Chapter 77 - I have decided to leave

Vanessa.

He got back late and was immediately taken to a room away from ours and people, his friends, and a few others, kept going in and out of it but I didn't miss it. I saw it clearly. It does not matter that no one is giving me an explanation and they continue to avoid me but I'm sure I saw it. Dimitri was shot. In his left arm. There was an attack on his life and he was shot in the arm. I saw the blood dripping down his body from that arm when I was watching as Brian brought him home. I tried to get to him but according to them, they have been given clear instructions not to let me anywhere close to the room he is locked up in. They told me to stay calm reassuring me that he was okay. Is someone who is okay supposed to lose that much blood or any blood at all?

“I need to see him!" I tell Hayden as soon as I reach him “ No one here is telling me anything and I need to be sure that he is okay. And before you think about lying to me, I saw him come in with Brian earlier before you got here."

“He needs to be alone right now. But I can assure you that he is okay. He just wants some time to himself."

“He wants some time to himself yet he allows everyone else into that room?"

“They are just doctors. You have to remain calm Vanessa."

“Doctors? Why could they not have taken him directly to the hospital?"

“We cannot risk eyes seeing him and then word traveling that he was shot. It would raise questions everywhere."

“Well, I need you to go tell him that I want to see him or I'll throw myself from the highest part of this building." I return to my room. I sit there for a while and my head is coming up with different scenarios for what must have happened earlier. I am scared for myself and for him but all of this does not matter to him. Maybe I should try to convince him to get out of their business. Things would have been different if it was just him but he has a familiar now and he should be thinking of getting out before someone comes for us.

I hear the door open and close and the smell of him and blood fills the air. I am both relieved and still agitated at the same time. I immediately get up from my bed and rush into his arms to hug him. I take in his scent that is not mixed with blood.

“I wanted to see you but they would not let me. They said it was your order."

“I did not want to rile you up over nothing."

“Nothing? That was not nothing. It is nice of you to try downplaying this. There was so much blood. I saw it."

He takes a sidestep from me and takes off his shirt. On a normal day, I would be distracted by his body but I am more concerned about the bandage on him which is proof of the violence he must be so familiar with to refer to as nothing.

“What you saw was nothing." He dismisses again. I am convinced that he does not want to continue with this conversation but I'll be damned if I don't push yourself. I walk closer to him and throw what I like to refer to as my hardest punch at his arm. He winces at the pain it must have caused. I am sure he did not expect that because his eyes are full of surprise looking at me. “What the hell did you do that for?" His voice is an octave higher.

“You felt that. Which means it wasn't nothing. You are hurt, Dimitri. You were shot!"

“And so fucking what about that?!"

“Dimitri, you have to stop this. You have to find a way to put an end to whatever shady business you are into."

He walks into the closet and I follow him knowing I am risking his wrath “And who the hell made you think you can walk into my life and change the way things have always been."

“Always been?"

“My father, his father, and the ones before him have been a part of this business. Have led it. What makes you think you have any power to change it?"

“You do not have to be like them. You do not have to do the things they did. You got hurt today, what if you do not escape it tomorrow."

“Is that what you want? For me not to escape it?" Now he is misunderstanding me. Why the hell would I wish him death?

“Never, Dimitri. What if for the same reasons they had to attack me before, they do it again and manage to kill me and your child? Dimitri, you have to stop this I am scared."

He reaches me fast I don't know when it happened “No one will ever touch you."

“But they did before. Twice. Under your watch and they nearly succeeded." I know I hit a nerve with the way he flinches and takes a few steps away from me.

“I have everything under control."

“You don't. One man is still locked up in your dungeon and you are being attacked by others. Dimitri, you were shot!!!"

“And what would you have me do, Vanessa!!!" I nearly ran at the way his voice is loud and angry. I have never seen him this mad. He is usually calm and now he is yelling at me. I am scared. “These are the same problems every one of my ancestors had to deal with. Do you think being at the top is a tiny feat? That you only ring bells and people would bow to your feet? People work daily, endlessly to pull the ones at the top to the bottom. You fight to keep your position. Open your eyes, this is real life. You fight for everything that you want and have. That is what they did, that is what I do every day, and that is what my son will do." The realization hits me worse than before and it makes me weak. This man is not ready to accept that this is not the kind of life that a normal person should have.

“You already have everything. What more do you want?"

“To protect everything that I have."

“Who do you need to protect everything from?"

“I told you before never to question anything I do. All you need to do is trust me." I remember what Robert said about him. I don't want to believe any of it.

“How can I trust you if I don't know anything? I don't want this. I don't want any of this anymore."

“You want to leave? I dare you to. You already bound yourself to me and there is nothing you can do about it. Even if you were to leave, I will sweep through the heavens and the earth just to bring you back to me." He strips down to his boxer briefs and walks into the bathroom.

I have given him too many chances to tell me everything. To come clean and to agree to leave this life but he wants nothing more than to stay in it. Whatever he thinks he will do with this, all it will cause is more destruction. To himself and me and our child as an extension. Would it be so bad to accept the help that I have now to disappear? To leave him and to choose our child. He just told me that all his ancestors were a part of this life. Would it be so terrible to break from it? From generations of violence and bloodshed.

All I need to do now is to have faith and take the help that has been offered. I do not know if I can truly trust Warren but I also cannot trust that Dimitri would leave everything, especially with how stubborn he is. I pick up the burner phone and text Warren

I need to leave as soon as possible. Please make it happen. He texts back almost immediately like he has been waiting for me to say it. On it.

I hear the bathroom door open and close again and I know I don't have time to hide the phone so I put it under my pillow and lay on it. He walks into the room fully dressed.

“You're leaving again."

“I will be back." He shuts the door and I hear the sound of a click telling me that he has me locked in again. A call comes in from Tianna on the burner phone almost immediately.

“Thank God that you called Tianna. I need to tell you something."

“Thank God for this phone. I just had that feeling of everything being monitored. At least we can speak freely. Tell me."

“I have decided to leave Dimitri."

“What?! How? Why? I'm sure I know part of it but why?"