At some point, he began isolating Yannis from me—despite knowing how deeply involved I was in the child’s life—and not just through physical distance alone.
Instead, he had decided to control absence through overcompensation.
He made sure the child never had a spare moment to sit quietly and remember.
Private tutors began arriving in a steady rotation.
Mathematics prodigies recruited from MIT and Stanford.
Language instructors fluent in five different tongues.
A classical literature specialist who assigned readings beyond a child’s grade level.
An Olympic-level fencing coach who ran daily drills across the estate lawn with military precision — positioning stances, correcting footwork, pushing Yannis physically until exhaustion replaced emotion.
The training wasn’t random.
It was structured. Engineered.
Each day followed a rigid timetable designed to eliminate idle space.
If Yannis wasn’t studying, he was practicing.
If he wasn’t practicing, he was performing.
Once a week — always on schedule — a local California news crew would roll up the long driveway in a branded van.
Cameras on.
Lights adjusted. Microphones tested.
Yannis would be placed at the grand piano in the living room or positioned in front of a whiteboard solving advanced calculus equations for his age.
He would smile for the lens. Answer scripted questions.
Demonstrate intelligence. Demonstrate discipline.
Demonstrate success.
Every hour filled with activity meant one hour he wasn’t asking for me.
Ruslan had engineered a system that treated absence like a problem to be neutralized.
Occupy the child completely.
So thoroughly that loneliness became background noise.
So thoroughly that missing his mother became something inconvenient — something buried under expectation and achievement.
And now — four years later — he sat across from me claiming the opposite.
Claiming that the system had failed.
“Yannis stopped responding to it all,” Ruslan said quietly.
His gaze dropped to the blood-streaked blade still resting against his knee.
He stared at it like it was irrelevant.
