I burst out laughing, going over to hug her. “That’s awful graphic, girl.”
She grins. “You know it.”
I laugh again, beyond happy to have these free moments with everyone I love.
I'll deal with my identity crisis later. Much fucking later.
Chapter 10
Purge
I haveto get away from here. I'm about to beat the ever-loving shit out of 3 if I don’t.
Traversing the hallways, I jump a bit when a buzzing starts up in my pocket, and frown, wondering who’s calling my regular phone.
I pause, knowing Jax told us to only use the burner phone but I simply rerouted my usual number to my regular phone. It's virtually untraceable. I've wrapped it in layers of encryptions.
I pull it out, seeing an unknown number on the screen. I hesitantly bring it to my ear. “Hello?”
“Nikolai. Help me.” A female voice pleads down the line.
Oh, my fucking God. My mother.
“Mother? Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I don’t have long. I got away long enough to find this phone. I'm in some institution for crazy people.”
“What?” I screech.
“Your father put me in here. The other mothers...” A crackling sound comes down the line, and her voice starts breaking up.
“Mother, I can’t hear you. What are you saying?”
“Others... hidden away...”
A long pause follows, and I grow frantic. “Mother?”
“Danger. Your father... the other husbands...”
Fuck. “You’re breaking up. What's the name of the hospital?”
“I don’t know. Drugged...”
I hear a shout in the background, and a male voice getting closer. “Mrs. Volkov. How did you get in here?”
My mother grunts in pain, and I start shouting, to no avail.
“You’re going to isolation for this stunt,” the voice says.
My mother yells, then silence.
And then a male voice comes over the line.
“Who is this?”
I quickly hang up, heart pounding.
My mother has never treated me as anything but a burden. She was not loving or attentive at all. She always backed my father on everything.
