LV1. Wolf's Wife

13. Romero - Protection

Protecting and helping this girl I met only a few days ago was a strange instinct. It was like I got another sister instead of Giulietta. At least she was able to cash in the check I sent to her and she told me that she was leaving that awful place within days. She still refused to come and meet our father, she even forbade me to tell him about her. I wasn't sure about this whole situation. Giulietta was paranoid but it was absolutely understandable at her case.

On the other hand, I didn't see Alexandra as a sister. I was aware of her beauty, but she was also very young. She wore her innocence around her like an impenetrable cloak. Excuse my pun. That evening in the casino was the best so far when she was without her inhibitions and actually talked to me. And when she laughed, that was by far the best moment.

I was grateful for father that he didn't put up a fight about us going to England. I knew that it would devastate her and fighting with this powerful man wasn't on my wish list.

Anyway, I sent back the jet when we landed in Liverpool, and we went straight to the nursing home the sister was in. It was heart wrenching even for me, who never met them before. The sister was a small bundle with no consciousness at all, but the worst part was meeting her mother. She still carried that ethereal beauty that was characteristic to Alexandra and even her aunt in Chicago. But her eyes were sullen and without light. The illness destroyed her body in the cruelest ways. That was clear even for an inexpert like me.

Their death was still jarring. More than Lorenzo's. On that I somehow counted on from my teenage years. I even fantasized about a police car turning up at our house and them telling us that he had an accident or was in a brawl or something along that line. The fucker lived much longer than he deserved. All I felt when it finally happened was relief however cold-hearted that sounded.

Polina was sick from birth as I learned from Alexandra. She spent all her life tied to machines that kept her alive. She left this world peacefully.

I ushered Alexandra to their old house that night for a long necessary sleep. Their mother told us, that she couldn't leave with us. She stayed in the room where she spent the last few weeks, now only one bed occupied of the two.

By the time we arrived back the next morning she was dead, too.

Alexandra was even more silent and paler than ever. I went through the motions for her, the process in the UK that led to the funeral was eerily similar to that I went through for Lorenzo. I made sure that she ate and slept, and she just went with it like a robot.

Then Oksana, the aunt arrived and took off some responsibilities from my shoulder. She took over the organizing the funeral and my task was to care about Alexandra. She looked so small and fragile that I started to worry about her. She cried a lot, but I guessed that was good.

In the meantime, I also had to deal with my own sister, who called me just the day before the funeral that she was arrested for murder. I was thousands of miles away from her without any means to help her. In my desperation I didn't have the courage to call my father, instead I called Héctor Ruiz. I remembered that he lived in New York, and I had a hopeful feeling that he had the means to help. He wasn't even surprised by my phone call and by the next day Giulianna was out, without charges made. Her story gave me an urgency to go immediately to New York, but first we had a funeral to go through.

The funeral was nothing like Lorenzo's where I was the only one there from the family and few of his cronies showed up. Alexandra's mother was a well-loved music teacher. When the children chorus from the school she taught began to sing even I had to fight of the tears that gathered at the corner of my eyes.

When Alexandra insisted to start cleaning their old house though visibly swaying on her legs, I was grateful for Oksana and her forcefulness as she stepped in. She promised to send a team to deal with the closing up the house, but she had to hurry back to the States.

We spent two more days in the old house, Alexandra alternating between collecting memorabilia from her old life and having sobbing fits. All I was able to do was bringing her food and put her to bed when I thought that it was time. The cleaning team showed up and we arranged with them that they wouldn't throw anything out, just box everything away and prepare the house to be closed up.

We flew back to the states on commercial flight this time. I stalled until the last minute, but then called my father and asked him if it is okay with him if we stopped in New York. When he said nothing about that, I splurged on first class tickets. It was crazy how fast I got used to having vast resources of money. The craziest part of it all was that I got it only because I was born. I decided on that flight that I would do my best to be worthy of everything I got from my real father so far.