Chapter 2 Number 1

Katrina

14 Years Old

I felt it. I felt that sting in my heart.

Something happened to Sasha, Something happened to my twin.

I threw the book I was reading on the floor and ran through the house until I found

Sasha lying down on the floor with blood beside her head, covering her blonde hair while she was whimpering in pain.

I ran then knelt beside her, my white jeans turned crimson as they touched the blood, my heart beating wildly and I had to swallow the lump in my throat at the sight of blood.

"Sasha, Stay calm okay." I said the only thing that came to my mind because what was I supposed to do to help her?

Natalya was pregnant with our brother and father was in a meeting but looking at it, going to father is far better than going to my step mother, because if anything the bitch will be happy that something happened to Sasha.

"Hey," I whispered, turning her head gently so she was looking at me, her eyes held so much fear but what else would I expect from her after such a fall.

"I will go get father and you'll be fine, you don't have to be scared, Sasha." I was reassuring both her and myself because my hands were trembling with fear as well.

"Sestra, I can't feel my legs." Tears ran down her face as she uttered.

God, no. "You'll feel them again, I'll go get father." I was literally jogging down the long stairs, my jeans sticking to my skin from soaking in so much blood, until I reached father's study, raising my fist and knocking on the door hesitantly, not that father would ever be mad at any of us but he always says that business shouldn't be interrupted.

But once I remembered my bleeding twin upstairs, I barged in without waiting for him to answer. "Father, I'm sorry to interrupt but Sasha had an accident." I was able to see that he was going to get a little mad because I came uninvited but the moment I mentioned Sasha all of that disappeared with worry and unlike other people around us, father showed his worry if anything happened to any of us.

"What kind of accident?" He asked, getting from his desk slowly, ignoring the looks that the two men in front of him had and I didn't bother looking at them either. Sasha was much more important.

"She fell down the stairs and is now bleeding." In a blink of an eye father was running up the stairs while Sergei, our bodyguard stayed here and stopped me from following father upstairs.

"Sergei, get the car ready!" Father yelled from upstairs and Sergei immediately looked at me before he pulled my hand and took me towards the front door then crouched down so he was on the same level as me.

"Kat, you stay here alright and if one of these men does something, you know what to do." I only nodded my head because I've been told about this drill too many times so it's not easy to forget them. I either scream or I finish the thing myself even though father never wanted it to get to that one day. And neither did I.

He patted my shoulder then left to get the car and I stayed still where I was, listening for

father's fear for Sasha when I felt the presence of someone behind me so I held my head up high and turned around.

I was met by one of the men who were in the study, the one who looked younger who immediately knelt down on his knees and looked at me with his head tilted to the side.

His eyes were as black as the sky at night, almost scary. His hair had the same color as his eyes. it was a little long and silky so he apparently had to push it back so it wouldn't stick to his face.

He had a very light beard, one you could barely notice, and his lips were pulled in a smile as he examined me the way I did him, then he asked mischievously "What's your name?"

I'm Ivan Russo's daughter and he doesn't know my name? cocked my head to the side and raised one blonde eyebrow then asked, amusement filling my voice "Everyone knows my name, how come you don't?"

He let out the smallest of a chuckle "Because I'm simply not everyone." He reached to touch my hair but I took three steps back immediately.

Rule number one: never be so close to someone, always be three steps away from them.

His eyes showed that he was offended by my action and his hand went back to his side while my heart was beating harshly, my hands laying freely at my sides even though I wanted to fist them so I can take my anger out like that as usual but I can't.

Rule Number Two: You don't show feelings in front of anyone. Not anger or fear or pain.

You show nothing, Katrina.

"Come on, all I asked for is your name and besides someone like you with a man like that being your father, you should be proud to say your name." He made a point but I was smarter than this, I wasn't going to fall for this trap so there is only one way to get rid of him.

"My name is none of your business," Mistake Number One: He showed his surprise the moment I said that and here I thought that he had control over his emotions in front of people like every man around here does.

Guess I was wrong.

"And I'm asking you politely to leave our house because as you can see, we have a situation to control." My hands were now placed in front of me to show a polite manner but it was obvious that he was beyond offended by me telling him to leave the house.

The way his jaw clenched was a sign of anger but a controlled one, he was trying to not let it get the best of him.

But his eyes told a different story, they were burning with anger, it was as if I added gasoline to a fire that was already there but I didn't understand what made him angry and I didn't care.

All I care about now is Sasha, only Sasha.

And it's not like I was going to see this man ever again...

*********************

17 Years Old

"Sasha come on, you have to be with me." I whispered to my sister who was now wiping away her make up after our... bitch of a step mom started talking shit when she saw her coming out of her room to go to the party upstairs.

Our birthday party. Today we turn seventeen and it wouldn't be long before someone asks for our hands for marriage so let's enjoy what we have while we still have it.

"Kat? Can't you see? This woman hated us already because she hated Mom and now she hates me even more ever since I got seated in this chair."

Seated. The word didn't leave Sasha's mouth ever since she fell off the stairs and hit her head hurting her head and her spinal cord causing her to become paralysed and since then she just lost all hope in the world and I was all she had left and I won't ever let go of her.

"Fuck her alright, she can do and say whatever she wants but father will always have our backs and I will always have your back." She was already at the verge of crying before but now, she couldn't even control her tears, something that we didn't share.

I barely ever cried maybe once and twice whenever I thought about what happened to Sasha but I never cried after that, hell I wouldn't cry even if I tried, it's as if my body has full control over everything, including tears.

But then again I'm the one who controlled that body so basically... I'm the problem.

I brought our foreheads together, closing my eyes. Simply wanting to feel again, I wish I could feel anything anymore but ever since our mother died, I stopped feeling, just like that.

No emotions, sadness, happiness, anger. Nothing, I was just an empty nothingness.

Sasha was my only reminder, the one that told me that my heart was still beating l, that I was still a human being not a machine, living to doll up for parties.

If I lose Sasha then I lose everything that ever mattered. If I lose her then I lose myself.

"Sestra, you have to be strong so we can survive, I can't do this without you." I muttered, my voice sounded so broken to the point where I didn't even recognise it or maybe that's what I am when I'm not hiding behind a façade, maybe I'm just broken.

"I'm trying." Sasha cried as she wrapped her arms around my neck, hugging me as if there is no tomorrow and for us there might never be.

A knock on the door had me put on my mask as I pulled back from Sasha but not before I gave her a reassuring smile. I'll be okay.

I got up from the floor, smoothed down my dress then made sure my makeup was not smeared all over my face.

I opened the door to find Nikolay, my little brother who was three years old now and even though he was Natalya's son, Niko was nothing like her, if anything he was everything she wasn't and for that I thanked god every single day.

He took after both father's and Natalya's looks, dark blonde hair like father's and blue eyes but his were so much darker than us, just like Natalya. Mine and Sasha's eyes were almost grey and our hair was from mother as well.

We looked like a doppelganger from mother which is why father's eyes were always filled with emotions whenever he talked or even looked at us because we were a daily reminder of her to him.

"Father wants you two in his office." Niko said in the cutest way possible but before I could answer he continued looking back and forth between me and Sasha "You both look pretty by the way."

Sasha smiled softly and so did I, for once I allowed myself a moment of happiness then went to take a hold of the chair handles and started walking out of the room with Sasha as I told him "no one is pretty around here but you, Niko."

His cheeks turned rosy and he looked down before he ran away from us.

"He is the cutest." Sasha looked after him fondly, no one loved him as much as she did, probably not even his own mother.

I placed Sasha in the powered stairclimber that we got for her the moment this happened to her and walked down the stairs with her placed in it.

But as we were closing in to father's office my guts started knotting in twists, there is this feeling in the pit of my stomach that told me whatever we were walking to, was never going to be any good.

Before I could take Sasha off the climber, Sergei beat me to it and did it for me. Sergei was the perfect example of the big brother I never had, he always looked out for all of us and made sure we were okay. He knows what we love and hate, what makes us happy or sad.

He smiled at both of us but something about his smile was off, he was hiding something.

I knocked on the door then entered and closed the door after I placed Sasha inside.

Only then did I notice the man sitting in the office, I knew him.

The same man from that day.

My eyes went to the man sitting behind but he didn't look in control like he always did, he wasn't even here with us, he was zoned out. "Father, what's wrong?" My voice was controlled like hell, controlled like me.

Father's eyes were filled with pain when he looked at me then at Sasha, forcing my eyes to go to her as well. Was this about her?

"Katrina, This is Daemon Ditio." Father pointed with his hand to the man on the chair, a man I met three years ago who now looked even more intimidating than he did before.

Even bigger or maybe I felt that he did because I was a child when I met him first but why was he here? What did he want?

I still nodded my head at father, who sighed and leaned forward in his chair "He wants to ask--" Father was cut off when Daemon, even his name sounds like the word Demon. Who names their child that?

Not the time, He cut off my father and talked as if he had authority over my father "I'm not asking, Ivan. I'm taking your daughter because she will be a peace bond between us so that I won't kill..." He looked at the man in the other chair who immediately got up and walked towards Sasha.

No! I ran towards my twin only to be yanked back by Daemon as the man pulled a gun and placed it on her head.

I turned my head to look at my father but he only got up from his chair but didn't do anything else, just watched.

"What are you waiting for, call someone and kill them." For the first time in my life, I yelled at my father and I half expected that he would be mad but he bowed down his head yet he still didn't do anything.

What was happening?

"He can't do anything, he's useless now, Katrina." Daemon whispered in my ear, making my anger and fear rise even more as I turned around to look at him with rage in my eyes but he was smiling, he was happy with all of this.

"Can you tell me what the fuck is happening?" I screamed in his face, causing his eyes to take a turn from happiness to anger or disapproval, I didn't know and I didn't care, not at all.

He stepped closer to me but I held my ground like a tree that's rooted in there. "I don't appreciate it that my future wife is using ribald words and a bad attitude, you have to change that."

Future what? He didn't just say future wife.

"I'm not going to marry a man who is pointing a gun at my sister." That was it, I made it plainly clear for everyone in the room, let's hope it reached their brains.

"Oh but you will, unless you want Sal over there to blow your sister's brains out and as you can see, your father is no longer in control. " I turned around to look at Sasha only to find her calm, calmer than I ever thought she would be but once I looked at her... really looked at her, I saw that she was begging me with her eyes to refuse his offer.

She wanted to die or maybe she felt that the moment I left, she'd be in Natalya's hands then death is better than having to stay with her.

Then my gaze went to father, who was still not looking anywhere near us, he was really no longer in control. If he was, he would've stopped this madness.

There is no escaping this, I'm forced to accept this but it will happen on my own terms.

I looked back at Daemon and forced the words out of my mouth, sealing my fate. "Fine I will but I have one term," He nodded his head in a 'Go On.'

"I will take my sister with me and I will take care of her, everything. You won't even feel she's there." My breath hitched, the lump in my throat rising. I swallowed it down and stood still with my unfeeling mask on, pretending that I wasn't dying on the inside.

Daemon looked at everyone in the room before his black eyes settled on me again as he extended his hand out for me to shake it.

"You get to take your sister." He announced and I released a small barely noticeable sigh of relief then heard the man behind us move and I knew that he moved away from Sasha.

My heart was finally back to normal, knowing that she's okay.

I took Daemon's hand in my and shook it quickly then back away to be as close to Sasha as possible and I knew that he saw and understood my movement but I didn't give it too much thought.

We were all okay and that's what matters.

"Next year on this same exact date, the wedding will happen." Daemon Declared then left the study, leaving all of us to get this thing inside our heads.

One Year.