I can do that. Promise me no surprises and our dad won't just show up."

"I promise, I've done enough to you already."

SATURDAY

"Have you talked to Dimitri yet?" Sydney asked. Adrian had gone to pick us up our lunch and left us two to talk.

"No I haven't."

"Do you want to?"

"I'm not sure."

"I've known him for a while now and he really is a good guy. This whole situation has been hard on him too. His last girlfriend did him really bad so he knows how it feels. He would never intentionally hurt you in any way. He was stuck in a hard place." She was right in everything she said and I knew all about his last girlfriend. My therapist even said I should forgive him. I knew I should, but I kept coming back to him knowing and not telling me.

"I know, it's just hard for me to trust people and I feel like he broke that."

"I completely understand. My one condition for agreeing to marry Adrian was he stop drinking. When he relapsed the other night I felt betrayed. After taking him to his AA meeting I went to an AL-ANON meeting for myself. They helped me work through my issues with his relapse."

"You're stronger than I am."

"I'm really not. It's taken a lot to get to this place."

'Who's hungry?" Adrian came barging through the door with our food, just in time. I was glad he interrupted our conversation. Not that it was bad, it was just getting heavy again and I was starting to feel emotionally drained.

"My god little sis, you can really put it away."

"Adrian, you don't say that to a girl. Ever." She smacked him on the arm.

"No, it's ok. I know I have a big appetite, but I also work out a lot so I burn it off easily."

"Lucky you." Said Sydney under her breath. I couldn't understand how she ever felt fat. She was so skinny. I guess we all have something we are self conscious about.

After eating we decided we were just going to hang out and watch a movie. We had talked about so many things that I was just happy to sit and watch a movie. We were on our second movie New Moon. I had convinced them to do a twilight marathon. Sydney seemed a little uneasy about the vampires, but me and Adrian were loving it. We were just getting to the scene where Jacob takes off his shirt when the doorbell rang. Adrian quickly got up to answer it. I looked over to Sydney to see if she knew who it was and she shrugged her shoulders. I heard the door shut and voices, but I couldn't quite place what they were saying. The voices got louder and I swore I heard a Russian accent. He wouldn't have, son of a bitch he did. Standing at the doorway to the media room was none other than Dimitri.

"You promised."

"I promised I wouldn't surprise you with our dad, not him." Damn loophole.

"Roza."