Your family is mine

IVAN
~•~

"Why, hello Ivan!" Sarah called out as she stood in front of me with a small smile on her face. My eyes drifted to the pistol in her right hand before it traveled to her face. To say I was confused and shaken would be a grave understatement.

I needed to understand what was happening. I looked around the dimly lit room. There were two huge wooden doors at the front, the room was filled with iron barrels that reeked of petrol, sweat and dust. I found a lighter on top of one of the huge barrels and my eyes widened.

Shock came before fear, fear was followed by confusion, and the confusion was accompanied by grave anger. I turned sharply to her, my eyes held a lot of questions, I knew I did not have to voice them out.

Sarah shook her head and pulled her gun back into the right pocket of her black leather jacket. My wife had her blonde hair in a messy ponytail, her eyes held an expression I did not quite understand.

"Sarah," I managed to speak. She turned her back towards me and shook her head.
I did not have the words to say. Who could have known betrayal made you so…tongue-tied.

It was all a dream. It had to be a dream!

I was probably in my room right now, on my bed, having a series of nightmares due to missing mh medication. After all, Camilla had said…
Camilla.

No. It was not right to think of her now. Not when I was about to kiss the feet of death.
I was angry. So angry I could tear the ropes off me and grope Sarah with my fists, so angry that I wanted nothing more than to reach out to her and tear her into a million pieces.

But I had to know what all this was.
A prank? A joke? A bad dream? I had to know.
So, with my quivering lips and shaking hands, I began to speak.

"What is the meaning of this, Sarah? What is going on? Why are you standing there with a gun? And why the fuck am I tied to this chair?!"

She turned towards me with a frown, drew out her gun from her pocket and pointed it at me. I was immediately silenced by her swifteness.
Who could have thought sweet old Sarah Holloway had the charisma of an assassin?

"I really do not think you are in the position to run your mouth, husband." She spat out. The word "husband" slipped out of her tongue with mockery, like it was a sin.

She was still my wife. She had loved me enough to marry me. All I needed to do was reach out for those emotions in her; the one that made her return to me even after she had left me.

"Sarah, listen. I know that I have not been the best man to you since you returned. I know that I was not able to protect Tina and Tommy from getting kidnapped, but if you give me a second chance to make this right…"

She bursted into laughter. I stopped my speech halfway. She threw her head back, dropped the hand that held her gun to the side, while the other hand clutched her stomach.
Her laugh was loud, mocking, and hysterical. By the time she looked down at me, she had tears in her eyes.

"You don't get it, do you?" She started.

"This is not about our marriage, Ivan. None of it has ever been. God! You were smart enough to make it to Forbes top fifteen, surely you cannot be stupid enough not to know what this is."

No. I did not understand.
I needed explanations.

But before I could open my mouth to speak, I heard the wooden doors creak open. The twin doors parted ways to reveal someone, someone I could not say I was surprised to see.

He matched into the room, slowly taking off his shades. His eyes did not leave mine until he was standing beside Sarah. She looked up at him, and I was able to catch the familiarity in her gaze.

It struck me like lightning. I fell back into my chair, the resolve to fight, the will to find a way out of here, everything was dying down slowly.

Ian Holloway, my younger brother, reached out for Sarah's gun. She willingly handed it over to him without any second thoughts.

"Were you really going to start the party without me?" Ian's voice filled the room, but he was speaking to Sarah.

"He was asking for an explanation. I thought I could give him one." She replied.

My eyes continued to dance between them. I was short of words, stunned. I tried to speak but words could neither form in my head, nor leave my throat.

"You wanted an explanation, brother?" He brought himself to stand in front of me.

I looked up at Ian. Even after all these years, his hatred for me remained fresh in his eyes.

"I just…I just want to see my daughter." It was obvious that this was all planned. From the kidnap, to this very moment, everything was staged by Ian. My wife had only been his puppet.

The ungrateful bitch!

Ian turned to look at Sarah, before his gaze returned to me.

"Children?" He asked, feigning ignorance.

"Sarah, what children is he speaking about?"

I watched my wife shake her head, a sign for ignorance. I narrowed my eyes on her, before they unwillingly traveled to Ian's face.
My heart started to throb, I could feel it shrink in my chest at an alarming rate.

"Tina. I need to see Tina." I managed to mutter, but Ian frowned at me.

"And why the hell do you want to see my daughter?"

Wait. What?

Molten anger rushed through my veins, I felt my blood freeze in anger.

"What the fuck did you just…?!" I could not complete my speech. He slapped me across my right cheek with the pistol. The flesh on my cheeks stung. When I turned to spit on the concrete ground, blood followed my saliva.

"You would not raise your voice at me! Do you understand?!"
When I didn't reply, he stretched his hand to my chin and grasped my jaw, his sharp fingers pierced into my skin, tearing my flesh slowly.
I grit my teeth to stop myself from whining in pain.
I could not give him such satisfaction.
He turned my face to his with force, forcing my eyes to lock with his eyes.

"Good boy." He spoke with a smile.
"So, you wanted a story, right? I'll tell you a story."

He released my jaw from his grip and stood straight.

"Seventeen years ago, my father sent me to Europe. You already know that because you were there. When I got to France, I fell in love with a very lovely woman." Ian stopped to point at my wife.

"Sarah."

Three invisible bullets found their way into my chest. I groaned from the pain, hoping it would kill me before I heard the rest of the story. There was only so much betrayal that I could take.

"We had a blossoming relationship in France for ten years, while we finished from the same college. Of course, it was then I started my deals with the french mafia, but that's not part of my story. Sarah and I finally decided to get married, she was a traditional girl, so we went to her father to seek his blessings. It turns out…" He chuckled.

"...as luck would have it, Sarah's father and I shared two common enemies; you and dad."

I shook my head vehemently. I tried my best to shut out the rest of his words from my mind. This could not be happening! It could not be happening!

"So, after we made our plans and all of that, we decided to give Sarah to you. Your marriage was all part of our grand plan. Tina is not your daughter and Tommy is not your son, Ivan. They are both mine. The family you think you have, is mine."

"Liar!" I screamed at the top of my voice.

"I'm afraid he isn't lying, mister Ivan."
The voice that emerged from the door caused the three of us to turn in the direction of the door.

The next person I saw caused my head to spin.

I looked and felt like a joke, an ignorant fool.

Why the hell was Antonio standing at the door in a suit?! And why did Sarah and Ian step away as he entered, as though he was the brain behind all of this?

"You see, Dimitri Holloway and I were close friends for a long time. The blueprint on which the Holloway Empire stands on today, was developed by me. Your father did not let you know much about your roots, but he wasn't exactly very smart in the streets of Sicily. I mean, you cannot even speak your language! But, that's besides my point. Immediately Holloway got his first investor, he pushed me away like I was nothing and came here, to the land of milk and honey, to live the American dream."

Antonio stood in front of me. He drew out a gun from his suit jacket, corked it, and pointed the cold metal on my forehead. The gun had a silencer on it. He would be able to kill me and no one in the area would ever know I was here.

"So, when I found out that God had dragged his son back to my doorstep, I knew it was a sign that I had to get back what was stolen from me. I asked my daughter to marry you. Although I believed Tina was yours, it doesn't matter. What matters right now is that all your documents are with me, Tina is your next-of-kin and everything would belong to her after you're gone. Once I pull this trigger and have this place burnt to the ground, it'll be all…mine."

I looked down at the floor. I didn't have it in me to look anywhere else, or think about anything else.
Only one question continued to hover in my mind; how had I not seen this coming?!

"You didn't have to die, Ivan. Ian could have easily taken over the company that day, but you had to be so stubborn. I had to call Sarah back, even though I had asked her to leave in the first place. So, here we are! Now…"
He pressed the cold metal to my head, pushing my head back slightly.

"Any last words?"

I remained silent. My heart had already begun to bleed in my chest, the blood came out as tears from my eyes.

"No?" I heard him speak again.

"I didn't think so."

The next thing I heard was the loud sound of a gunshot, it shook the walls of the warehouse.

But there was only one problem; the gun Antonio pointed at me had a silencer.