Awful Resemblance

VIII

Valdai, 9:07 PM.

Words could not describe the amount of pain that Annika was going through as the car drove to the hospital.

"Did you see what the shooter looked like?" Nikolai asked in a tense voice.

"Of course not!" Annika yelled.

Her whole body was covered in sweat and she felt like throwing up everything she had eaten that week. The smell of her blood was repulsing.

"Do you want me to remove the bullet?" Aleksander inquired from the passenger seat.

"Do you have a degree in the medical field? I don't think so." Annika spat with rage.

"Alright, I guess you can deal with the pain for a while." He said, clearly not bothered.

Annika thought that she was dying. How could anyone handle that much pain? After a thirty minutes ride, they finally reached the building of a hospital and she was immediately led to an operating theater by the nurses.

Nikolai and Aleksander were in the waiting room, trying to reflect on what had just happened.

"Fuck, I told Sasha that she would be an additional problem!" Nikolai spat, his forehead's veins showing.

"She must have done something really messed up to piss off the big bad blondie." Aleksander commented, his eyes locked on a page of a fashion magazine.

Nikolai furrowed his eyebrows.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

"I saw the revolver, it clearly belonged to that particular asshole."

Nikolai sighed. At first when he had learned about her arrangement with Sasha, he thought that she was simply a liar that wanted a taste of the Zharkov money but he should've known that Sasha was much more discerning. Still, him agreeing to help her was strange as normally, he wouldn't have cared at all. Was that just another scheme to make Matvei's life hell or did he genuinely take pity on her ?

"Why would Rodion be after her? And why didn't he just kill her?" Nikolai wondered.

"Probably to mess with her or send out a message," Aleksander shrugged. "In any case, she won't be our problem for long." He added, disinterested.

Soon, Sasha and Roman entered. They sat down on the chairs opposite the twins and without wasting time, Sasha asked :

"Who shot her?"

"Karol." Nikolai answered.

Sasha frowned.

"Karol as in Rodion Tolstoy's sniper?" He pondered.

Nikolai nodded and Roman sighed. Rodion Tolstoy was the head of one of the most powerful mafias in Moscow and therefore, being in his bad graces was tantamount to getting into big trouble.

Was the girl worth it? This was Nikolai's question, which was quickly answered.

"I will make sure that she is better protected from now on." Sasha declared.

To Nikolai's ears, it sounded like a reproach and he didn't like it.

"Should we have followed her to the toilet booth?" He asked with bitterness.

"You should have paid attention to your surroundings." Sasha simply replied.

A nurse came to inform them that the bullet had been extracted and that they could then go see Annika in her chamber. Due to an urgent business affair that was awaiting them back in Moscow, Sasha declined the offer and dialed Matvei's number to signal him to come with his men and spend the night at the hospital. Him, Roman and the twins then left for Moscow after giving instructions to the receptionist.

Ironically, Annika waited for some sort of visit but time passed and no one showed up. She started to close her eyes but a female nurse with a pale face entered her hospital bedroom while holding a bouquet of violet tulips, making her flinch.

"A man told me to give this to you." She said, handing her the bouquet.

She quickly left and Annika took the flowers with a lump in her throat. Her fingers brushed past the petals and found archival paper. She realized that the bouquet contained a letter and with curiosity mixed with nervousness, she opened it.

The author's elegant handwriting could almost disguise the threats.

Dear Annika,

Is your wound treating you well? I hope it is.
Today I aimed for your leg and tomorrow I may aim for your heart.
Do you have no idea of how loathed your mother was? Learn to be more careful. After all, you can't hide behind Sasha Zharkov forever.

And neither can your brother.

Her eyes couldn't leave the last sentence and in the midst of all of her worries and fears, it seemed to her that the light had just come on at the end of the tunnel. She had a brother. She had a family. She wasn't completely alone.

It was with this thought that she crumpled up the letter and threw it into the trashcan next to her bedside . She allowed herself to lie down and close her eyes to think about the situation.

Confronting Sasha would be the most logical choice as he probably had all of the answers but a part in Annika still couldn't trust him. There was a possibility that he was the one who killed Esther so she didn't know how he would react to finding out that she was her daughter. There was no room for risks, she had to figure everything out by herself. But at the same time, if he had offered protection to her supposed brother, there was a chance that she would be safe.

She had to give it a shot because eventually, Sasha would find out and
it was probably better if he learned it from her.

Slowly, she fell into the arms of Morpheus.