Chapter 118

Killian:

“What are we waiting for, again?” I asked, shaking my head at my father who was not allowing me to approach any of those that were sitting in the basement, and yet, he was neither responding to the reason nor reacting to my questions. 

“We are going to wait until I have told you otherwise, son.” He said, and I shook my head. It wasn’t until he looked at the watch then at the door that he shook his head as he took a deep breath. It was already eleven in the morning and we have been here since eight.

“You can…”

The door opened, stopping him, and he smiled before we all turned around to face Natasha. Eleanor, who stood one step behind her, shook her head at me, and I nodded allowing her to come inside. 

“Do you need anything, Nat?” I asked, my voice softening as I looked at her. Her eyes met Liana’s then Nikolai’s before she nodded.

“I want to take your advice, Uncle Yaroslav.” She said, and I looked at my father who smiled, looking proud. Eleanor, who crossed her arms over her chest, took a step forward and stood beside Vladimir. Elton’s eyes were fixed on her, and I had to admit, it took everything in me not to want to carve them out of his face. “I think a proper goodbye should be in order.”

She looked at me for a second, and I looked at my father who nodded. I took a step back and watched as she walked toward her mother. Her heart raced against her chest, and for the first time since as far as I can remember, I saw Natasha looking like she was about to lose a part of herself to do what she was about to. 

She looked back at the chair that was behind her, and just as she was about to go and pull it to sit, I walked toward her and lifted it for her. She looked at me and nodded in thanks and I smiled in assurance, letting her know that we were there by her side.

“When I first saw what you were doing, when you tried dragging me out of the wedding as if sneaking out drugs or a stolen jewel, a part of me knew that something was going to go wrong. I just denied it to myself, refusing to believe that my mother, the woman who taught me to be who I was, was to betray the family that opened their arms for her when we were in a time of need.” Natasha said, looking at her Liana. Liana was quiet, staring at her daughter and Natasha took a deep breath, calming herself to ensure that she didn’t cry. “You threw an innocent woman to a devil that you knew hurt her more than anything in the world. You knew that I was used the same that she was, only my incident ended with Killian and Vladimir not only taking the man’s life, but with forcing to eat his cock before that happened.”

She looked at Nikolai for a second before turning to her mother. “The two of you knew that the incident meant that I might never have a child, and being sick at the time, Uncle Yaroslav and Killian took charge of all my medication and treatment until I was able to stand in front of you. I would have died had it not been for them and getting raped only made matters worse.”

She looked at Nikolai for a second, taking a deep breath. “I am not going to blame you for killing my baby. I doubt that you would have done it if you knew. I want to believe that you wouldn’t have, and I want to believe that you were honest with me, at least about your feelings, Nikolai. But what I don’t understand is how the two of you managed to look me in the eye for all those years when you were doing nothing but stab me in the back.” 

“They were trying to build you an empire,” Elton said, catching my attention. I raised an eyebrow at the Italian, surprised that he still had it in him to talk. “I have to admit, you shooting that bullet was one thing that I wouldn’t have put in mind. To say the least, you got that point, Ivanov wolf.”

“You have the nerve to speak…”

“Neither one of them has the guts to look you in the eye, I figured that it would be best to end this conversation before it became too sentimental.” He said, looking at Eleanor. “Your mother knew who Eleanor was since day one, and she saw that she was Killian’s mate. I was informed by her that she was there, but by then, Killian was deeply attached to her. I was forced to stop anything that I would have wanted to do because she wanted to break the man enough for you to heal him.” 

“You see, Eleanor, even the woman who claimed to be willing to take the role of the ‘mother’ that you lost, wanted nothing but to use you for her daughter’s benefit.” He said, and I looked down at my lap, refusing to think of looking at Eleanor. This was a shame that I wouldn’t even know how I was going to live out of. “You have no one in this world, and had I not accepted you as a wife, you would have been thrown out as a slave or a maid, not that you chose a different path when you chose to bleach this man’s bathroom.”

“What did I ever do to you, Elton?” Eleanor asked, shaking her head in question. She took a step forward and stood by my side, crossing her arms over her chest as she asked. “I always believed that it was how a woman was treated. Considering how I saw my father treating my mother, how he treated me, isolated from the people around me, I wouldn’t have known better if not for Killian. Therefore, I am curious, what is it that I did that made you do this to me?”

He stayed quiet and Eleanor took a deep breath before grabbing one of the knives that were on the table. I tensed, and I watched as she walked toward him before taking a step forward. My father wrapped his hand around my arm, stopping me before Eleanor looked the man dead in the eye.

“Keep your reason to yourself, and allow it to die with you.” She said, looking down at the knife as she tightened her grip around it. The last thing that I wanted was for her to give him an easy death, but looking at my father, I could tell that he didn’t want me to interfere. She raised her hand and the man’s wails of pain echoed around the room, taking me by surprise as I saw her taking a step back. The knife was dug deep in his right knee, and the man’s body flailed before she took a step back. “I will leave your death to my husband to take care of. But if it makes anything feel better, Elton, I forgive you. At least you were the path that led me to the love of my life, and I know that without what you did, I doubt that things would have turned the way that they did.”

My eyes widened in surprise at her words, and I couldn’t help but find myself feeling small for the pain and anger that I was feeling in comparison to what she went through. She looked at Natasha and her eyes softened as she put her hand on her shoulder. “And Natasha, I’ll be waiting for you in the bedroom. There is someone that I want you to meet.”

Eleanor looked at me for a second before smiling, and I wrapped my arm around her, pulling her to my chest as I hugged her tightly. She didn’t know how proud I was of her, but I wasn’t going to be able to describe it even if I wanted to.

“I’ll leave you to tend to this then I will see you in a bit, okay?”

I nodded and watched as she walked out of the room, and Natasha looked at her mother, taking a deep breath. “I hoped for an apology, an explanation, but it seems to me that you are preferring silence.”

“I am not the woman that you believed that I was, Natasha…”

“I don’t need you to tell me that to know.”

“But I never lied about my love to you as a mother. I had no account anyway, as a mother, I loved you deeply as my only child. I did try to build something for you, but you chose to let it go.” She said, and Natasha looked at me for a second before turning to her mother.

“I chose the world along with my brother. I didn’t choose misery like you wanted me to.” She said, looking at Nikolai whose heart raced. “I will leave your fate to my brother and the man who took me in as a daughter when my own mother betrayed me…”

“I did no such thing.” Liana said, and Natasha nodded.

“If it makes you sleep at night, we will believe that lie. But right now, I no longer have the energy for this. And considering that you had the Italian enemy answering instead of you, then I have nothing to talk to you about.” She said, turning to the door. “Goodbye, mother. I don’t know how I am going to be remembering you, but I will choose to keep a good memory. Just as I chose to think and believe that he loved me, I will choose to believe that you had good intentions toward me.”

She looked at me as she took a deep breath before she nodded. 

“Their fate is in your hands, Killian Ivanov. And I will trust that you are going to be fair to each and every one of them.” She said, looking me in the eye. “I will not forgive you if you are not…”