A Lifetime With You by Athrhteera

Alena

The week went on like a blur and I had somehow lost track of time.

Every

morning Mama would come in with breakfast and stayed over until lunch. We would spend time together in my room for a few hours because honestly, I couldn't stand the loneliness.

I couldn't stand being alone for even a day. It was suffocating me and Mama knew it. She knew it was best to keep me company in order to keep me sane, too. This whole situation was making me lose my mind and all I wanted was something good for once. The days weren't as hard as the nights. My days were spent mostly with Mama, she had slowly brought my spark back by making me laugh-it wasn't easy but I wanted to make her feel better as well. However, I spent my nights alone in bed, drowning in my thoughts. One good thing out of this was being with Mama. I could spend my days with her and she wouldn't be as lonely as she was before but deep down, I wanted to be back home with Matteo. Being with him was where I truly belonged. I couldn't spend another day being away from him.

I missed him. I missed him too much.

There hadn't been a day went by without me thinking about him. I always wondered what he was doing or how he was doing, probably barely alive like me. I had hoped for him to be alright, at least living his daily life as usual. Matteo didn't deserve the heartbreak nor the suffering. He deserved to be happy and I had taken that away from him.

I was laying on Mama's lap as she played with my hair, tying into a french braid.

"How

many days have it been since I came here, Mama?" I asked, looking out the window. days. Why do you ask, Alena?"

I replied.

Just lost track of braid my hair as she spoke, "You miss him, don't you?"

Mama sighed, continuing to

I sat up straight, holding her hands before nodding. "I do. A lot,"

Ever since I was taken to come here, Papa had assigned his own personal doctor to take care of me. The medicines he prescribed were mostly painkillers, incase I needed them. He also prescribed me with sleeping pills to help my insomnia. The doctor

told me that I was healing just fine but I needed to get enough rest and not stress myself out which was almost impossible because of my current situation. Papa heard everything and he assured him all was well. Little did the doctor knew. Papa and I haven't spoken since what happened that night. I preferred it to be that way.

It was better not to say anything with him because I knew, the words coming out of his mouth were just painful to hear. Unless he told me I could go back to Matteo, everything else was useless to be heard.

The only thing that kept me going was Matteo.

"Well...I actually have a plan, Alena." Mama said, leaning closer

"What is it, Mama?"

"Papa's away for the weekend. So is Alexei." She continued to speak, her eyes full of hope. "We can try to sneak out tonight when nobody's around. I already asked for Igor's help," "Igor? I thought he doesn't work for Papa anymore."

"He doesn't but he's a very close friend of the family. He used to accompany you during medical school, remember?"

I nodded, "Do you think we can trust him not to tell Papa?"NôvelDrama.Org holds text © rights.

+5.

"Alena..." Mama caressed the side of my face, "He treats you like his daughter and he hates seeing you like this. All he wants is for you to be happy. This is the least he can do,"

I smiled but it dropped immediately when I realised the risks, "What if we get caught?"

"I'll take full responsibility but I'm sure we wont,"

My lips curved up into a grin as I felt myself being excited.

It had been awhile since I felt this way, all giddy. I didn't mind risking everything to sneak out and meet Matteo, even for a short few hours. I wanted to be with him and we could discuss to figure something out. Besides, he deserved to know about Papa's plan. Matteo was a powerful man as well. He could overcome Papa if he wanted to, if he pushed away his respect towards his father-in-law. For once in my life, I felt as if he didn't need to consider Papa as his father-in-law anyway, he could just use his power. knew Matteo had been holding himself back!

"We'll sneak out tonight," Mama said.

The next couple of hours went by slowly as I waited for the time. I couldn't stop glancing wanted time to move by faster-Mama noticed it and she was also excited for me.

at the clock on the wall because I at the

When the time came and the house went quiet, we began our escape.

kitchen. The house was always empty at night I followed behind Mama as we walked down the stairs and towards the because all of the staff went home; it was one of the rules Mama had wanted Papa's men to oblige because Mama still wanted to have her own privacy. I remembered when I was little, I used to sneak into the kitchen with Alexei for dessert. We would eat cakes and candies in the fridge even though it was past our bedtime. The funny thing was, we thought we were cool enough to get away with it but Mama and Papa knew all along Mama and Papa were just pretending not to know.

They thought it was funny to leave us like that.

I enjoyed my time here when I was younger. I never regretted any of that-in a way, I understood where Papa was coming from, on how much he wanted each one of us to be responsible, play our parts in the Bratva.

Alexei was supposed to take over Papa's position when he retired because he was the first born and he was the only son. Apparently, other mafia families kind of fought for their position as leader if there were more than one son.

I never knew if Alexei wanted to become the leader willingly or because he had to.

We never really had that talk between us when we grew up. I had started to rebel and went to medical school, maybe I had left my brother all alone to figure out his future. Maybe, he never really wanted to become the Bratva leader but he had to. Maybe, he just didn't want to disappoint Papa.

014

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I followed closely behind Mama as we went through the back, until we saw Igor.

"Igor."

"I smiled, realising it had been so long since I last saw him.

na."

s been so long. How are you?"

"I'm good. How are you holding up?"

I shrugged, pointing at my fractured arm and broken rib. The smile could still see the sympathy in Igor's eyes.

never faded I away i

om my face as I showed them but I

When he followed me to medical school, we never had much of a conversation. He respected my space and only followed me close if he thought danger was near. Overall, I had experienced the whole university life without interruptions- sometimes, he barely even reported back to Papa. He skipped the details when he felt like it. "We better get going. I'll take you to Matteo's office," Igor said.

"Have you been contacting him?"

"I did, this morning." Mama replied, smiling at me.

The three of us went to enter the car immediately without wasting any time and Igor drove off. I didn't bother to spare a second glance behind at the house because I was looking forward to meeting Matteo, that was all that mattered. was beginning to feel to feel nervous and a little bit anxious but I tried to push all of those feelings away. Even if we get caught later by one of Papa's men, at least I could be with Matteo for a little while.

Matteo

and I had the weekend to ourselves. We could simply run away if we wanted to.

Once we had arrived at Matteo's company, we had parked in the basement. I saw Matteo's car in one of the parking lots and my heartbeat began to beat faster with every step I took towards the elevator-I was excited to see him. I knew he was waiting for me. Mama held my hand as we stepped i inside.

As for Igor, he guided us the way incase we were ambushed. Maybe, he was just used to being the one to protect people, it was a habit he couldn't get rid of.

The building was empty because it was probably late at night, none of the staffs were here except for the security guards but they knew me. The moment they saw us, they nodded and easily let us in without a word.

Until we reached Matteo's office and I could see the lights were turned on.

Mama gestured for me to go inside as he waited by the elevator with Igor. So, I was walking by myself to Matteo's office, feeling slightly nervous but excited at the same time.

knocked

I on the door a couple of times before I pushed it open, seeing Matteo standing near his desk.

As soon as he saw me, he immediately made his way towards me and pulled me in for a hug. His strong arms were wrapped around my body while mine wrapped around his waist, smelling his scent as I snuggled near his neck.

Matteo looked as miserable as when I had ran away from him before I was kidnapped. He looked as if he hadn't slept a wink either, his body was also skinnier as if he hadn't eaten anything for the past few days.

We were finally together. Our bodies were finally close..

"Oh my god, Alena!" He muttered, kissing my face a few times.

08.

Before we knew it, we were both crying.

Tears

began

stream

down our faces

even

as

we

tried

to hold them

back.