Mafia Bloodlines

Chapter 40

" Just when I think the little brain cells you still have left still work, you prove me wrong Vladimir." Faina rolled her eyes, this didn't bother her as much as it should because she knew this wouldn't happen because she is already married. Though it may be a good way to get her revenge on Ambrose for him being such a dick, Faina could crush his ego by engaging someone else. She obviously wouldn't see it through right?

" We will let you talk that one out." Nikolai said while escorting Mama out, leaving only Faina and Vladimir in the office.

" See, this is why I don't like you for my mother. You are practically a lunatic. You're unscrupulous, controlling and did I mention that you are literally insane." Faina said, it wasn't in a bitter tone but a stern tone.

" Leave it alone Чёртёнок( little devil). Your mother is my wife and our relationship shouldn't be any of your concern. I'm glad you are back, it was getting boring around here without you snobbish, arrogant little self. And you are right I am unscrupulous, controlling and insane. Faina I've done terrible things , I will do worse for you and I won't lose sleep over any of it. I am your father whether you like it or not and this is how I protect my family, I do whatever it takes."  Vladimir didn't raise his voice as he spoke, he never has too, calm as a loaded gun he spoke.

" There it is, that unsullied devotion and loyalty, yet you contradict yourself. With you I never know what to think, or what to believe.
It scares me to think that I don't know what you are capable of..." Faina's words , sharp and vulnerable only to be cut off by Vladimir.

Vladimir’s voice was low, dangerously so. Not a whisper, not a confession. A verdict.

"Know that I killed my actual brother for you. I would never cause you harm, Чёртёнок. Know that."

The room fell into silence, heavy like a loaded gun left on the table between them. Faina didn’t blink. Her breath caught, but her face trained in stoicism, barely faltered.

But the words clung to the walls. They echoed in the silence.

"What do you mean, your actual brother?" she asked, slow and skeptical, each word laced with suspicion, like she was piecing together a puzzle she never asked to touch.

Vladimir exhaled, not tired—but annoyed, in that “I thought I raised you sharper than this” kind of way. He turned slightly, hands clasped behind his back, eyes fixed on nothing in particular—as if looking at the memory instead.

"Mikhail was my half-brother," he said, voice steady.
"He was father’s bastard.  Father told me when we took him in. I was elated, I actually had a brother and we grew up as brothers but the truth remained a secret."

A pause.

He looked back at her then, gaze cold but not empty—sharp as ever, but with something twisted under it. Grief, perhaps. Or regret. The kind that never apologizes.

"I told you this before, Faina. Mikhail was a brother to me.
Which is exactly why it meant something when I buried him. But I had to do it, I knew my brother, he loved you. That love was an abomination. Sure he didn't know he was my biological brother but I treated him as such and he still did that with you.
I mean for goodness sake Faina who knew what else you two would have done all in the name of love, would it even have mattered that he was your uncle, my own brother, I think not."

"And who else knows about this?" Faina asked, she felt sick to her stomach just thinking about this.

" Just me , Oksana and my father who is dead so it's just me and Oksana and now you."

" And you thought keeping such a secret would be a good idea." Faina rolled her eyes in annoyance.

" Are there any family secrets I should know about?" She asked with a  frown.

" Nope. Not really, just that Anastasia killed my father." Vladimir said it as if it were nothing. Meanwhile Faina chocked on her spit.

" So you knew that one Faina?" Vladimir asks. Of course Faina knew, she heard Felipe arguing with her mother about how she killed him or something like that. But all in all his dying moment was not that traumatic, at the time Anastasia would do a number on her victims.

" No ,no I'm actually glad she did it.
That imbecile was going to take my birthright from me, everything I had worked hard for, everything he had trained me for since I was a little boy. Sergei Novikov had lost his mind when he thought he could do me dirty like that.
He was going to strip me of everything I had worked hard for  and give it to Roman, just because he felt guilty he wasn't actively present in his life as a child." Vladimir scoffed.

" You see that's the mistake parents do, thinking they can buy a child's love. Don't misunderstand me I had no problem with him telling Roman the truth and giving him his rightful last name but what he was planning to do was cruel.
Whose fault was it that he left his damn son to be raised by two lunatics. What had he expected when he let the Naverretes raise him, they fucked him up. Though fairly enough I think he would still have gotten fucked up one way or the other had father taken him from his mother and raised him here with us."

" So you killed your brother because you were afraid he would find out the truth and take the mafia from you?" Faina asked, it didn't sound like a question it sounded like am accusation.

" I killed Roman because he couldn't be trusted. No brother would ever look at his niece the way he looked at you , let alone fall in love with her."
His jaw tensed.

"Don’t ever confuse what I’m willing to sacrifice… with what I’m willing to lose."
He stepped closer. Not threatening. Truthful. Unrelenting.