Before Ivan could respond, Viktor walked in. He did look better after his short time away, but it was obvious he was still struggling to come to terms with everything. “Everything okay, man?” Ivan asked.
“Yeah, Sasha is worried about Ilya too. He talked to him before his flight. He said he hasn’t ever heard him like that. I guess the girl he thought he was in love with really did a number on his head,” Viktor said. “Hopefully some time away from it all can help him clear his head,” I said. “Give him a job, if he wants it. We could use the extra help.”
Viktor chuckled. “Ivan said the same thing. I’m waiting to see how bad he is before I offer him a job, to be honest.”
“Fair. Totally fair,” Ivan said.
“Where’s Sephie?” Viktor asked.
“She’s upstairs with the Wonder Twins. She wanted playing time while it was quiet,” I said.
I almost expected him to want to go upstairs then, but he stayed quiet.
“He’s totally still avoiding her,” Ivan thought.
“Agreed.”
Sephie
My experiment helped me channel some of the sadness I’d been feeling from Viktor, but it still didn’t get rid of it completely. I knew this kind of sadness. I’d felt it when my mom died, but even then, I had an easier time geting over it than this. It was like a cloud was following me everywhere 1 went. I’d have moments where I felt a little better, but the sadness would always return.
Along with the cold. I hadn’t been this cold since I was in the hospital after (in and I were taken. I was quickly becoming convinced I was incapable of feeling warm any longer. I doubled up on my warmest clothes, which helped, but not enough.
Andrei was happy to be on heater duty anytime I needed him, but even that isn’t enough. They’d all tried their best over the weekend to help cheer me up as best they could and I loved them for it. The moments where I got a reprieve were great, but very short-lived.
Ivan walked into the penthouse after I was done playing. I was making yet another cup of coffee when I saw him. “Squish!” I said, immediately running to him.
He caught me mid-air and held me off the floor in a bear hug. “Princess, I missed you.”
“I missed you, Squish. Life isn’t the same without you here,” I said, hugging his a little tighter. His grip on me tightened as well, popping my back in the process. I groaned in relief. “Apparently you’re my chiropractor now, too, said, laughing.
When he set me down, Misha asked, “how’s Viktor?”
Ivan sighed. “Not as good as I’d like. He won’t talk very much about it either so trying to figure out how best to help him is next to impossible. You guys have felt her sadness all weekend, too?” he asked, looking between Andre and Misha.
“Yeah. Stephen can feel it too. We’ve been trying to find ways to help cheer her up, but nothing lasts very long,” Andrei said.
“Her eyes have stayed amber almost the entire time, too. I think I’ve only seen them change the one time when Boss showed us his demon eyes,” Misha said. Even Misha sounded more somber than usual. I think it was beginning to affect everyone.
“They know we can do this now, too, by the way,” I thought. “Stephen actually figured it out before we told them. He’s wicked smart.”
Ivan chuckled, but looked at me curiously. “Yours change when you see ours change, but did you feel anything different when it happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did it give you relief from the overwhelming sadness you’ve been carrying around?” he asked.
“Um, I don’t exactly remember. I might have. I get moments of relief, but they’re just moments right now. I don’t remember ever feeling this way before,” I said. “And I don’t know how to get rid of it. Nothing I’ve tried has worked for very long.”
Ivan was always good for solutions. He thought for a minute, then looked to drei. “You haven’t seen anything weird around her, have you?”
“No, but she’s dimmer than she normally is,” he said.
I set about starting to make dinner as they discussed possible solutions to our latest unexplainable problem. The fact that Viktor kept himself constantly occupied for so many years was starting to make more sense. Distractions definitely helped, but it was only a temporary solution.
Adrik and Stephen eventually came upstairs, along with Vitaliy and Aleksei. W were all waiting on Viktor to come back with his brother. When they finally walked in, both of them looked like they’d had the world’s toughest conversation on the way back from the airport.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.