Conflict Of Interest - Part 2 (When Your Crazy Ex-Sister-In-Law...

Dust & Lies

(Note: Woah... coming back to this after two months feels so weird! Life was happening in full speed, and even if I had most of this chapter written I didn't feel like finishing it. But now I had time, and I was in the mood so I gave it a look. So here it is! I am not sure when the next one will be ready. *hides*) 

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When the door closed behind Jakov, Alicia gave Sergio a lowkey worried glance. She feared that they had to go back to their discussion which got interrupted.

An hour ago, despite her headache and with her still somewhat foggy mind she felt adventurous, curious even. But after the problematic topics which got brought up during breakfast between the two men, which have given her a dose of reality, and as she went back to thinking more clearly, Alicia's doubts regarding the outlaw lifestyle resurfaced. I have to stay away from all this as much as I can... I have to build a normal life as much as I can, for my daughter's sake!

She was relieved when Victoria cried up. She hurried to her, away from the kitchen table, away from her earlier contradictory thoughts, away from Sergio who now sat back to the table. 

"Hey... what's wrong?" she picked her daughter up and held her in her arms. The baby immediately became calmer and smiled at her. "You just want attention, huh? Cunning!" she tickled her belly. "Oh... look at that..."  her gaze fell on the plush cat laying in her bed, with one of its ears almost torn. "What have you done with this? We have to sew him now..."  she picked up the toy and walked back towards the cupboard. "Do we have a needle and some thread around here?"  

"Uh... I'm not sure." Sergio frowned. "Check in the middle drawer..." 

She pulled it out and looked into it. "There are only some notebooks here... and some old photos. Hey... is this you?" she asked being amused as she picked up the dusty photo from the top and looked at it. "This must be you!"

"Huh?" Sergio blinked at her.  "Oh, yes... it probably is. I brought those here some time ago after... uhm...  I moved out of my old place." 

Alicia grabbed the photos and with her daughter still in her arms sat back down to the table. "You don't mind I check them, don't you? You had almost the same glasses even back then!" she noted. "How old were you here? Eleven? Twelve? You were so thin at that age! Not like you'd overweight now..." 

"Uhm. Yeah..." Sergio said uncomfortably. "I was thirteen, in fact."

Alicia looked at the next picture. "This is from the same event. Looks like you got a prize at the school, clever boy." she smirked. "This must be your mom. Right?" She pointed at the woman standing near him. Sergio nodded. "She was beautiful." Alicia added before she moved to the next picture. 

The photo she was now looking at left Alicia speechless for a moment. There were two young boys on it. A smaller one, wearing glasses, sitting with a shy expression on a chair by the table with a pen in his hand, and a bit older one near him, with his arms crossed, some huge sunglasses on his nose,  staring into the camera with a very familiar smirk on his face. Alicia ran her finger over the side of the picture. Sergio nervously blinked at her, not sure about what to say to her. But it was her who broke the silence eventually. 

"Did you two always get along well?"

"Oh... no." Sergio laughed. "I mean.... when I was little he kept teasing me about everything. We fought a lot. You know... that usual thing which is between brothers...  Especially since we were very different. And he was also older than me, back then six years felt like two decades. But then... when I got older and we... found some common interests, yes, we started to get along well. And after my father died, he started to really care about me." he added with a sad smile.