Damned: Chapter 25) Fate
James had been downstairs for more than twenty minutes and Marc had left along with the kids as well. I told myself I’d have patience but that was running out quite quickly.
“Are you alright?” Martha asked calmly behind me as she sat with Danny who was falling asleep on the sofa.
“No, I just feel a little nauseous. I’ll step outside for a bit.” I smiled politely back at her and exited the room.
There was this gut feeling inside me that something was wrong. Rushing down the stairs, I looked around for James but he was nowhere to be found. Something was definitely wrong. Abruptly, I heard a loud thud that came from behind the back door outside. Making my way towards it I heard two voices in argument, one including James.
“Stop this nonsense, Ana. It has been going on for too long.”
“I will never stop until I get justice for my sister. After what you did to her.” She hissed.
“I never hurt Violet. You knew this.”
“Oh please.” She scoffed, “And what about my mother?”
“You’ve been accusing me of this for the last few years. I told you multiple times and I’ll tell you again. I would never hurt your family, Ana. Violet meant everything to me.”
“Liar!” she shouted and there was another loud thud.
Panicking, I rushed through the door where I saw James standing up from the ground. Before I could have aided him, a massive man held me back.
“Let go!” I tried to elbow him in the stomach but to no avail.
“Aw, how cute.” The woman smiled and looked back at James, “Who’s this?”
“Let her be, Ana.”
“Is she anyone important?” the woman laughed.
James hesitated, “No.”
For a brief moment, there seemed to be a challenging looked upon the woman’s face. Nearing me, she instructed the man to release me. Honestly, I felt like some kind of chicken being handled before being plucked and that was a damn new feeling for myself, Katherine Donovan. A feeling I detested but this was not my fight and I had no right to intervene. I mean, I already had my hands full with Vitaly anyway.
The cold night’s breeze rustled the leaves on the trees behind ever so slightly making this very uncomfortable situation even more uncomfortable than it should have been. Best thing I could do right now was keep my big mouth shut before I screw things over for James and this woman who I still had no understanding what kind of beef they had with each other in the past but by the looks of it sounded juicy and not in a good way.
“Katherine,” James instructed with concern, “Leave.”
As much of a stubborn person I am, there was something about him that just made me want to listen. Or it could just be that this Ana woman was making me feel uneasy.
Before I could have left, she held me back and threatened a knife against my neck towards James who surprisingly was not at all surprised. He must have known she was full of shit in the beginning.
“Pretty girl, Jamie, you have nice taste.” She chuckled.
Okay, she was cray-cray. I established that.
“Stop being ridiculous, Ana-Maria. This girl has nothing to do with us. What will you gain by harming her?” James frowned.
“The satisfaction that her blood would be on your hands.”
“Okay,” I shrugged, “Listen, as much as I’d love to be butchered for revenge. I really find it hurtful to be used as leverage on something I have no idea about.”
“What?”
“Yeah like at least fill me in on the deets then chop me up after. Have some courtesy.” I scoffed.
“Shut up!”
Swiftly I got out of her clutch. Thank God for that Facebook video I scrolled past on my timeline teaching me to escape this kind of situation. Before I could have gotten to James, a man tried to pull me towards him but that was prevented as James counter-attacked him and spun me back around towards him.
“Go,” James instructed.
“What?” I gasped.
“Means run.”
With that, I bolted through towards the door, avoiding the men that came with Ana-Maria. My heart raced a thousand times per second as I pushed the door shut and stacked a chair against it. James had been there alone with about five to six persons. I had to do something. I couldn’t leave him there alone. Running back up the stairs, I rushed into Martha’s room where she had just tucked Danny into bed.
“James is in trouble!”
“What?” she frowned.
“This woman came and she- she brought these men with her. They had an argument and-”
“James can handle it.” Martha smiled.
“What?”
“Trust me. Look out the window you can see them.”
Pulling the drapery aside to view outside, I was astonished at what I was seeing. James was taking on these men in such a way no normal person I knew could have. It was as if he was actually trained for years in martial arts. The guy was a bloody ninja.
“Impressed yet?” Martha laughed.
“How-”
“I think you two may need to have a little talk about that.”
“I probably should unlock the door for him.” I frowned.
Stepping down the stairs I made my way back to the door just in time for him to enter.
“You must have a lot of questions for me in that head of yours but I should let you know in advance that for your betterment it’s best if you know less than you think you have to know.”
“What a polite way of telling me no, Novy.”
“Please Katherine, understand that there are some things that really don’t need to be retold.”
“For my security or for my judgment towards you?”
“Both.” He stated as he was about to walk away but I held him back.
“I won’t judge you, James. I’d just like to know the truth. The last man I trusted screwed me over and I sure as hell don’t want this to happen a second time.”
I heard him give a soft sigh, not in annoyance just tired. Tired of what he supposedly had to endure in the past. He held my hand gently where mine rested on his arm and turned to me.
“Want to get a drink with me?”
Taking a deep breath, I gave a small nod, “Sure.”
“Okay,” I began as we sat at the table with our drinks, “What was that all about?”
“Which part?”
“I’ll probably start with the most interesting part that really doesn’t involve me but I’m curious as hell.” I smiled.
“Ana-Maria?”
“No, Violet.”
There was a sudden look of anguish that washed across his face but he hid it as he took a drink calmly and responded,
“She meant everything to me, I’d never hurt her.”
“Meant?”
“I need to start from the very beginning to help you understand Katherine, starting with my parents.”
For a second I wondered if I did the right thing by asking him about this but James somehow had this willingness to relate his story to me.
“I was born in Croatia,” he began, “My mother Croatian and my father Romanian. My father constantly left us to fulfill his work responsibilities elsewhere until one day I discovered my mother was becoming very ill and needed urgent treatment. We didn’t have a lot of money, I was young and worked for what I could earn but I worked against my mother’s wishes. My father hadn’t come back from his business trip and no money was sent for my mother’s treatment.”
“James,” I breathed softly.
“One night I received this warning letter addressed to my father which threatened to kill him, my mother, and I.”
“What?”
“Nothing made sense to me at that point in time. My first instinct was to protect my mother. I tried writing to my father but I never got back any response. My mother wasn’t in the best shape either. I had to move her in with my aunt, she was a nurse but there was not a lot she could have done for my mother. She took care of her the best she could. In regards to my father, I had to find him. He was our only hope.”
“Did you find him?”
James gave a soft disappointed laugh, “Yeah.”
I frowned at his response.
“I heard about his whereabouts in Romania so I went there. This business he was into was far from what I could imagine. He along with a woman named Mumtaz trained a camp of soldiers.”
“Soldiers? You mean like ninjas?”
“Assassins.” James frowned, “It’s not a place where you’d want your children to end up, Katherine. Most were orphans. Mumtaz trained the females, while my father the males.”
“And their relationship?”
“Professional. Or at least my father used to think so. When I confronted him about abandoning my mother and I he was at first confused. I told him about her illness and how many letters I send yet no reply.”
“What did he say?”
“The letters weren’t received. Someone kept the truth hidden from him.”
“What? Who on earth would do such a terrible thing?”
“Mumtaz hid them. She wanted to be with my father. When he found out the truth he was so enraged he almost killed her on the spot but my father’s friend Hades stopped him. After telling him about the letter I received threatening to kill us, my father left immediately.”
“Did you go with him?”
“I wanted to but he forbid me. Every day I wished I defied him and accompanied him back to Croatia.”
“What do you mean?”
“A few days after, I received a call from my aunt saying that my mother was no more. When I asked about my father he hadn’t made it back to them. Until this day I don’t know what happened.”
“I’m so sorry to hear this, James.”
“For years I stayed and trained with Hades. I didn’t know what to do with my life anymore. Occasionally I visited my aunt, she was really all I had left anyway. After the incident with my father, the alliance between the 2 camps eventually broke. Mumtaz and Hades were always in disagreement and it just didn’t make sense anymore.”
“And what about that woman you met outside?”
“Ana- Maria and Violet Proca are the nieces of Mumtaz. Ana trained under Mumtaz’s care but her younger sister didn’t. She never was a supporter of this violence. I went on a dark path after my mother’s death, Katherine. I did horrible things. Violet was the only colour in my life. Every Sunday I’d meet her in the park after her classes and walk her home. It wasn’t a safe place.”
“I’m sure that was the reason.” I slightly teased.
“Whatever the reason, I was utterly in love with her and how pure and innocent her heart was. She was the kind of girl you wanted to always protect and admire in such a world. Eventually, her mother accepted me, Ana also warmed up to me as well only because I made her sister happy. Mumtaz however didn’t.”
“Why is Ana-Maria so against you now then?”
“One day I went to their house, when I went I saw their mother dead in the hall. I was worried about Violent and searched the house but she wasn’t there. At that point in time, Ana walked in and assumed I killed her mother.”
“And Violet? Where was she?”
“I don’t know.” There was a pain in his voice, “I had an idea who took her, that’s why I came here, Katherine. I believe it’s the same person who was involved with my family.”
“I don’t even know what to say anymore, James.”
“Nothing, it’s not your fight. You’re already in a mess and I can’t include you in mine but what I can do for you is help you get into contact with your brother.”
“What?”
“I know a few people and I’m sure they’ll be willing to help you. You should meet them before you do anything else.”
“Who are they?”
James took a card out of his wallet and wrote an address down at the back, “You can’t miss it.”
Reading the address, I arched an eyebrow, “Well this is going to be interesting.”
“I assure you, and if you ever need me, don’t hesitate to call.”
“Trust me, a friend like you would definitely come in handy when I want to rob a bank, Novy.” I smiled.
Before I got up from the seat, I stopped myself and turned back, “This person James, who was involved with the people you love, the person who wrote the letter to your family, you never told me the name.”
He looked at me and frowned as he said it, “Gianmarco Vincelli.”
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