“No, brother, ” I answered with my hands placed atop the headrest of the chair. “I prefer to stand.”
“You look uneasy. Are you alright?” Konstantin asked.
“Yeah. Just had a long night. I had some work to attend to.”
“Hmm…” Konstantin stood upright and arranged his inner jacket, and my attention turned to notice the things that were on the table. A pile of books was arrayed neatly by the corner at the left side where Viktor was. Stacks of papers in a blue folder were on the right side, and in front of him was a black notebook, but it was closed.
I had the slight urge to tell them about what I saw when I drove my car outside the mansion, but I didn’t think it was much of a case to be mentioned. Besides, if I mentioned it, they’d treat it the same way and mount my entire house with guards, and I didn’t want that. It would draw lots of attention, and Liza would be disturbed.
So I shrugged off the thought and stood still. Konstantin saw correctly, I was uneasy, and I didn’t want to feel relaxed. Sitting in a chair was only going to make me think deeply aboutthe things that might be beyond my control. Standing, on the other hand, regulated me.
Konstantin moved from the wall and sat on the chair. I moved to the side of the table, and Viktor took out a cigar from the pack. He lit it up, inhaled, and gave me a careful gaze.
“There’s more news. We’ve traced Arkady’s flight to Dubai.” I questioned myself on why in the world Arkady went to Dubai, and Konstantin uttered in retort after Viktor exhaled the smoke from the side of his mouth.
“Turns out the final sale isn’t just a shipment route.”
“Okay,” I said. “Do you have a clue what it is?”
“It’s a human cargo, Roman, and it gets worse.” I took my hands out of my pockets and folded them across my chest. “Arkady has promised Liza to a rival syndicate to clear out all his debts.”
The words that came out of Konstantin’s lips weren’t hopeful. They filled me with a rage that made me clench my jaw and ball my fist like I was ready to take a good hit on Arkady’s face like a punching bag.
Somehow, the thought of Liza wasn’t far-fetched whenever her father’s name was mentioned. To him, she was just a pawn to be used by him, and Arkady was a very bad example of a father. God forbid such an atrocious occurrence turns up in my home. News of this sort gave me hope that I would be a better father to our baby, and it was because of this very reason that I couldn’t let her be used. No, not when I was alive. Not after all that we’ve been through together. Her sacrifice and suffering. She’s my wife for crying out loud, carrying my child. How stupid it is for Arkady to do such a thing.
I took a vow to protect her at all cost and I meant it. I wouldn’t let Arkady’s plan work out. No man would ever have the right to use my Liza, whether it be for revenge or repayment of whatever it was that they owed. It would be more than aslap to the face to watch my Liza get used. Even if there was a justification to it, I wouldn’t let it happen, and I wasn’t going to sit with my arms folded like a coward either, because there’s no way in the world that I’d turn out like Arkady, not even in the afterlife.
***********
I headed back to my mansion, and everything seemed calm. I parked in the garage, barging past the security guards who were on standby. I stormed into the rage, and I saw Liza. She jumped to her feet with a smile when I walked in. I felt nothing when she hugged me. The information I had in my possession was stronger than any emotion at the moment.
“Where have you been?” she inquired. Her voice was filled with concern, and I stood with my neck stiffened in contemplation of how to answer. A mere look at her reminded me of how much I had to be there for her and protect her, yet I felt like something was off. There were things I needed to know, information I needed to find my way around Arkady’s plans. So I looked at her with a sigh and replied dryly.
“I went out.”
“Alina told me you went for a meeting.”
“Yeah, I had to leave early to see Viktor and Konstantin. Something came up.”
“And you didn’t leave a note.” I didn’t reply to her, so she stood, took a step away from me, and looked at my face.
“Tell me, Liza,” I asked as soon as we broke the embrace. “What do you know about your father?”
I observed how her countenance changed before she released a dead sigh. She looked down for a while, and by the time she raised her head up, her eyes were drenched with tears.
“What happened?” I asked, and she sniffed. Liza cleaned the tears that flowed down her cheeks with the back of her hand.
“I’ve been collecting evidence, Roman.” Her words were heavy, my heart sank, yet she stood her ground, and her voice wasn’t disheveled.
“For how long?”
“Months,” she said, and I ran my hand through my hair. What does she mean? She’s been collecting evidence for months, and we’ve been together all the while, yet she didn’t say anything.
“That’s crazy,” I managed to whisper in a low tone.
“I didn’t know that he meant to sell me, Roman. All I knew was that he was dirty.”
I didn’t know what to do. My teeth were clenched behind my mouth. My fist stiffened while I observed my breath. I didn’t want to take this as betrayal. In a way, I felt like her revelation was late. If she had said something months earlier, I’d be safe, I thought. We’d all be safe. Now, danger seemed to have no boundaries, and the walls around us seemed to close in.
