An Old Flame

**Althaia**

As soon as Alexei drew out his gun, Damiano pulled me behind him and he and his men pulled out their guns as well, finger on the trigger and ready to fire. But then Nestor quickly pushed Alexei away when suddenly a knife flew right in between them, missing Alexei’s head by a hair.

Surprised and confused, everyone turned to look in the direction where the knife came from. My mother had her brows pinched as she looked at Alexei, ready with another knife in her hand.

“Did you forget how she loves to do that to you?” Nestor sighed at Alexei. But he was too focused on my mother with a furious gaze.

“Seems like her aim is off.”

“It’s not off. It was a warning. I got you once, and I can do it again.” My mother spoke calmly but had a whole different demeanor to her. I just looked at them back and forth in pure shock.

This whole damn thing had me completely dumbfounded. Wasn’t he the one who had demanded to see her, and almost started a war because of it? And now, he was the one trying to kill her. What had me even more confused was, my mother had all those letters and pictures from their time together, yet she was looking at him with a firm glare, ready to launch her knife at him one more time.

“Okay, let us all just calm down for a minute…” I said and stepped around Damiano to face them. Damiano stopped me from getting between them but I told him I would be fine. I doubted they would do anything if I stood in between them.

“Let us try and be normal, civilized people for a moment and lower your weapons.”

“Stay out of it. This is between me and your mother.” Alexei said but his eyes never once left my mother.

“Don’t talk to my daughter like that!” My mother snapped at him. But her words only made Alexei explode even more in rage.

“Your daughter? Apparently, she’s my daughter too that you have hidden away from me for twenty-five fucking years you dammed woman!” Everyone went completely silent at how he had shouted. He was furious but he was also looking distressed about the fact he had a daughter he had no idea about.

My mother looked taken aback by his outburst. We all were as no one expected him to lose it like this.

Not that it wasn’t understandable…

My mother then looked at Damiano with a slight frown.

“You told him?”

“I did.”

“That was not your business to tell.” Damiano’s eyes darkened with anger.

“Oh, but it was when I was trying to save your daughter, and he wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone.”

“I found the small treasure chest in your room. Found the note from Nestor, telling you to meet him at the LuxePalace. So I went to meet him.” I told her, and it almost looked like the color drained from her face.

“Alone?” She asked and I nodded.

“Althaia!” My mother looked at me furiously.

“Yeah, no need to be mad at me about it. Damiano already went bat shit crazy on me for it…” I scowled a little, not liking that memory of him. I quickly shook my head and continued to speak.

“What I mean is it wasn’t my first time meeting Alexei, and I told him about you. Then I guess at some point he went and dug up your casket.” I elaborated.

“Of course, he fucking did.” I raised my brows in surprise. My mother never cursed hence why we were never allowed to under her roof.

She made that clear many times with her wooden spoon.

“Mamá… Is it really true that he’s…?” Even though I had heard it a few times already, I wanted it to be confirmed by my mother. Her gaze softened at me and held my hands in hers as she let out a sigh.

“It is true. He is your biological father.” I let out a breath and turned to look at Alexei. He, too, was looking at me as if I was unreal.

I could understand how no one would ever have been suspicious if he was my biological father and not Gaetano.

We looked nothing alike.

He had blue eyes, mine were green.

His skin was light, mine was tan.

I took completely after my mother in terms of looks, making me wonder if I even inherited anything from him.

Then I suddenly remembered.

“Ew!” I erupted, and my expression turned into one of disgust before I could stop myself. Alexei looked completely offended.

“What? Would you rather have that stupid Italian man as your father?” The way Alexei spoke came out in a heavy Russian accent.

“It’s already bad enough you’re married to an Italian.” He continued, having Damiano and his men send him a death stare.

“Watch your mouth, Vasiliev. You’re already on thin ice.” Damiano almost growled out, and Alexei dared to ignore him as he still looked at me offended. It almost made me want to laugh.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I just remembered you telling me how I looked like one of your old lovers. That’s pretty disturbing now. Especially now that I know it’s about my mother. ”

“You said what?!” Both my mother and Damiano erupted with fury.

“How was I supposed to know she was my daughter? I was intrigued when I saw her, and not in a nasty way. She looks exactly like you did at her age, and it had me curious.” He shrugged. My mouth formed an ‘o’ as I wondered if that was where my curiosity came from.

“Other than the looks, you’re nothing alike. Althaia is pure-hearted. Innocent and bright. But you!” He pointed at my mother.

“You are one crazy woman who tried to kill me! But it’s okay. I can see the years didn’t do you well, you old woman.” Alexei let out a satisfied smile when my mother gave him a deathly glare.

“Who are you calling old, you dusty man?!” I gasped when she threw a knife at him. Nestor once again had to push Alexei out of the way when he refused to move.

“Are you really going to let her get you again?” Nestor sighed and shook his head.

Then Alexei erupted and started to speak fast in Russian. Whatever he was saying, my mother’s eyes narrowed.

Then she started to speak in Russian.

I dropped my jaw as I looked at her, completely starstruck.

My mother and Alexei kept going off at each other in Russian, even Nestor interfered but it looked like he was trying to calm them down.

I just looked back and forth between them in utter confusion.

“This was not how I imagined things would be…” I said to Damiano, who also watched them. I looked at him, seeing he had a frown on his face before holding his gun in front of him.

“Damiano, wait -” But it fell on deaf ears as he fired. I looked at the others in horror, but let out a breath of relief when I saw he shot above their heads as a warning. It still had Alexei and Nestor quickly react and aimed at Damiano. But I wasn’t worried because I knew no one was going to shoot each other here.

Still, a smile got on my lips when I noticed Alexei had grabbed my mother and pulled her behind him to protect her. He was in denial when it came to her, and I know he erupted in so much anger because of this huge secret she had kept from him.

*But she would always be his Solnishko, and he would always be her Lunnyy Svet.*

No matter how much they tried to deny it at the moment.

“Do you want to die?!” Alexei shouted at Damiano.

“Quiet.” Damiano spoke calmly.

“You can all kill each other for all I care. But my wife is a priority and she needs answers. And she better gets those answers right now before I shoot your brains out.”

“Let me just rephrase that real quick.” I sighed and patted Damiano’s arm to calm him down.

“It looks like you have a lot of catching up to do but before that, can we please get to the point where I’m involved first?” I asked, hoping this would stop them from killing each other for a bit.

“Of course, honey.” My mother gave me a smile, but quickly frowned when she noticed Alexei’s arm around her.

“Let go of me. I don’t need your help.” She pushed his arm away to get to me.

“Ungrateful woman.” Alexei scoffed.

“You’re acting like entitled teenagers. It’s embarrassing. Stop it!” I snapped at them, having enough of their fighting already. Luckily, they listened and stopped their bickering.

My mother sat me down on the couch with her, holding my hands in hers as she thought of how to break it all down for me.

I knew there wasn’t much I could be surprised by. I just needed to know how and why she decided to do things the way she did. Whatever it was, I knew she had a good reason for all the decisions she took.

“Okay…” My mother started, and I was finally going to hear the truth.

_______

Thank you for your patience while I was moving!

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