Mafia Men: Nikolai's Inferno - Chapter 34: Chapter 34

.Evangeline.
"I'll be outside, go on..." Scott announced once we reached Nikolai's home.
I fiddled with my fingers resting on my lap. Nervousness crept up from the pit of my belly, I didn't want to see him, face him or talk to him after what he had done. I wanted to get away from him and never see his face again.
His words resonated in my mind. His shouts, his monstrous dark eyes.
"JUST STOP WITH YOUR FUCKING NIKOLAI BULLSHIT! CALL ME DON NIKO LIKE EVERYONE ELSE! FUCKING GIVE ME THE RESPECT A DON IS ENTITLED TO..."
A shiver ran down my spine and I chewed on my bottom lips to keep the tears at bay.
"You weren't saying that three nights ago when begged me to fuck you like the whore you are..."
"like the whore you are..." those words echoed on repeat.
He humiliated me, insulted me, and then left me alone for a week just to get engaged to some other woman. The woman he loved. That is why he didn't want me in the first place and I was too dense, too stupid to throw myself at him like that.
I mustered up some courage and nodded at Scott before I finally stepped out of the car.
I went inside and stilled as darkness welcomed me. There were no lights on in the house, and I didn't hear him, he must be in his study. That is where he always is.
But instead of going to his study, I trod upstairs. I needed to change out of this gown, I locked the door and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. I slipped off the dress and turned on the shower, setting it to hot. The warm droplets formed steam as I stood there without moving. I stepped under the shower and sighed. The water slowly warmed me, soothing the ache that clawed at my limbs.
After I was done with my shower, I wrapped a towel around myself and went to the closet. I pulled out some cozy pajamas and put them on.
I gazed at myself in the mirror. A pale, stupid girl looked back at me. I ignored how swollen my eyelids were from all the crying I did in the car. No matter how much I tried to avoid talking to him, I needed to get over with it. The longer I will stay away from him, the more it will hurt.
Heaving a sigh and pushing all the thoughts to the back of my mind, I descended the stairs and walked straight to his study. I didn't bother turning the lights on as I walked through the dark living room to get to his study.
I was aware that I'm weak compared to him, and I'm scared, but I'm not a coward. I won't stay here one more day and won't let him insult me the way he did ever again. I knocked on his door until I heard him telling me to come in.
I entered his study and stood by the door. I was suddenly reminded of the day when he first called me here. I didn't know him then... just like I didn't know him now.
Nikolai that I knew was just an illusion.
"Take a seat..." he ordered
I shook my head. "I'm fine"
"Take a fucking seat, Evangeline" his tone conveyed that he was in no mood to spar with me.
I stomped to his desk and settled in the seat placed opposite his. I looked down at my hands, they were trembling with terror, I had no idea what was going to happen next.
"Look at me..."
Mirroring the look of indifference he gives me most of the time, I cut my gaze to him. Hoping he won't notice my swollen heavy eyelids. His face gave nothing away-as usual-but he kept his eyes on mine, hardly blinking.
I felt my mask of indifference chipping away as I looked into his dark, cruel eyes. In such a short time, he had become so, so dear to me while I meant nothing to him.
Just the girl he took in... a stray orphan.
This time, he was the first one to break eye contact. Relief washed over me, I felt like I had won a tiny battle even if it was not the war.
"I had no fucking regrets until you," he said, his words were like a knife to my chest. What did he mean by that? Did he mean that he regretted ever laying his eyes on me? "I lost control the other night and I regret that. I'm sorry that I tried to force you into anything"
A bit of relief washed over me as he said his next words. Keeping a straight face, I said. "Is that it? Can I leave now?"
He let out a dry breath as if he was tired or furious, I honestly don't know. "You can stay... I didn't mean those things I said "
I cut him off, knowing very well how much he hates it when someone cuts him off but I didn't care anymore. "I don't care if you meant it or not. I don't want to be here... I want to go back to my home, my real home"
He reclined back into his seat and rolled the cigar between his fingers aggressively. "You don't have to go-"
"I want to!" I declared in a stern manner. "And I don't want anything from you, not even a single freaking cent. I don't want anything from you. I'm not taking anything with me and as for these clothes I am wearing right now, I'll send them t you once I get home and change into wown clothes" my voice was clear and hostile, devoid of emotion.
I saw a deep frown etched on Nikolai's forehead. He brushed two of his fingers against his lips quite aggressively. "I have no use of these things, you can take them, they are yours anyway"
"No, thank you, Don Niko. I don't want anything of yours"
He picked up something from his desk and threw it at the wall behind me. I didn't flinch, I didn't jump. I just sat there with indifference.
"What the fuck do you want?"
You...
A tiny voice echoed in my head. I had no idea where that thought had come from. I shook my head and looked back down at my lap.
He doesn't want me the way I want him. He is now an engaged man. He wants her... the woman who wore his ring.
He said that little girls like me fall in love and I had denied it, told him that I won't but what I didn't know was that little crush I had on him since I got here, blossomed into something else way before he ever
touched my body.
"I want to go back to my home and I never want to see you again"
He smiled but it wasn't a normal smile, it was laced with something dark, something acidic. "If that's what you want..."
"It is..."
"Your father had left you more than enough money to get by, his accounts will be transferred to your name. The house will be transferred to your name"
I nodded, I didn't know all that. I know that my father was making enough money before he had been murdered but after his death, I don't know where everything went. I never paid attention to it.
"Can I leave now?" I asked because being here in the same room as him, was unnerving me more than it should.
He deeply exhaled. "Yes, Evangeline. You can leave."
It didn't even take me a second to get up from that seat and run out of his study. My legs suddenly felt so heavy as if I had tons of weights over my shoulder and it was driving me to the ground.
I stepped over the threshold of his house and sighed. I came into this house-distressed, empty-handed, and afraid-and now here I was leaving his house in the same manner.
I saw Scott leaning against his car, smoking a cigarette while he was on the phone with someone. He told me that he won't leave and he didn't.
"Are you serious?" he asked the person on the other end and his eyes fell on me. "Yeah, yeah, got it. Okay." He hung up and raised an eyebrow.
"I would like to go back to my home now, Scott"
Scott nodded and opened the car door for me. He flicked his cigarette onto the driveway and snuffed it out under his shoe. I climbed into the backseat this time, trying to avoid eye contact with him.
I desperately tried to keep my emotions in check, I stared out of the window as something stung my eyes. Slowly as we drove further from his home, I realize the stringency of the situation.
I left him and he let me go.
The first man who had touched me intimately.
The first man that I had a crush on.
The first man who made me feel all those new and foreign feelings.
The first man I loved.
And he didn't even feel an ounce of love for me.
A sudden loud gasp left my lips before I burst into uncontrollable tears. My body was wracked with an onslaught of sobs and tears. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hands like a child.
Scott didn't say anything or made a stupid comment, he didn't even glance in my direction and honestly, I was grateful. All I needed right now was to be left alone.
Scott drove into a familiar driveway. I held my breath and tried my hardest to not let any more tears fall. The car's engine ceased and I stepped out. Scott also stepped out and walked around the car to stand by my
side.
I stilled as my eyes fell on the bloody stairs that led into my home. Although, the blood had dried up and dust covered the stairs but the memory of it was still raw and fresh in my mind.
I swallowed and stepped up the bloody stairs. Scott unlocked the big padlock with a key and then handed both the key and padlock to me. He opened the broken wooden door and an eerie creaking sound filled the
house.
Goosebumps erupted on my skin, Scott walked in and so did I. He looked for the light switch and flicked them on. The dead, empty house-that still had all the signs of the mass murders that happened here- illuminated. The horrible sight of my parents' bloody dead bodies flashed before my eyes. I looked at the spot where my father had taken his last breath on my lap, there was a dried-up puddle of blood there... his
blood.
"Uh, sweet cheeks, are you sure you want to stay here?"
I smiled with difficulty and sniffled. "Where will I go?"
He looked around at the dusty and bloody living room with broken-down furniture. "My place..."
I shook my head. I didn't want to become dependent on Scott now. This was my home and dirty, bloody, or ruined, this
"Think about it, I'll hire cleaners tomorrow and replace the furniture before you move back in."
I sighed. "No, it's alright, Scott. I'll be fine. You can leave now"
He looked around with his eyebrows pinched together. "I can stay if you want."
I considered his offer for a few seconds and then nodded. "I'd appreciate that but if you don't want to-"
"I'll stay..." he said.
where I will live from now on.
"There's a guestroom upstairs... I'm sure there's no blood there." After I showed him the room, I went to mine and sucked in a sharp breath. Everything was just as I had left it. My books, my stuff, the wrinkled bedsheet, and the opened window from where I had climbed out.
How different I was just three months ago.
Making my way toward the bed, I fell on it, curling up into a ball. The pain I felt was indescribable... Tears silently leaked out uncontrollably and I closed my eyes. Wishing, that I had never met Nikolai Costello