A Lifetime With You by Athrhteera

Alena

My body froze almost immediately as the man grabbed me by the waist, preventing my fall. My eyes couldn't look away from him even if I wanted to but as soon as he caught me, he was quicker to let me go. However, it felt as if everything moved in slow motion. Those piercing eyes stared at me and straight into my soul. The smirk plastered on his face did not go unnoticed as well but it disappeared when he helped me get on my feet before he walked away into the busy crowd outside. I knew I should've screamed but I froze.

My mind went blank at the sight of him when I was supposed to scream as loud as I could and he could be caught by Igor. I remained still at my spot when a couple of strangers came to check up on me, asking if I was fine. Mama and Igor rushed towards me, asking the same question.

I was staring straight into Mama's eyes but I couldn't answer her. My body was in shock from bumping into the man who had kidnapped, tortured and starved me-I was traumatised by the bad experience and he knew. He knew I was terrified and he could it as an advantage.

"Alena, what's wrong? Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?" Mama continued to ask, checking up on me. -

We walked back towards the table before we sat down and Igor immediately went to check on my pulse, noticing it was beating faster than usual. I didn't realise the tears had fallen down my cheeks when I remembered the situation he put me through. "Alena?"

"We need to bring her home," Igor said.

"I should call Matteo."

I blinked a few times, "No. Don't call Matteo,"

"Honey... you're in shock. Who was that man?" Mama asked, frowning.

"It was him."

"Who?"

"Him. The one who... the one who kidnapped me," I stuttered as I tried to hold back the tears but I failed and they kept falling down my cheeks. I didn't mind if they could ruin my makeup because all I could think of was him holding onto me.

If I was alone today without Mama and Igor around, he could've kidnapped me again. The look on his face showed it all too well, he wasn't scared of anything, he was capable of hurting me whenever he wanted to.

I, on the other hand, was terrified.

"I'm calling Mikhail," Igor stood up before he went to dial on his phone.

Mama continued to stay beside me as she pulled me in for a hug, trying her best to calm me down. My body was shaking in fear and all I wanted to do was be somewhere safer-different scenarios began to play in my head. I was beginning to worry about going back to work next week.

What if he followed me there? What if he harmed me?

3

Different questions were playing in my head.

""We're going home. Now." Igor said, helping me up. ☐☐☐☐☐ ☐☐☐ 87%!

Mama followed closely as we walked towards the car and once we had stepped inside, Igor immediately locked the doors. He drove as fast as he could through the busy traffic, eyeing our surroundings incase we were being followed but luckily enough for us, we made it home safely.

However, when we reached home, a few familiar cars were already parked up front.

I noticed Papa and Alexei's cars. There was also Matteo's car in the middle and Luca's car near his-they had parked in a hurry, they didn't even bother to park straight. I knew they had rushed here when Igor called because they were worried about me. As soon as I stepped out of the car, Matteo was already there to pull me close.

I looked up into his eyes as he cupped onto my face, a frown had appeared in between his brows. He was worried about me and it was obvious; this time he couldn't risk anything to happen to me because he knew Papa was watching us like a hawk. Matteo grabbed onto my hand as we walked inside the house.

Mama and Igor followed behind before they closed the door.

Once I entered the living room, I saw Papa, Alexei and Luca. They were having an intense conversation but they went quiet as soon as they saw me entered the room. Alexei seemed slightly tensed as he stood by the sofa, watching Papa making his way towards me. Papa pulled me into a hug, "Are you okay, Alena?"

I nodded, "He didn't do anything."

"Why didn't you scream? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I froze. I'm sorry," I replied.

Matteo shook his head, placing his hand on my back.

"Don't apologise. It's not your fault," he responded.

Papa went to hug Mama before asking about her condition. Mama seemed to be in shock as well but she managed to calm herself on the way here-she didn't want Papa to worry because nothing bad happened. Something worse could've happened but it didn't. One thing we could be grateful for.

"You should sit down," Matteo said as he helped me to sit down on the sofa.

Angelo walked in with a glass of water before handing it to me. I mouthed him a 'thank you' and he responded back with a nod, going ahead to stand beside Luca.

I didn't expect for everyone important to be here when Igor said he was going to call Papa Thad expected Matteo to come home because he had sent me a text message earlier but the rest of them being here, made me feel thankful. They were prioritising me. Alexei sighed deeply, "You should've ran after him, Igor,"

Igor looked down, "I'm sorry. I didn't think he was trouble."

"You didn't think? Something could've happened to my sister and you just decided to let it slide? Seems like you're not fit to go back to work," he replied.

wed,

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"That's enough, Alyosha. It wasn't Igor's fault." I defended him because I knew it wasn't his fault. He was with Mama and he didn't notice anything was wrong. "If there's anyone else to blame, it should be. I froze when I should've screamed. If I screamed, Igor would've noticed and he could run after him."

"And make a public scene? It's a good thing you didn't," Luca interrupted.

Matteo stood still as he crossed his arms, deep in his thoughts.

Alexei was nowhere near calm as he paced the room, somehow trying to find a distraction. One thing I never liked about my dear brother, he was finding anything or anyone else to blame as soon as he could despite not knowing the real situation. He had a temper and he was still having trouble trying to control it,

"Did he hurt you? Did he try to do anything?" My husband asked as he sat beside me, grabbing onto my hand.

I shook my head, "I almost stumbled forward but he caught me and that was it. He didn't try or do anything to hurt me. Then, he just left."

"Are you sure it was him?"

"It was him. I'm sure it was him," I replied.

Matteo nodded, "Then, he won't be far. He's in the city and I don't think he even left the city after we found you. Was he the one who hurt you, Alena?"

My body tensed as I remembered the pain I went through. The exact same man had tortured me, broke my bones and tried to rape me-he wasn't human, he was a monster. He didn't have a heart because if he did, he wasn't capable of doing those things. He did it without a single regret and he would do it again if he was being asked to.

"Hey, it's okay. You're safe," Matteo added before wrapping his arms around my body.

"I'm just really scared," I tried to control my breaths as I cried.

"Oh, honey." Mama said as she leaned onto Papa. It broke my heart to see her like that, after everything we went through together. She hated seeing her daughter like this and I hated it more, letting her see me like this.

Alexei had both of his hands in his jeans' pockets, "He got away. God knows when he decides to show up again."

"I think we should be grateful that Alena's safe," Luca said, raising an eyebrow.

It was clear these two didn't go along with each other but it was probably just the anger being in the way. Alexei was eager to finish the man off while Luca tried to reason. They weren't agreeing with each other and it was only going to make the situation worse by fighting. We weren't supposed to be fighting.Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.

"She's safe now. What happens when she leaves the house again?

"We can't know what's going to happen in the future."

"That's why we can't leave this hanging. We need to find him and end him,"

Matteo noticed that I was beginning to have a panic attack and he immediately grabbed onto my hand before he turned to look at them. I tried my hardest to control my breaths to calm myself down but Alexei and Luca didn't even notice my distress.

"I'd appreciate it if you two could take it outside," Matteo said.

Both Alexei and Luca turned to look at me before they nodded their heads, keeping quiet.

3

I felt as if the world was spinning around me and I was being succumbed into the darkness. The only thing that kept me awake was by gripping onto Matteo's hand.

"I'll take you upstairs," he whispered in my car before he picked me up and began to walk up the stairs, leaving everyone behind.

I clung onto him as if my life depended on it.

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