Chapter 146
Chapter 146
Elena’s POV:
Now, sitting in the passenger seat of Mom’s cherry–red car, Fiona was still repeating the same topic from last night. We had left early in the morning, the pre–dawn chill still clinging to the air, to have breakfast at the quaint, old seaview café that we used to love going to when we were kids.
I felt a panging sense of longing. I wished… that Mielle was here with us. We would have been the perfect trio. Her, with her silent enthusiasm. Fiona, with her outright flamboyance, her infectious laughter, and her quick wit. And me, somewhere comfortably between the both of them.
“Fiona, I have spent more time with him than you have, alright?” I said, my voice laced with a weary exasperation. She rolled her eyes.
“But I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Elena! It’s like you’re the only person in the universe!” She insisted, her voice rising in passion, and! scoffed. “And what about the way Rey looked at you, Fiona? Did that mean anything?” I retorted, throwing her own romantic idealism back at her, and she froze, her mouth snapping shut, her cheeks flushing a deep red.
I knew Fiona had sensed my depression earlier that morning, while I had sat at the kitchen island, sipping the banana milkshake. She had then proceeded to grab my hand and practically dragged me out of the house, insisting we needed a change of scenery.
On our way here, as the car had warmed up, my eyes had landed on the small piece of adhesive paper that had been stubbornly stuck on the windshield since yesterday, the one she’d tried to sweep away with the wiper.
“Roy?” I had read the name out loud, my voice a question, and then looked down at the number scribbled neatly in red pen beneath it.
Fiona had snatched the paper from my hand, her brow furrowed in a frown. Then, as though a sudden, mortifying realization had dawned on her, she had quickly crushed the paper in her hands and stuffed it into her coat’s front pocket.
“Oh,” I had said, a slow smirk spreading across my face as the pieces clicked into place. “Did someone give you their number, Fiona?” I asked, my voice teasing.
Fiona usually never reacted this way to male attention. She was all for the dreamy romance type, the kind who devoured rom–coms, dark romance and believed in grand gestures. When guys reached out to her, she’d always accept their numbers with a polite smile, even if she was incredibly picky about who she actually dated. She’d only had two relationships in the past, both long–term, and the last one had only recently ended after two years.
Who was it that would make her so flustered over just giving them their number? Before that thought could fully form, the realization dawned on me, and my smirk widened. “Is it that guard from yesterday? The one at Sergei’s mansion?”
She rolled her eyes dramatically, a groan escaping her lips, and got into the driver’s seat. I had settled in beside her, still chuckling.
We’d already driven thirty minutes out of Velhaven, the city fading into the distance, and she still stubbornly kept ignoring my question about Roy, pretending she hadn’t heard me.
“Elena. We’re talking about Nikolai here,” she said. I frowned playfully. “Who’s ‘we,‘ Fiona? I’m talking about Roy.”
She sighed as if I were the most annoying person on the planet, and I couldn’t help but chuckle again. God, this was so good.
Being with her like this, bantering and teasing, it felt amazing.
Suddenly, my phone rang, startling me, and I picked it up, glancing at the caller ID. Sergei. “Hello,” I said, my voice immediately losing its lightness.
“Elena.” Sergei spoke and his serious greeting instantly put me on edge.
1/3
Chapter 146
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Where are you right now?” He questioned.
I paused, a flicker of annoyance. “Don’t… you already know?” I questioned back. It’s not like he didn’t have people following me.
He paused, a momentary silence on the line, then sighed, a sound of exasperation. “Can you come over to my place, Elena?” He questioned and suddenly my chest felt tight, a familiar sense of apprehension coiling in my stomach.
“No… not right now. Why can’t we talk over the phone?” I questioned.
“Lazar seems to have left the premises, Elena.” He said, his voice flat. I frowned. “So? He isn’t your captive. So what if he left? Did you put him on house arrest or something?” I almost laughed, the idea of Lazar being confined to Sergei’s mansion like a pet seeming absurd.
“Thad. However… the fact that he’s left is not the troubling bit.” He said, his voice dropping. I waited for him to continue, my gut churning with a sudden, cold dread.
“He might go to the Vetrovs, Elena.” He said, clear, undeniable anger now lacing his voice. I took in a
sharp inhale.
“You’re saying he’s going to go tattle on us? How did he even know what we were doing? Did he take the evidence file?” I said quickly, my panic rising, my mind racing through worst–case scenarios.
“No. No, he didn’t take anything. But that doesn’t make this situation any better. I’m not worried about the prosecution, Elena. Everything ‘ will go as planned legally. However, I don’t think it’s safe for you to be roaming around here anymore. If you don’t want to come over to my
place, then that’s alright… I’d rather you go back to Maxcester City immediately. It would be much safer for you there.” He said, his voice firm, brooking no argument.
“What, right now?” I asked, my voice incredulous. Wasn’t he being overly paranoid? This felt like an overreaction.
“Elena. It’s for your own safety.” He said, his voice laced with concern. I sighed, a long, weary sound. “Alright. I understand that, but if my safety is being threatened, then what about my mom? What about Fiona?” I asked, the thought of them being caught in this dangerous crossfire making my blood run cold. Sergei said something then that stunned me into silence. “You needn’t worry about them, Elena. Your mother and friends will all be well protected. It’s you I’m most worried about.” He said, his voice resolute, leaving no room for doubt.
“What do you mean, ‘well protected‘?” I questioned, my brow furrowing in confusion, then dawning horror. He went on to explain, in a calm, matter–of–fact tone, how he had already arranged for a discreet guard to be set on my mother, Aunt Rose, and also Fiona. Not just that, but he had installed three CCTV cameras around my house’s premises, including a house alarm system and constant security checks by his men.
My lips quirked up, a nervous, almost hysterical laugh bubbling up. “Yeah… uh, thanks, Mr. Morozov. I think that’s more than enough… in fact, it’s going completely overboard.” At this point, I was starting to feel overwhelmingly indebted to him, a feeling I deeply resented.
But then he said something that made my entire body go still, every muscle tensing. “It’s not enough, Elena. You’re my daughter. I have lost you once. I can’t risk losing you again… in any way.“.
My hand around the phone clenched so tightly my fingers ached. “Alright. I’ll leave soon.” With that, I abruptly cut the call, not waiting for his reply. My heart was thumping wildly in my chest, and I felt a hot flush creep up my neck. My throat tightened, a lump forming that made it difficult to swallow.
His words echoed in my mind, over and over and over again, leaving me reeling even after we were done with breakfast at the seaside café.
Then, my phone buzzed, snapping me out of my daze, and I looked down to see a message from an unknown number. My blood ran cold as I read the chilling words. “You’re going to regret this.”
