Ever Since New York (H.S.) 💌

‎‧₊˚✧ Prologue ✧˚₊‧

A/N: The official first chapter will be posted after the prologue reaches 100 views and 10 votes. PLEASE COMMENT TOO!! xoxo

She woke up to the sound of a baby's cry. From the other room, her sweet baby squirmed and cried restlessly. Drowsily, Rebekah got up from her bed. Looking over to her fiance's side, she noticed the indent of where his body lay hours before. When had he gotten up? She wondered.

She ventured to her baby daughter's room to console the weeping child. The room was painted light pink and filled with white furnishing. Her daughter, Anastasiya, quieted when her mother lifted her from the cradle. Rebekah rocked the baby in her arms, hushing the sweet lamb. But then, as little Anya finally drifted back to sleep, Rebekah heard her fiance's guttural voice coming from down the hall. His words were hushed, yet they boomed through the penthouse. What was he so angry about? She wondered, still holding her almost-one-year-old.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she heard her fiance's loud voice that echoed throughout the hallways. "You had one job, Horan!" he continued to yell at someone through the phone.

Who's Horan? She thought to herself as she listened to the conversation. She put her now-sleeping baby into her cradle and quietly walked to the door. It was already cracked open, but she opened it a little bit more to look down the hallway. She peeked out and saw her fiance's shadow coming from the kitchen. She quietly walked to the kitchen where Aleksandr was standing, facing the opposite direction, still yelling into the phone.

"Imbetsil'nyy. Don't expect another task for a good 6 months." He abruptly hung up the phone and threw it on the granite counters. She flinched at the loud cracking sound of the screen hitting the hard stone. He put his hands on the counters and tilted his head down with his eyes shut.

"Alek, is everything okay?" she asked softly.

He turned around quickly at the sound of her voice "Why are you awake, moya lyubov?"

She walks a few feet closer and he stands up straight. She looks at the shattered phone still lying on the counter. "Who were you talking to? I've never heard of a Horan-"

"Don't worry about it," he interrupted her. She knew he was in some sort of important business, but she never thought to ask him about it. Rebekah assumed he was the CEO of a big company, or maybe the heir to his family's wealth.

"Go back to bed. Anastasiya sounds like she's asleep; you don't need to stay up with her," he said quieter in his thick Russian accent. She nodded and turned around. Rebekah knew not to ask questions, but she stopped and turned around anyway.

"Tell me the truth." She said it sternly, but still in her soft, feminine voice that had attracted Aleksandr to her in the first place.

Aleksandr held an expression of subtle shock at the demand. Rebekah was a strong woman, but rarely did she question him about his job before. He crossed his arms, "Go to bed, Rebekah. We'll talk in the morning." He said it dismissively, not ready to tell her about his real job. He wanted to lead as close to a normal life as he could for the sake of Rebekah and their daughter.

Rebekah didn't say anything, but betrayal and anger grew in her heart. She hated herself for not finding out about this sooner. Why now? Why is it just now occurring to her that she knows nothing about the man she's supposed to be marrying in a month?!

She swiftly got back into bed and pondered different scenarios. Becca decided she'd sneak into his office while he was at work tomorrow and find out any information she could. She prayed to God she'd find nothing. That Aleksandr was an innocent businessman caught in a vulnerable time. But this wasn't the first time Rebekah had caught him screaming into his phone. She's heard many names come flying out of his mouth: Horan, Malik, Styles... And after researching, she's found nothing, except for the surname Styles, which is linked to an American Crime Family.

She decided not to think anymore. Though it was hard to quiet her mind, sleep finally found and carried her away.

- - -

The next morning, Rebekah woke up at 9am to Anastasiya crying. She rubbed her eyes and stood up from her bed. Alek had already woken up and left for work, so it was just her and the baby at home. She walked to Anastasiya's room and picked her up. She made a bottle of formula and sat down on the rocking chair in the baby's room to feed her. Little Anya latched on quickly and eagerly sucked the contents of the bottle down.

After a morning of cleaning, cooking, and playing with Anastasiya, Rebekah finally put her down for a nap and was left to do as she pleased. Despite the desire to take a nap, Becca made her way to Aleksandr's office. It was locked, but after her many years of being a hooker on the streets, she learned a thing or two about breaking and entering. Pulling a bobby pin from her hair, she began twisting it in the lock, listening closely for the subtle click that would announce the unlocking.

Click

Surprised the door actually unlocked, Becca pushed it open, revealing the massive, dark office. The furnishing was dark oak or mahogany, the walls painted a deep blue. Behind the darkly colored desk sat a rolling chair fit for a king. Rebekah moved to sit in the chair and began looking through the drawers.

... And she found

Nothing...

Defeated, but also relieved, she began to make her leave, but a crooked painting caught her attention. It was different from the rest: gold framed and holding a family portrait of herself, Aleksandr, and Anya. She smiled at the careful artistry and reached out her hands to fix the crookedness. And that's when she felt it: the safe that hid behind the painting.

Carefully removing it from the walls, Rebekah sat the painting against the wall and stared at the safe. To her astonishment, it was cracked open, seemingly left unclosed by mistake. She opened it and her eyes immediately teared up. Wanted posters, guns, file folders with deceased names plastered on the front, stacks of cash, and cocaine bundles laid upon the steel walls of the safe. Rebekah backed away in horror, not wanting to believe what she was seeing. It wasn't the first time she'd seen things like that; she'd been a prostitute after all. But, Alek had made her believe he was a good man: someone who'd take care of her. Was that all a lie?

She refused to stay and find out. While Little Anya slept, she called a friend who'd pick her up. She packed basic clothes and necessities, Anya's baby clothes and other needs, and was rushing out of the apartment before the hour was done. Before leaving, she wrote a note and left it on the counter. It read:

𝓐𝓵𝓮𝓴, 

 𝓓𝓸𝓷'𝓽 𝓽𝓻𝔂 𝓽𝓸 𝓯𝓲𝓷𝓭 𝓶𝓮 𝓸𝓻 𝓐𝓷𝔂𝓪. 𝓘 𝓯𝓸𝓾𝓷𝓭 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓼𝓪𝓯𝓮. 𝓦𝓮 𝓬𝓪𝓷'𝓽 𝓼𝓽𝓪𝔂 𝓱𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓪𝓷𝔂 𝓵𝓸𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓻. 

 𝓜𝓪𝔂𝓫𝓮 𝓲𝓷 𝓪𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻 𝓵𝓲𝓯𝓮.

 - 𝓑𝓮𝓬𝓬𝓪

Should she have stayed and talked things through? Maybe. But after becoming a mother, new fears and responsibilities settled within her. And her top priority was keeping Anastasiya safe, and how could she do that when she couldn't even trust Anya's father? How could he keep her safe when he owed guns, drugs, and files that depicted the deaths of real people. It was rash, but necessary. And despite her mad love for Alek, Rebekah ran away with her baby daughter and never saw him again.