Lights, Camera, Action ✔~ trixya

Chapter 41: Like Father, Like Daughter

Katya parked her car, and walked up to the large staircase leading up to the main entrance. The mansion was old but pristine, stone walls with beautiful stained glass windows and a garden larger than anything she'd ever seen anywhere else. It wasn't the house she had grown up in, but it was the house her father had wanted her to move into. But Katya had refused, instead choosing to stay with the woman he left behind. 

She rang the doorbell, and moments later a familiar woman opened the door.

"Katya, oh my god, hey. We haven't seen you around for ages." The woman said in surprise with a smile.

"Yeah, and don't get used to it, it won't be a regular occurrence. I need to talk to Viktor. Is he available?" Katya said. 

"Viktor, really? You're not even calling him dad anymore?"

"What I call him is none of your business, Lara. Now tell me; is he home or not?" Katya spat back.

"Go wait in his office, I'll tell him you're here." Lara told her with a sigh before walking upstairs. 

Katya avoided looking at the walls as she made her way down the hallway to her dad's office. She couldn't handle seeing the pictures that covered them, the memories that he'd replaced theirs with, the family that he had picked over theirs, the life that was more important than her. 

There wasn't a single picture of her or her mom on his walls, the only child shown was a young girl with long brown curls. His new daughter, Sonya, the one he would give all the attention and care that he never gave Katya. 

She hated being in his house, hated seeing how he had erased them from his life. Katya knew that part of it was her own fault, she made the choices she made, but so many of the decisions she had to make shouldn't have been put on her shoulders to begin with. 

"I see you can still remember your way around the house, would've thought you needed a guide with how little time you spend here." Her dad said as he entered the room.

"I have no reason to hang around here."

"You're my daughter, Yekaterina." Viktor said.

"Really? Wouldn't think so from looking at your walls, or do you find it normal to have no pictures of your first-born?" Katya replied. 

 "Kathinka, you can not expect me to have pictures of you with the sort of videos you make. I can not have business associates recognizing you from that filth."

"That's rich, it really is. You really wanna blame my porn company for why you can't have pictures of me on the walls? Recent ones I could understand, but you've got none at all! Not even a fucking baby picture! Meanwhile, perfect little Sonya and her perfect mom can cover the tapestry. You've tried to erase our life, don't lie, and don't try to blame me for not wanting to be here." The blue-eyed girl said.

"I asked you to come with me, you chose to stay." Her dad said.

"Yeah, you asked me to come with you and Lara, and leave my mom! Do you even get how fucked up that is? I was fifteen, Lara was twenty-two, young enough to be my fucking older sister, and you wanted me to leave my mom and just accept her as family!" 

Katya hadn't planned for a full confrontation, but for years the words and thoughts had been avoided, building inside her like a ticking time bomb, and now she was exploding all at once.

"You mom was an alcoholic. She was out of control!" Viktor argued.

"And who's fault was that?! God, you're so far up your own ass that you can't even see how you ruined us all. Nine years! For nine years you tormented her, made her do procedure after procedure, made her feel like shit even tho you were the one who was cheating, made me unable to sleep at night because I terrified that you wouldn't come home. So yeah, she started drinking and she finally lost control, but it was because you broke her down." Katya said, anger having taken over entirely.

"I fell in love, Katya. I couldn't help it, we can't control our feelings."

"Oh please! Did you fall in love every night for nine years with different women? No, you didn't. And even if you had, would that be a defense for breaking your promise, for breaking your vows? For forcing your wife to change her entire appearance?"

"I was trying to find a way for us to be able to stay together, renew the relationship, relight the fire. I was trying to find a solution!" The man said.

"No, you were trying to get her to be something she could never be. She wasn't the young girl you fell for anymore so you went out and found younger women whilst making her think that if she just changed enough, you'd stay." Katya said, breathing deeply before continuing, tears starting to fall. "She loved you, dad. She loved you unconditionally, God, she still does. Like a fool she sits with those goddamn old photo albums, with her head stuck in the past. She'd do anything for you, and you just kept hurting her. And then you expected me to leave her? I couldn't do that... But I was young and naive so I thought you'd at least come visit me, make sure to see me regularly, but you didn't make any effort at all... You just left me..."

There was a silence, a silence Katya knew all too well. It meant the conversation was over, he wouldn't respond to it, instead he'd act like they'd never discussed it at all. It was the greatest card in the stack, and he always kept it on hand, ready to throw it out when things got inconvenient. 

"Why are you here, Yekaterina?" Her dad finally sighed out, switching the subject as she knew he would.

"I need twenty million. Transfer it to my account, I'll repay it when I can."

"You know you don't have to pay it back." Viktor told her.

"No, I do. I can't let you have something to hold over my head." Katya replied.

"Fine, why do you need it?"

"That's my business." The woman replied.

"Katya, if I'm giving you twenty million, I'd like to know what you need it for. Last time you took my money you threw it into that awful company of yours, started corrupting my family name with that filth." Her dad said, and Katya tried not to smile from how much her porn career got under his skin.

"Fine. I made a promise to help someone, and unlike you, I don't break my promises." 

"You're more like me then you'd like to admit."

"I am nothing like you." The girl spat back.

"Maybe you don't see it, Kathinka, but we have so much in common, even if our choices are different... I'll have the funds transferred to you." Viktor replied.

"Good." Katya said before turning to leave, wanting to exit the house as quickly as possible.

"She must be special." She heard the man behind her say.

"She is, and I'll treasure that. I won't make the same mistake you did."