Twisted Minds Novel – You are to marry Marco’s son Valentino. We’re creating ties with the Italians. The head of the Italian Mafia is Marco Acerbi. We need their union. To get that, our families are to unite. My jerk father told me. I’m Elaina Vasiliev. Living with my mother for eighteen years, I suddenly learned that Vadim Vasiliev, leader of the Russian Mafia, was my father. And I’ll be forced to marry a stranger man. It was ludicrous. The first opportunity I had, I would run away. “Already looking for an escape?” I heard a light chuckle from behind me.
Elaina Today is my eighteenth birthday, the day I’m supposed to become an adult, and it should be the happiest day of my life. Aside from not having a dad, my mom and I had always been close. But just because I didn’t have a dad in the picture didn’t mean my life wasn’t normal. Plenty of people only have one parent in their lives, and they turn out fine. So could I. All of my life, it has been my mom and me, the strong-willed woman and her only daughter. I hurried down the steps that led to the foyer of our small home. “Mom? Kira is hosting a birthday party for me. I’m going to b—” I stopped as I noticed my mom in the foyer with three men whom I’d never seen before—not that I could recall. She didn’t seem happy to see them, and they were dressed extremely formal.
Perhaps this was about a cake order, but we weren’t at the shop, so house calls seemed a little too personal. “Mom?” I asked as I took the final step, reaching the floor and looking at my mom’s nervous features. “Elaina, go upstairs,” my mom responded quickly before one of the men cut her off. “No, no. That isn’t necessary, Fiona. Let Elaina stay. I’m sure she’s very curious.” The man spoke with a thick accent that seemed European. While the other two men stayed silent, the man who seemed to be running the show continued, “Ah, sweet Elaina. You have no idea, do you?” He took a step closer in my direction, and I hesitantly stepped back, looking over at my mom who quickly stepped forward to stop him from coming closer to me.
“Vadim…” “Do not interrupt me, Fiona. Not when I’m talking to my daughter.” The man, Vadim, smirked darkly at me. “That’s right, sweetheart. I’m your father.” My ~father?~ My mortified eyes met my mother’s. She looked devastated but didn’t deny anything. If anything, she looked shocked that I’d found out this way. “Mom! He’s lying…” I said, and when she didn’t say anything, I raised my voice again. “Mom!” “Ah, such a spitfire. You get that from me,” Vadim said with an amused tone. “Let’s catch up, my dear.” “Let’s ~not,”~ I snapped at him. “Get out of my house!” I turned to run up the stairs, not having a moment to take any of this in before I felt an arm grip my wrist tightly and pull me back. “Do ~not~ talk to me in that manner,” Vadim scolded in an extremely stern tone, but his ice-cold eyes bore into mine as if he had some kind of high authority over me. I just stared at him, my mom not saying a word, as the other two men stayed silent while my suddenly present father appeared out of nowhere.
“Why are you here?” I asked him softly. “Why now?” He furrowed his brow as if I had just asked him the most ridiculous question in the world. “Your mother knew I was coming. This was always the plan, Elaina. You’re eighteen now.” “What does being eighteen have to do with this? Just yesterday, I was seventeen. One day doesn’t make a difference.” I attempted to prove my case, but it seemed impossible. “It does, actually.” “Vadim, please let me talk to her first,” my mom begged him, and I stared at her, confused. Why was she bowing down to this disgusting excuse of a man? He seemed terrible. He simply raised his hand to shush her before continuing. “You’ve had eighteen years to talk to her, Fiona. She’s mine now.” “Yours!” My eyes grew wide before Vadim began to speak in a language that I assumed was Russian. He seemed Russian based on the accent, and he had a lot of similar features.
I’m not one to stereotype, but the language was a hard giveaway. ~If he’s my father biologically, then I have Russian blood.~ After his rant in his language, one of the men strode toward me and held me firmly so I couldn’t move while the other stopped my mom from doing anything. This wasn’t real. It had to be some practical joke. “You see, Elaina, your mother has known she would only have you for eighteen years…” Vadim explained to me. “I’ve been providing for you both under the condition that when you turn eighteen, you leave with me.” But why did he want me now, and why did my mom agree to this? For my entire life, my mom knew that she was losing time with me, and she made no attempt to even let me know. I stared at my mom who had tears rolling down her cheeks as she mouthed the words, “I’m sorry.” ~I’m sorry? She’s serious. I’m sorry doesn’t cut it.~ “I don’t want to go.
So I kindly reject your offer,” I told Vadim, struggling in the other man’s grip. “Elaina, you need to listen to him,” my mom warned me, but I was done listening to anything she said. – I opened my eyes to the sight of an unfamiliar room. It was large and far too spacious. I didn’t need half of the space, but that was the least of my concerns. I wasn’t home, and I had no idea where I was. Sliding carefully off the bed, I stood carefully and walked to the door. Someone could be on the on other side. ~Vadim~ could be on the other side. But the door seemed like the obvious choice at this point. I attempted to open the door, but it was locked from the outside. Even after tugging and shaking on the doorknob, it didn’t budge, so I proceeded to bang on the door furiously. This was insane.
My life was completely upside down for reasons I no longer understood. Suddenly, the door was pushed opened, causing me to fall back on the floor. I looked up to see one of the men who was at my house before I blacked out. He was still dressed in a suit, and he still wasn’t smiling. “Your father wants to see you.” “He isn’t my father,” I answered without really thinking about any possible consequences. He didn’t respond other than motioning his head for me to stand. “Up.” ~You don’t have to listen to him,~ is what I continued to tell myself, but that was against my better judgment. Of course I did. If these were the people Vadim said they were, I could be in great danger. How I’d managed to get myself into this situation I had no idea, just like I had no idea how I would get myself out. I stood from the floor and followed behind the man as he led me down the hallway.
The hallway was long, slightly dark, and not a bit welcoming in my opinion. The floors were covered with red carpet, and I’ve always recognized red carpet as a fancy or superior type of décor. But that’s just me. The hall was covered with various doors, which made me wonder how many people lived here and where exactly ~here~ was. It seemed gigantic. No one in Ohio had a home this large. The man stopped at a door that was fairly larger than the others and knocked. “Sir, it’s Viktor.” I heard Vadim respond, “Come in, Viktor.” Viktor opened the door, and Vadim sat behind a large cherry-colored desk, writing things as though he were a businessman. But what caused my heart to drop was the oistol I noticed casually sitting on the top of his desk.
“Lovely, isn’t it?” I looked up after realizing I had been staring at the pistol. “I…” “I bet you’re wondering, ‘Has he killed people with that pistol?’ or, ‘Was he actually telling the truth?’ “Well, my dear, the answer to both of those questions is yes,” Vadim said with a proud smile on his face before setting his pen down. “Give us a moment, would you, Viktor?” Viktor nodded and left the room. Now, it was just Vadim and me, along with that terrifying silver pistol I couldn’t stop staring at. “Take a seat, Elaina. We have a lot to talk about.” He motioned to the seat in front of him. As he picked up the pistol, I instantly stepped back, which caused a chuckle to escape his devilish lips. “You can’t seriously think I brought you all this way to kill you? Take a seat, Elaina. I won’t ask again.” All this way? How far were we? I slowly took a seat in a chair that was positioned in front of his desk, placing my hands on my lap.
“Where…where are we?” “While you were napping, I brought you home to Chicago,” he answered, causing my eyes to grow wide. My heart began to race as things became clear. This was a kidnapping. I wasn’t even in the same state anymore. “Where’s my mom?” “Don’t worry about her. She’s fine…for now. As long as you follow instructions, your mother will not be harmed,” Vadim assured me, but not knowing what instructions I had to follow concerned me. “What instructions?” He stood up from his desk and walked around it to reach the side of me. “The thing about our family business is trust, Elaina. That, and bonds. “We need to have close relationships with as many people as possible, ~strong~ people, for our benefit.” He referred to this Mafia stuff as a family business, as if it were something to be proud of. It was criminal, and no one was stopping them.
~If they’re a Mafia, where are the police?~ “We’re creating ties with the Italians. It’s a fantastic opportunity and a great power move,” he continued on, but how this involved me I had no idea. “The head of the Italian Mafia is Marco Acerbi. Do you know what ~Acerbi~ stands for, Elaina?” I simply shook my head. “It means ~harsh.~ They’re strong people—they live up to their surname. We need their union.” Vadim lifted my chin to look up at him before casually stating, “To get that, our families are to unite. “You are to wed Marco’s son Valentino.” ~Unreal.~ My mouth gaped open, and I looked at him with complete shock in my eyes before I said in an adamant tone, “No.” Before I could realize how stupid I was for talking back to this stranger who had proven himself to be a danger, the back of his hand met my face, and I held onto the side of the chair for support.
“Do ~not~ talk to me that way. You will respect me, and when the Acerbis come over tonight, you will respect them also.” He was glaring at me now and speaking through his teeth. My face was burning, and I knew that a mark would be left based on the pain I felt. Never in my life had I been hit. Not by my mother, not even by a kid at school. This was a first. They were coming here. The Italians. I was stuck in a house full of Mafia people who were using me as a pawn in their personal dealings. Vadim referred to them as harsh, which didn’t make meeting them seem any easier. He was going to force me with marry a stranger, a criminal at that, all to create bonds within some illegal business. My adult life didn’t begin the day I turned eighteen; my entire life ended.
Vadim sent up a dress to the room I woke up in earlier the same day so I could prepare myself for dinner with the Acerbis. He was practically wrapping me up like a present and putting a bow on me for them. It seemed like some kind of dirty trade. To think that somehow in this sick, twisted world he was biologically my father disgusted me more. He didn’t have a paternal bone in his body. It was all power, but then again, that’s what Mafia is supposed to be as far as I know. Up until now, I didn’t even know the Mafia still existed. I always thought they disappeared in the seventies or eighties. I stood in front of a stand-up mirror that was placed in the room, looking at the dress and deeply concerned about the fact it fit me perfectly. It wasn’t too small, nor too big. It was the perfect size. The black fabric hugged my body and fell just above my knee, showing slight cleavage. Black isn’t exactly the color I would have chosen for the occasion. It made me feel like I was going to a funeral—but then again, it could be my funeral.