Chapter Fourteen: Marianna
It was a few months ago that I was looking for answers about my biological parents, wondering what they were like, but I never thought that I would have the chance to meet them, only to learn how vile they truly were. I’m here now, in the Andreyev Mansion, with more questions than I’ve ever had when Rurik first met with me, when he told me that they’d ordered me to be killed. Now, it seems that they have had a change of heart, and I can see that Luka only sees me as an opportunity, after he’s seen me in action himself. I’ve never felt this disgusted in my entire life, but I have to play along, just until I manage to get out.
I wondered if Rurik was ever going to forgive me for giving myself up to protect him, because I was the one that told him that we were going to take down the Andreyev Family together. I knew that the only way that I was ever going to see him again, was if I continued to play by Luka’s rules, listening carefully to every little detail he could offer, because I wasn’t sure what he was going to have me do to prove my loyalty, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be pretty. I sat across from them both while they offered me tea that one of their wait staff brought in for me, and the piping hot liquid was enticing, something to calm my nerves, and so I took the teacup into my hands, sipping lightly while they did as well.
It was strange because it was the kind of meeting that I always pictured myself having if I were to ever have contacted them. It was what I’d been dreaming about since I’d found out that I was adopted, but I never could’ve pictured that I would’ve gotten here under these circumstances, that the very people that were now trying to accept me, were the same that ordered me to be killed due to the fact that they were scared I would come after their fortune. I didn’t understand then how such a powerful family could be so scared of someone that the world hadn’t even known about back then, but it was Rurik that told me just how much I’d be able to get out of people just by proving that I was their daughter. Now, I was going to put that to the test, because the only way that I could see myself surviving this, would be for me to look for any opportunity to get under their skin, to make them believe that I want to be here, just so I can find their weak link and have the chance to exploit it.
“It’s nice to have you here, Marianna. I know that Luka hasn’t been the kindest to you after learning that you’ve wanted to meet with us for some time, but I want you to know that I never wanted to give you up in the first place. It wasn’t the right time for us to have children, and we had far too much to focus on back then, but I’ve never stopped thinking about what kind of woman you would’ve grown up to be, and I have to say you’ve exceeded my expectations,” said Mrs. Andreyev, and I nodded politely, not quite sure how to respond to something like that, especially because I knew she was well aware that if Luka had his way, I wouldn’t have even been here speaking to them.
“I was a bit too rash in the beginning, Marianna. I was acting out of fear because I believed that you wanted to infiltrate this family, to take things away from us, but I see now that you were just a girl looking for some answers, and I’m willing to tell you whatever you want to know,” said Luka, but I couldn’t seem to keep my composure anymore because underneath it all, I was absolutely fuming. My blood was boiling at the thought of what he was going to do to me, to Rurik, and Kir if I hadn’t begged for him to let them go. I wasn’t going to let him try to manipulate me, because if he succeeded at that, I knew that there would be nothing else that would save me. I had to keep my head on straight, remember that I was only there to get the Andreyevs to trust me, because unlike the other men that Luka had doing his bidding for him, I had a different kind of pull, one that would truly be able to make waves if I was given the opportunity.
“You’re going to tell me what I want to know just so you can kill me? That is what you want, after all. You’ve made it pretty clear that you want nothing to do with me. You kidnapped my best friend, destroyed the life I had, and I wasn’t anywhere close to finding out what you people were really about. Now, I see that you’re just as terrible as everyone makes you out to be, and frankly, I don’t care what you do to me, I just want you to let my friends roam free,” I said, and he nodded at me.
“Are you talking about Larissa?”
“I’m talking about them all,” I confirmed.
“I’m afraid that we got rid of the Larissa problem a long time ago, but as for the rest of them, I have to say that they’re hardly your friends. I see that you’ve developed feelings for the Volkov boy, otherwise you wouldn’t have even agreed to come with me in the first place, but I’m telling you right now that you’re wasting your time chasing after someone like him,” he said, completely brushing off the news about Larissa, and I felt my heart sink into my stomach, but I wasn’t going to cry in front of them. I could already tell that they weren’t the type of people that would take too kindly to weakness, and I was going to make sure that they believed I was as headstrong and ready to do whatever it took to protect myself as they initially believed. I wouldn’t have been here otherwise, and I wasn’t going to give up, but there was a part of me that couldn’t process the fact that Larissa was gone. It was something I’d feared for such a long time, and to hear that it was possibly true frightened me, tore me apart, but I had to keep my composure, I had to keep my head held high, because if they really did hurt Larissa, I would have all the more reason to take them out once and for all.
“You killed Larissa?” I asked, bluntly.
“Let’s just say she won’t be bothering us anymore. Now, let’s talk about why you’re here, and why you’re alive, Marianna. I can admit that my feelings about you have changed, and now I see that you would be a great asset to this family. I never wanted to have children because it was the kind of burden I didn’t want to bear, and there was no guarantee that they were going to grow up to make me proud, but I see now that I was wrong. You’ve shown me that you’re capable of doing things much better than any of the people I have working for me, because you have a natural talent, one that has to be in your blood, and it would be a shame if you let that go to waste,” he said, and I couldn’t believe that he was trying to sell me on the idea of joining them out of my own free will, like that was something I would even consider, but I could see that he was testing me. He wanted to see how far he could push me before I couldn’t take anymore, before I would show him that I had no interest in playing his little games, and I had to make sure that he didn’t get the upper hand on me this time.
“Why should I join you? If I’m as good as you say you are, why should I stay here when I can go out there and make a name for myself?” I asked, pointing at their grand front door.
“You may not see it now, Marianna but it’s far more difficult of a task than you realize to go out there and try to get people to trust you, or even to fear you. You’ll learn that when you get accustomed to living here,” he said, and it was then that I realized he already had a lifelong plan for me, one that I would never be able to break out of if I tried. I had a feeling that he was going to hit me with something like that, but I couldn’t deny that he had everything he needed to keep me locked up behind his grand mansion walls, doing as he says to make sure I stay alive.
That was the name of his game, the way he operated, and I had to make sure that I at least got something out of it. I needed more answers, and he did say that he was going to tell me whatever I wanted to hear, so I had to take him up on the offer, especially because I didn’t know how long it would be before I felt my freedom again.
“You said that you would tell me what I want to hear, but you dance around my questions, so let me ask you again, what did you do with Larissa?”
“If I have you meet with her, will that make you feel better, more inclined to stick around and not cause any trouble?” he asked, with an uncomfortably noticeable smirk playing upon his face.
“Yes, it would.”
“Darling, would you fetch Larissa for me?” he asked his wife, and I had no idea what I was about to see, what kind of conditions she was going to be under, but I braced myself. I was finally going to get to see my best friend again, and I knew that the moment I had a chance, I would let her know that I was going to find any way to get us out of here.Where are you, Larissa? What have they done to you?
I waited anxiously, smoothing my pant legs in anticipation, when I saw Mrs. Andreyev make her way back into the room, and when my eyes caught sight of the woman that followed behind her, I truly couldn’t believe it. She wasn’t tied up, her clothes torn, her hair unwashed like I’d imagined her to be, but she was perfectly put together, her skin was glowing, her hair was immaculate, and she looked at me like she’d just seen a long lost friend.
“It’s so nice to see you, Marie. I’ve been asking Tanya and Luka when they were going to let me see you again, but if I knew that you were coming I would’ve freshened up a bit more,” she said, embracing me, and I couldn’t help but be confused. She looked like a completely different person, like she abandoned every trace of her old life to assume a role that didn’t belong to her, and it was truly even worse than I thought.
“You look lovely, Larissa. I have to say I wasn’t expecting you to look so-”
“Clean and well taken care of? Trust me, I had the very same reaction you did when the Andreyev Family took me in, but I have to say that I’ve come to be quite grateful to them because if it weren’t for their kindness, I wouldn’t have been able to stay with Anton. I’m glad that you’re finally going to get the chance to meet him, I’ve been telling him quite a lot about you,” she said, and I looked at her like she was really so strange, because it was like they’d turned her into everything they wanted me to be, setting the perfect example for me, to show me that this life wasn’t all bad and I was truly missing out. I didn’t want to let her sway me into thinking that this was possible, that I was going to somehow forget everything that I’d learned about the Andreyev Family’s true nature and just assume position as another one of their minions. I didn’t want to end up like them, and I was surprised that there was even a part of Larissa that wanted that.
They had to have tortured her past her breaking point. That is the only thing that makes sense, because if it wasn’t for that, she’d probably still be begging them to let her out of wherever she was being held. I need to know more, I need to make sure that my best friend snaps out of this, and that she remembers the terrible things they’ve done. Though, I fear that they’ve already let her in on their little secrets, getting her to do the very same things they had Rurik do. I’m not sure she’s going to be able to come back from that when she starts to realize that this isn’t permanent for her. She isn’t me, and they’re not going to keep her around any longer than they have to. I have to fix this, before things get uglier, because I’m truly living my worst nightmare right now.
“That would be lovely, but I’m going to have to ask you if I can meet him another time. It seems I have some settling in to do, as I’m sure you’re well aware. We’ll have some more time to chat when I get things in order. Please, Tanya, will you show me to where I will be staying?” I asked, trying to ignore the fact that I was looking at a carbon copy of her in Larissa, that she practically modelled her younger self on my best friend, and it was truly one of the most frightening things I’d ever seen.
“Of course, dear. Please, call me Mother,” she said, and I truly couldn’t believe that those words even left her lips. I wondered for a moment if what she said was true, and that she was the only one that wanted to keep me, but Luka forced her to let me go. They dropped me off at my parents’ house like I was just a piece of furniture they needed to get rid of, and they never looked back until I made it exceptionally clear that I was a force to be reckoned with and that I wanted to be heard. After seeing what they’d done to Larissa, I needed to lie down, I needed to recuperate for a few moments after what I’d seen, because I genuinely thought that I was going to be sick. I followed Tanya up the grand staircase, watching while she led me down the hallway to the room across from the master bedroom, opening up the exquisite double doors to reveal one of the most beautiful bedrooms I’d truly ever seen in my entire life. It was something straight out of a fairytale, wrapped up in the horrific truth of what occurs behind these very walls, but the look in Tanya’s eyes told me that there was a part of her that always wanted me to see this.
“I had this room built a few days before you were born, because I truly thought that I would be able to convince Luka to let me keep the baby, but the truth is he always gets what he wants,” she said, placing both of her hands on my shoulders maternally, giving them a light squeeze before she left me alone, shutting the door behind her, while I collapsed onto the floor right then. It was too much for me to take in, and I felt like I was drowning, gasping for air, losing any and all sense of what was real anymore. They’d gone far beyond anything that I thought they would do, and it hurt my heart to think that death would’ve been kinder to Larissa, because she was certainly going to wake up one day and realize what she’d done. When she finally realizes how many people she’d hurt, how much trouble she’d been in, it was going to be too late, and my best friend would be gone for good.
I had to get to her, I had to convince her that she was making a great mistake by staying here, by letting them take charge of her life as though they owned her, because she truly felt like she belonged. I didn’t know how to compete with that because this was so much more to her than the life we shared together before this all started. She’d always wanted to live happily ever after with her prince, in a castle, tending to her responsibilities. She wanted it so bad that she let Anton get inside of her head, convince her that this was going to be everything she’d ever wanted, but surely even he had to understand that they were both not going to make it out of this. It was either that or Luka had Anton wrapped around his little finger, unable to say no even when it came to Larissa. I had to find out who did this to her, what caused her to be this way, because I was so afraid that I was going to lose my best friend for good, that any chance she had at living a normal life was gone the moment she stepped foot through the front door.
You can’t give up now. She may be caught up in all of this, but that doesn’t mean that you’re going to join her. You have to remember that this is all just a lie, one big façade waiting to crash down around you both, and you’re going to have to start uncovering their secrets if you want to get under their skin, if you want to have any chance of getting out of here at all.I told myself, crawling into bed in my day clothes trying to forget everything that happened, and I wanted nothing more than to lay there, to allow myself to forget the pain for a little while, pretending like everything was just a dream that I’d eventually wake up from. I slept for what felt like ages, but when my eyes finally fluttered open, it was like I didn’t even get any rest at all.
I was immediately flooded with thoughts of everything I’d experienced over the last few months, of how much chaos has enveloped my life, taking me down to the darkest parts of myself and everyone that I know and love. It was far too scary for me to understand, but I knew that I had to start asking the right questions, because it wasn’t going to be long before Luka had me prove my loyalty to them, otherwise I was sure that he was going to destroy everything I love bit by bit while I watched. That was the kind of man he was, and I never wanted to forget how much pain he put me through. He never wanted to be a father, and he was only pretending to care because he saw the perfect opportunity to turn me into something that he could be able to control. I could’ve only imagined the terrible things he was going to ask me to do in order to make sure that I wasn’t planning on running away, on trying to get out, because I could already tell that he didn’t take too kindly to betrayal.I have to keep it all a secret, hide it deep within myself as I uncover everything that I need to make my escape, and I can only hope that when that time comes, Larissa is going to want to join me. I’ve never been caught in the middle of something like this before, and I can’t help but wonder whether Rurik had truly turned away from me, trying to put the thought of me out of his mind, or if he’d try again to rescue me one day. I wanted him to be free so he wouldn’t have to live in fear, but I also secretly hope that he cares enough about me to come looking. Until then, I’m just going to have to figure this out on my own.
