Chapter 29

“If you walk some more, you might lose your feet. He’s going to be alright. They are going to be okay.”

Katya wanted to believe Freya, but her heart was restless, and so were her feet. If it were a different time, she would have taken comfort in her words and the knowledge that her father could not harm her. At least not bodily. But as she had learned over the past few weeks, he could do even much more.

What if he ambushed them? Set a trap? What if they were either dead or captured? They had gone before dawn, and it was past midnight. She had sat, stood, walked around, tried to do several things to make her mind calm. Nothing worked.

But there was also a bugging fear and thought that she did not want to voice. Her father. He was the evil man here- but what if he wasn’t? What if the whole thing was a lie and was buying the falsehood? It wasn’t as if she knew these people from anywhere.
Sure, they had been excellent in answering a few of her questions, but there could also be an ulterior motive. If they get her father, she could be next. Maybe she was bait until no longer needed.

The thought made her shiver and glance at Freya, who was eating. She knew that the woman was stressed and worried too, but she had a baby on the way. Her child was a week past due, and she had to take things easy.

*Even if you have doubts, act like you don’t. She scolded herself. If it were true that everything was a ruse and she gave them a reason to suspect, she would be dead long before she figured out a plan to escape.

If, during the fight, her father was killed- it would be the end. She would never see him again. Never get to ask her questions and find out what really happened to her mother or why he lied to her. He owed her that, at least.

“Do you think anybody is going to get shot or killed? Like, my father? Michal’s father?” She asked Freya tentatively.

“You want them to spare your father, and I understand, honey. I know that you have questions; you want to know if what Michal has told is the truth,” Freya said.

Katya nodded. She did not bother hiding the truth when the older woman could see through her.

“If I know those men very well, which I do, they will spare his life. At least long enough for you to hear the truth from his lips. Even if my husband wants to tear him apart, Michal will stop him. He understands how you feel.”


Her words were comforting. All she wanted was a chance to talk to her father. If what she knew was the truth, then whatever happened.
But, could she? Allow whatever was going to happen, actually happen? Deep down, she knew that they would always be a part of her that sees him as innocent. That part would not want him to be hurt.

“Katya, they have seen much worse. The only problem I have with them going all out is whom they are doing it for. If anything, the man can die a horrible death for all I care.”
The words were said with such enthusiasm that they left Katya shocked. She knew that Freya disapproved of Michal’s father but hearing her, it ran even deeper.

“I heard what he did to Michal,” Katya said to show that she understood a little.

“It is a wonder that he came back here. That he agreed to bring you here. We miss him, but he is better off far away from a man who would sell his son to his rivals to control more territory.”

“He did what?”
*What the heck!? She didn’t know half the truth when Michal told her how his father treated him, and she wanted to bury him alive. But this?

Freya brought her hand to her mouth.
“Oh, he didn’t tell you. Perhaps I shouldn’t say more. There is a lot of Michal that he prefers to keep hidden.”

But Katya wanted to know more. Her heart broke for the little boy she never knew. The little boy who grew into the man she knew could be very gentle and yet so fierce.
“Please,” she sat beside Freya, “I need to know.”

Freya sighed.
“I knew Michal and Semion right from when they were teenage boys, but only after Michal had left his mother’s. My father supplied arms to many mafia families, so we got around a lot. But I remember him talking about a boy who was collateral until a certain deal was over.

And when he took me along one day, I saw Michal. He was lean, underfed, and scrawny looking. I had to beg my father to pay off whatever agreement Michal’s father had with the other man so he would go home. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he found out.

Later on, I found out he was Semion's brother and learned more about how his father treated him like dirt. How he turned a blind eye to the maltreatment Michal received from their uncle every day. Maltreatment guaranteed to scar a young boy forever. Semion still holds a lot of guilt in his heart because he could not save his brother from their father.”

The tears dropped from her eyes of their own volition. How was he so strong after going through so much? She wanted to hold him in her arms and tell him that everything would be okay. But right now, he was in a place where the opposite would be happening.

“It’s okay, hon. I know how you feel about him. Just don’t cry about it in his presence. He hates pity.”

Katya wiped her eyes.
“Oh no. I wouldn’t dare.”

“Good-




“Katya!? Freya!?” Voices came from outside.

Freya smiled at her.
“It’s them. They are here. Safe.”