Unbounded Love

Chapter Five

One week had passed since we'd visited the police chief. Since I'd run into the cold and away from Alexei, avoiding him like the plague. From the looks of it, he was doing the same too since I had barely seen him around the house. My heart hurt at the fact that there was so much distance between us, that we were close to becoming strangers now. But I stood by my decision. If he wanted me, he could man up and tell me. He didn't get to conveniently act like I was his and then ignore me the next second.

I'd always known that Alexei had issues, demons lurking behind his cold persona. Something I'd noticed since he was sixteen. I was only thirteen myself at that time, but I saw a change in him then. A change not even Mikhail had noticed. I had always been a perceptive child - even more so when it came to Alexei because at that time, I truly believed that he was the love of my life.

It had been a dreary, winter night when he'd come home. I'd been arguing at the dining table with Ilaria about how Lev - one of our classmates in the private school that we were in - had tried to kiss me, but I'd pushed him away. Ilaria had chastised me, telling me that I'd probably missed out on a chance to get my first foot popping, Hallmark movie style kiss from one of the most popular guys in our grade. I'd understood why she'd thought I was crazy to give up such a golden opportunity. I'd justified it by telling her that I just wasn't interested in him, knowing that she'd eventually stop bugging me. But the truth was, I was saving it. Saving all my firsts for one boy and one boy only. And it had happened - only not in the way I had expected.

Alexei's presence had cut short our argument as my eyes immediately took in his shivering form. Sergei had encouraged Alexei to go to therapy sessions since he suffered from nightmares for the longest time. It had been helping so far because the screams piercing through the night air were far and few in between. But something was wrong that day when he came home. It had only been six months since he'd first started his sessions with that woman, but that particular night stood out the most to me. It was like he'd become a shell of a person he used to be. His eyes were empty, his hands rigidly stuck to his side as Sergei called him over to sit down for dinner.

Years later, everybody had chalked up his detached behavior to the consequences of seeing too much blood and violence. But I knew better. I knew there was some other reason. But I couldn't even ask him because he'd started to distance himself from everyone - including Mikhail and Ilaria. And then, I'd proceeded to make the biggest mistake of my life and fuck everything up five years later. And now here we were. Back to square one. I should have regretted that one shabby action that had led to a gap between us but for some reason, I just couldn't find it in me to take it back - no matter how much it ruined our relationship later on. Fucking idiot.

"Sofia..." A voice drawled from the sitting room. "Sofia? Solnyshkuh? I can hear you, you know?"

Despite my mind warring with my heart over not entering the room, my heart won as my footsteps led me to the sight of my drunk uncle. Nothing new there.

"What do you want this time Sergei?" My voice was brittle and to the point.

No matter how much the younger Sofia adored her uncle, she could and would never forgive him for the shit that he put his children through at such a young age. For not protecting Alexei when he needed him. For pushing me away and turning to alcohol when I needed him the most. Yes, he'd lost his brother that fateful night and his wife had left just days later. But what he forgot was that I'd lost both my parents and Mikhail and Ilaria had lost their mom as well. We'd all been orphaned in a way.

"Tsk tsk. Is this how you talk to your dyadya?"

"My dyadya died the day he forced my cousin sister to marry a rapist. So no, I don't know how to talk to my uncle." I quipped, my temper slowly but surely rising at the mention of anything related to Ilaria.

"Nonsense, Sofia." He stood up, his body tilting to the side due to how off balance he was.

The near empty bottle of whiskey had gone to his head, his pupils red rimmed and blown as they stared at me.

"You look just like him." He sighed as he reached out a hand for me.

"Don't fucking touch me." I snapped.

"Come here, you ungrateful little brat. I clothed you, sheltered you and gave you food, you little shit." He spit out as I stepped further back, his eyes wide with fury. "I did it for my brat. But you keep reminding me why I should have left you to die under the rubble."

"You're drunk, Sergei. You don't mean it." The little girl in me didn't want to accept the truth in his words. She wanted to believe the pretty little lies where she was a princess in a castle, far, far away from the dragon. But that wasn't the reality anymore. And the younger version of me needed to believe it sooner rather than later. I was a fucking queen that slayed the dragon herself. It was time to put up my armor of steel.

"Of course I'm drunk, you stupid girl. But that doesn't make it any less true."

"Get fucked, Sergei. After how you've treated Mikhail and Ilaria, you deserve to die brutally." I didn't stop there though. No. Fuck no. I was going in for the kill. "You're such a slimy bastard. No wonder why your wife left you."

"Watch your fucking mouth, Sofia!" He roared as his hand swept the bottle aside, making it crash to the floor. Shards of glass littered the surface as my uncle staggered towards me, fast even for a drunk person. His hand was at my neck in a bruising grip before I could even process what was happening.

"That bitch left me." He sneered, spit flying into my face. "She left me!" He shouted manically as I struggled in his hold, my hands gripping his as I tried to pull them away.

"Get off of me." I wheezed before kneeing him in the gut.

Sergei stumbled backwards, going off balance before he gained footing again. I ran towards the door, my heart in my throat at the way that my uncle had just acted. It was out of character, even for him.

"You bitch -

Whatever he was about to say next was cut off as his body swayed slightly before landing on the floor with an audible thump. I hesitated for only a fraction of a second before I covered the distance between us, my hands going to check his pulse. It was there, but very faint.

"Blyad!" I cursed as I turned his limp body over to the side.

Not knowing what else to do, I called the only person that had never hesitated to come running for me in my entire life.

"Alexei!"

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