A Lifetime With You by Athrhteera

Alena

When I woke up this morning, I was feeling a little bit uneasy about what happened yesterday with Matteo and Papa. I didn't waste any time when I called Igor to pick me up and drive me to Papa's office, knowing he was there with Alexei.

I spent around forty-five minutes to get ready before leaving the house. Igor had arrived a bit early and he waited around fifteen minutes until he saw me walked out of the front door-he never complained whenever he had to wait for me. Well, he never really said it out loud and I just assumed he never did.

Igor didn't seem annoyed either.

"Are you sure he's at the office?" I asked.

The car ride was quiet and neither of us said a word until I decided to break the silence by asking him a question. I only guessed Papa was at the office with Alexei and I just needed another confirmation from Igor if he was-he would've known if Papa was at home with Mama because most of the time, Igor was ready to take wherever Mama wanted to go.

"Yes, he left the house this morning."

"And went to the office?"

"I drove him there myself, Mrs. Lerclerc."

I frowned, "Drop the formalities, Igor. We've passed that stage."

A slight smirk appeared on his face as he continued to focus on the road but I saw it clearly through the rear-view mirror. "Sorry, Alena. My bad,"

Once we had arrived at the building, Igor parked at the drop-off. One of the men came to open the door for me and I smiled at him before I walked inside, receiving a few welcoming gestures from the other employees. I hadn't stepped my foot in this building for years but they seemed to still know me..

I had sent a simple text message to Matteo about my little trip to see Papa. He hadn't responded to me yet so I assumed he was busy working, probably didn't have the time to check his phone.

Igor followed behind me as we waited for the elevator.

We reached the floor to Alexei's office and I could see the room was occupied. I slowly made my way to the door before knocking, trying to make my presence known. Within seconds, I pushed the door open and I stepped inside. Papa and Alexei were talking but they had stopped as soon as I entered.

A couple of other men had stopped talking as well. They were having a discussion and apparently, the kind of discussion that I wasn't allowed to hear. The two men continued to look at me before they turned to look at Alexei, somehow waiting for him to give them orders. "What a nice surprise, Alena. What brings you here?" My brother asked, sarcasm in his tone.

"Just decided to stop by and grab lunch with you two. Am I bothering something?"

"Not at all." He replied before he gestured for the two men to leave, "Gentlemen. We'll continue our discussion after lunch. Apparently, there's a little family gathering that I wasn't aware of."

I continued to smile as the two men left the room, closing the door behind them.

Igor nodded before he stepped out as well, waiting outside.

Papa cleared his throat, "Alena. Is there a problem?"

"Actually, there is. I came here to talk to you,"

"What is it about? Can't we talk about it at home?"

"Well, you're not at home."

"You can always stop by the evening and we can talk during dinner."

"Right... but I'm here, aren't I? asked, looking at both my br

can just order something and talk or do you guys think it's better if we go out for lunch? I and my father.

If they knew me well, he could suspect something I never came here without any intention and I certainly never came to see them without telling them first-Alexei was suspecting something but he kept quiet, only waited for things to unfold themselves. Papa, on the other hand, loved the idea of having lunch together.

"Can you make a last minute reservation, Alexei?"

"Sure. I'll call them,"

"Great, let's go then."

Alexei went to call the restaurant and even though it was a last minute reservation, the restaurant didn't seem to mind. They were known to serve very, very important people and they knew they would receive bad reviews if they refused to take our reservation. Papa and Alexei loved to eat there for lunch. They also loved to bring their clients there for discussions because they served delicious meals at a very high price. I was never a big fan of eating at expensive restaurants because I knew I could always get something better at a lower price.

However, I could never refuse if Papa was paying.

The three of us left the office and took the elevator down. As soon as we reached the lobby, Igor was already starting the car and were ready to leave-the car ride to the restaurant was short but it felt like hours because of the traffic.

None of us said a word. Easy to say, it was awkward.

"Mr. Orlov, come on in."

We were greeted with a wide smile and we walked inside, straight to our table.

Once we were seated, we looked at the menu to order.

"I'll have the lamb," I said.

Alexei and Papa went on to order. Once they were done, we were finally left alone to talk. Actually, I had only planned to talk with Papa without Alexei being in the picture but he was here, I couldn't just push him away-it was better to just have this conversation with both of them.

"So, what is it? You seem like you have something important to talk about," Alexei said.

"I do. I'm just not sure if it involves you or not,"

"Why is that?" He raised an eyebrow.

I cleared my throat, "But come to think about it, it does involve you."

"You're being really sarcastic now, Alena."

"I've always been like that,"

"Sure." He replied, chuckling.This content provided by N(o)velDrama].[Org.

"Enough kids. We don't need to argue here." Papa interrupted before he turned to look at me, "Is there something wrong, Alena? Knowing you, you don't just come to the office and invite us for lunch.

"I want to catch up with you. Like we always did back when Alexei and I were younger," my response didn't seem to make him believe either but he nodded his head, waiting for me to continue. "Just like the lunch dates we had before, none of it ended without a disagreement."

"Well, you're stubborn. That explains it," Alexei said.

"So are you,"

"That's enough. Both of you." Papa said.

9:28 AM

"I'll just be straight forward with you two. I don't like the way you guys are treating Matteo I said, sitting up straight as I looked at both of them-1 had expected for Alexei to scoff and he did because he didn't seem to take it as a serious togje. for Papa, he sighed deeply as if he wasn't interested.

"How exactly are we treating him?" Alexei asked, pointing it out.

"Like he's not a part of the family. Like he's at fault all the time"

"The truth hurts princess but he is always at fault. My dear brother replied, causing me to feel the anger rising inside of me but I tried to keep calm-I wish I could explode but I knew I couldn't do that in public. Besides, I wasn't going to let him ger

1. me.

"What makes you say that?"

"He failed to protect you. What else do I have to say?"

"He didn't fail to protect me, Alexei. Did you lose your memory or something? You were the one that came to me and told me to come home. You said Matteo was suffering and he hadn't been sleeping when I left. Now, you're blaming him for everything that happened." "It's his enemy that kidnapped you. Technically, that's his fault."

I looked at both of them in disbelief as I leaned back on my seat.

I stayed quiet for the next few minutes as the waiter came to serve our food. However, even after he had left, I didn't feel like eating what I ordered. Papa and Alexei started to change the topic of their conversation as they enjoyed their lunch while f stared at them angrily. "You know what? Fuck it, I can't do this anymore." I stood up, grabbing my handbag.

"Alena, sit down." Papa said, looking at me.

I contemplated for awhile but I sat back down, waiting for him to say something. He had sighed deeply as he took a sip of his water, "We're not blaming anyone here for what happened to you, Alena but as a man, he needs to own up to his mistakes. Despite how much power he has, he needs to admit it that all of this happened because of him."

"It happened because it happened, Papa. None of us wanted it to happen and believe me when I say this, it could be anyone that tried to hurt me. It can even be your enemy but it's so easy for you to blame Matteo. You keep on disrespecting him and I don't like that," I replied. "Did he sent you here to say all of this?" Alexei interrupted.

""Excuse me?"

"Did your dear husband sent you here to say all of this crap because he didn't have the guts to say it all himself?"

My eyes widened as I held myself back, trying my hardest to hold my anger in.

"Fuck you." I said as I grabbed onto my handbag and I began to walk away.

Papa kept on calling out for my name as I walked towards the door. Some of the customers here had turned to look at us but I wasn't bothered by the slightest, they could look and stare as long as they wanted. I only wanted to leave this restaurant.

Igor was waiting by the car and as soon as he saw me, he immediately went to open the door. "Going home, Alena?"

1 nodded as an answer, without saying a word

Igor began to drive away and we both stayed quiet throughout the ride. I noticed him looking at me through the rear-view mirror but he knew there was a boundary between us that he couldn't simply cross. Tears were beginning to form in before they fell and I was silently crying at the backseat, feeling hurt.

My head was spinning and I felt slightly nauseous.

"Igor, can you please stop the car? I asked

Igor found an empty spot to stop and I immediately opened the door, stepping out