Our Flame

vii

NADIA

I walk into the kitchen and it's dead silent, I think I can hear my own heartbeat. I walk to the fridge ignoring everyone's stares.

"Papa's in prison."

I turn my head, Aleksi looks upset about it while everyone else has a blank expression on their face. Probably because they know it's right where he should be.

Well, he should be in hell but jail works too.

"Good." I go back to looking in the fridge. "Do we have any fruit I- Seriously Nadia, Good?" Aleksi interrupts me. I sigh turning back around.

"What do you want me to say?" I question. Aleksi scoffs. "I want you to show some type of empathy towards him." I open my mouth to speak.

"You don't know what it's like to miss him."

Is he serious?

Everyone stares at the two of us, watching the scene unfold. "You didn't have to lose both parents in one day, you got to keep one." I shake my head at his words.

"He was never a parent to me, so I lost everything that day."

"Shut up." I say as he opens his mouth. "Just shut the fuck up."

"I'm so tired of you acting like he was a saint. He doesn't care about you, he doesn't care about any of us. Look around, he's not here." Aleksi looks angry but I keep going.

"In the past seven years, he never once mentioned you. He never once tried to reach out to you."

"That doesn't mean anything." Aleksi denies. "You're in denial, Papa doesn't love you anymore." I tell. "He doesn't love any of us."

His whole demeanor changes at that, like father like son. "What'd you just say?" He stands up. "Alek." Viktor warns. "Sit down."

I cross my arms, "Did I hit a nerve?" Aleksi lets out a fake laugh. "One call to the cops, your ass goes to prison." I was shocked at his tone but quickly composed myself.

"Maybe bringing you back here was a mistake."

Ouch.

"I mean Mama was only supposed to have one more kid, a boy- Aleksi shut the fuck up." Luka rushed to interrupt.

"No No, she wants to act like this she should know the truth. Papa had a dream, a family of boys- it's all he wanted. It's what was best for the business. But he got stuck with you." Aleksi pokes my shoulder at the end. I look at his hand then back at him.

"Get your- You're the out of place piece in this family, the person that just doesn't fit." I let out a breath.

"I mean you almost killed Mama just by being here, you're the reason she couldn't have anymore kids."

Aleksi gets closer to me, grabbing both of my shoulders aggressively shaking me. He then gets closer to my face making sure I can hear his words.

"You are a parasite to this family, the worst part of us." Aleksi whispers the last part.

I should control my anger better but in this case it was only appropriate. I punch him, hard in the side of the face. "That's how you want to play this, Nadia."

Out of the corner of my eye I see the rest of my brothers stand up, that's when he does it. Aleksi pushes me into the sharp end of the counter causing me to groan.

Aleksi is definitely like his father.

Our brothers are yelling, Gianna is calming down Niko. Someone grabbed Aleksi holding him back and another brother is holding me back.