What about us: Vampire Academy

A father's point of view. Chapter 37

Abe's POV

As soon as we entered the restaurant all questions about Aggie's past where momentarily forgotten. Warm and almost tropical, as soon as we walk into Priroda, or Nature in English, I felt utterly indulged. The plush furnishings delicately contrast the wild explosions of lush greenery, while gentle lighting complements the touches of gold that flicker about the room. Basically, it’s about as Instagrammable as a puppy wearing a Santa hat at Christmas.

We where lead to the table in a centre of the room and the fact that we were the only ones at the restaurant made the beauty of the room even more incredible.

"This is quite a place!" Aggie gushed as she looked around her surroundings.

"Well my father does like the dramatics in life." Rose joked, giving me a cheeky smile. "I mean you can't see him taking us to McDonald's could you?"

Dimitri let out a snort as I replied. "Life would be a bit boring without dramatics daughter of mine."

I was about to pull Rose's chair out for her to sit in but I saw Dimitri step forward at the same time. So I gracefully diverted my attention to Aggie, allowing him to care for my girl. Ignoring Pavel's smirk, I sat between Rose and Aggie, facing Belikov.

When I first found out that my newly discovered 17 year old daughter, my only child, was in a relationship with her 7 year older mentor, I wasn't overly pleased. Scratch that I was downright furious. I automatically assumed that she was being taken advantage of.

Looking into Rose's past and her childhood, on paper she has all the aspects of a person who could be easily emotionally groomed by a older man.

Abandoned by her mother at 4 years old and a father not in the picture, she was all but starved of love and affection from a parent figure. With no family, who would of protected and supported her if she was being abused? The Headmistress? Ha unlikely. That women had a heart made of stone and openly supports the Moroi Supreme Movement.

However, my fears seemed to be baseless when I did a background search on Dimitri Belikov. From a honest, lovely family the Russian worked and studied harder. He maintained an A star average in his school career plus graduating top of his class in the combat field.

On top of that, he worked full time in labour during his school holidays and every weekend during term time. In fact his hours doubled after his elder sister had fallen pregnant.

The guy only had two recorded absences in his 7 years as a Guardian. The first for bereavement leave after his charged had died while in the care of another Guardian. Then for recovery time after the attack on St. Vladimir's academy but I suspect that Alberta had been more generous in his recovery time because of his connection with Rose.

His file had shocked me however, as I had never read such a squeaky clean report on someone before. The only blemish on it was when he beat up his father to a bloody pulp. He had been protecting his mother from his father's, Randall, physical abuse. Even that event of violence hasn't concerned me, in fact it grew my appreciation of the young man because I too couldn't abide domestic violence.

Belikov's reports left we me with more questions than it answered. How could a man with a perfect  school attendance, perfect grades, a perfect career and was the youngest ever level 7 blood master start grooming a 17-year old girl?

The only answer I could possibly come up with was that he did truly love my daughter. When Janine called me about Rose's death and Belikov's involvement, I had planned to have him striped of his title and disgraced. Then when he went back to Russia with his tail between his legs, he would of had a little accident and sadly never reached his homeland.