I blinked.
"What?"
He was silent for a few moments, but then mumbled, "Remember the scar at the back of my neck? That was him."
I stood still. I felt so small and weak and so defeated. The man that I had fallen in love with, the man I had married and whose child I was now carrying had been a criminal. And not just some thief, but he was paid to kill one of the highest members of the Soviet Society. What else did I not know about Alexander?
I let out a shaky breath before daring to look up at Misha. His eyes were weary and the pain written in them made my heart wince. I didn't want to look at him or talk to him because I felt so guilty. My husband was the one who caused Misha to go through such terrible times.
"Misha, are you sure it was Alexander, my Alexander?"
He closed his eyes and also took a deep breath. "Unfortunately, yes, Maria. I saw his face just after he stabbed me, and I never forgot it."
I shuddered. Who was Alexander? I had no idea of the man he was. He had kept so many secrets from me.
I closed my eyes and tried to picture it. Rich and extremely important and suddenly, you're attacked. You think you might get away with your life, and you're fighting all these strong men and you think maybe there is a chance. Maybe today won't be the day when I meet God and face death. Until you're stabbed. Right at the back of the neck and the pain washes over you. You're numb and as you fall to the ground you catch a glimpse of the man who has killed you. The man who decided your life was worthless and your death was very valuable. The man who was responsible for ending the short life you have lived, for ending all the moments you had and all the moments in your future. And just like that, you're lying on the stone cold ground, blood gushing from the wound, surrounding your face, your limbs numb and detached and the only thing you remember is his face.
He was that man. My Alexander, the love of my life, the man I had been trusting with my life, with everything, did that.
"Misha..." I didn't know what else to say.
What do you say?
I'm sorry? For what? For marrying the man who killed you, who forced you to go through the agonizing pain of reconnecting nerves? Or for the fact that I never knew?
"Maria. I didn't tell you this because I wanted you to hate Alexander. He has become a much better man and I think I have forgiven him..."
He looked into my eyes and then furrowed his brows. "Okay fine, I haven't, but I've forgiven him half-way. I don't want the type of revenge that you might expect, let's say that."
I frowned. "Okay? Then why are you telling me this?"
"Let's keep walking? You should go see the rest of this city. The subway station?"
I smiled, despite the very awful subject we had just been conversing about and nodded.
If you aren't convinced about how extraordinary the human mind is, and how amazing and beautiful a mathematician, an architect, and an artist can be, just go to the Russian Subway Station.
Misha grinned and grabbed my hand and we ran off.
"Okay, Maria, we're getting close. Here, take this scarf and wrap it around your eyes." He handed me a scarf and I hesitantly took it.
"Aw, Maria, c'mon, you know you can trust me!" Misha said impatiently and then grabbing the poor scarf from my hand, he tied it over my eyes in a split second.
"There! Now we can go!"
He took my hand and very carefully guided me through the streets and stairs that led to the station. It was so strange, being blocked away from the rest of the world, but still hearing the chatter and noise of the city.
"Maria, if you continue walking this slowly, we'll never reach it!" He exclaimed and tried to pull me along.
I laughed and tried to hurry but it was very hard!
"Mishka! Do you know how hard it is to be blindfolded in the busiest city of Russia, with ridiculously uncomfortable and high heels, and a little ninja baby that keeps kicking me? Oh, not to mention the fact that I have to trust a gang member who has an awful habit of pranking good, innocent people, and who also happens to be insanely dangerous and skilled with strategically breaking the law?"
He gave me a little push! "Did you really just describe me like that? How could you, I thought you were beginning to like me!"
I laughed. "I have no words. This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever done in public. Not even in private, actually, do I do such childish things!"
Misha laughed with me. "You gotta live, my dear! Live! Be childish!"
Suddenly, he swept me off my feet, quite literally and twirled me around. Laughing, I wrapped my arms around his neck.
"Misha! Quit it, let me down!" I yelled, trying to break free.
"Maria, live!"
"You realize I can't see anything and you're spinning me in a crowded city, making me, and us, look like idiots? How can I live when you've created such a reputation for me?" I couldn't help but keep laughing while I said that.
I loved it. I loved being here with him. He made me... live. He did, he made me laugh and laugh until my eyes were crying and my cheeks ached terribly. He got rid of my worries and told me that it's alright to be childish. He didn't care about what others might think- to him, the world was one big home and he was the king of all of it. He did what he wanted and when he wanted. He wasn't scared, he wasn't embarrassed, he was just living life.
Finally, he let me down and took away the blindfold.
I gasped as soon as I saw the majestic view in front of me. Brilliant, white walls that radiated light. Paintings, beautiful paintings, framed with outstanding sculpting. It was all... so much!
I ran around like a little girl, incapable of gathering all this beauty in one swift look.
"Misha! This is beautiful! This is stunning, it's so... remarkable and astonishing and ah!" I yelled to him, my voice echoing through the
He laughed at each word I said and at each step, I made when I ran. He opened out his arms and I ran into him. He caught me and wrapped his strong arms around me. I buried my face in his jacket, unable to stop laughing.
Finally, we both calmed down and were able to sit down at the benches. I leaned against his shoulder, recovering from my little exercise fit. Thankfully, not many people were walking where we had stopped and so we didn't need to recover from too much embarrassment.
"Like I was saying, Maria, I didn't tell you all this so that you could hate Alexander, and I didn't say it to excuse my actions earlier. Everything I did was never encouraged by him, or my revenge."
I nodded.
"While I lay in the hospital bed, after I had been found alive, and brought back, the only thing that kept coming to mind was the face of the man who killed me. The doctors would all tell me that whenever I fell asleep, I would murmur and thrash around until finally, I would wake up, screaming that I'm dying. These hallucinations I had, were of me repeatedly dying and each time it was Alexander that was killing me."
I winced. I couldn't imagine what that had to feel like. I only knew that it was awful and that my Alexander had caused that. I simply gave Mishka's hand a firm squeeze, urging him to continue.
"I slowly recovered, and wouldn't wake up screaming anymore. Of course, physically I still had so much more to go through. I had to take physical therapy, lots and lots of it. They forced me to do all these exercises that sent jolts of pain through my body every single moment while I was doing them. I hated it. I really hated it, I thought that it would have been better that no one had found me and I had died."
Once more, I winced. I couldn't imagine it at all, going through so much pain that you'd rather be dead.
"But... unfortunately his face didn't go away from my memory. And that's what kept me going, to look after him and find him and make him go through the same pain I went through. I hate to admit it, but I really wanted to end his life, with at least as much pain as I was going through."
"I'm guessing you ended up changing your mind, seeing as Alexander is still alive."
Misha nodded. "Well, that's where the crew comes into play. I met Stephan and joined up his little gang. We all became good friends and I started to get more and more involved. I traveled the world with them, and eventually started earning enough trust to visit meetings and different gatherings."
"He introduced you to Alexander, am I correct?"
He took a deep breath and nodded. "His business started to go under and he needed money. He mentioned Alexander a few times and we decided to go visit him. As soon as I saw him, I immediately recognized him. After all, his face was flashing through my memory the most often. I wanted to go and strangle him, and beat him until he went unconscious."
After a pause, Misha continued. "Somehow, I kept myself under control. If Alexander recognized me, he didn't even show it. When we left, I was surprised at how calm I was, considering who I just met. I guess throughout the years, I slowly forgave him a little. Not enough and that's why you're here."
I immediately jumped up and faced him.
"I'm sorry what? I'm here, I had to go through all this, because of you? I've always thought it was just a way to get Alexander to sacrifice some money, but that's not it, is it? Am I some sort of revenge that you have planned?"
I couldn't believe him! He was so... nice! How could he have planned this, or caused this?
'You know exactly why he did this. This isn't even that bad. If this was someone else's murderer's wife, they'd have already killed you long, long ago.'
Gosh, I hated my inner self. Fine, fine, what he did was actually fairly nice, considering who he was dealing with and his dangerous personality.
Misha stood staring at me with a grin. I pursed my lips and sat back down next to him.
"Now you see, huh? It doesn't make a lot of sense that I actually haven't done something worse, yeah?"
With a little huff of air, I grumbled, "Yeah, I guess."
He gently nudged me. "Let me continue. Stephan and the crew soon found out about Alexander and they wanted to support me. Shurik and Eugene, however, came up with a little plan one night and we all loved it."
I rolled my eyes. Of course. They had some wonderful, genius plan and it's way, way worse than I originally thought it to be.
"I agreed and we began to execute the plan. It was excruciatingly slow at first, but soon, it all quickened until, well, until we got you. And until we began traveling with you."
After a deafening few moments, I asked him, "So, will you tell me the plans? Or will I have to wait another five months for you to tell me?
He smiled. "No, I'll tell you. Let's walk around first?"
I nodded. He wasn't offering to walk around, it was basically a command. I didn't mind though, not at all. We walked through the station, and each little section was more beautiful that the previous.
It was so marvelous and breathtaking; I could write a novel about each section. Each one was so unique, but they were all linked together with some strange, unifying characteristic that I couldn't figure out. Each one was painted so brilliantly and skilled... I marveled at every detail I could until Misha was hurrying me along. He had to drag me away like a parent having to drag away a little child looking through the window of a candy and toy shop.
"Their plan consisted of us looking for Alexander's weak spot."
I whirled around to face Misha. What did he just say?
"I'm sorry what?" I asked with a frown.
He gave a small laugh at my confused face. "You're so... chil-wonderful, Maria. So unique and brilliant."
Suddenly, I remembered what we had been talking about.
"Oh... I remember. With all this excitement of seeing this breathtaking place, it quite literally left me speechless. I completely forgot everything we had been talking about. I'm back on board now though, I promise."
He looked at me in adoration for a few more milliseconds before returning to his story. "We learned how much his identity relied on his company and money and we decided to break that first. When you entered the equation, however, we decided to wait a little and see."
"Stephan told me this part. Apparently, he treasures me above all else or some crazy crap like this, and so you guys took me."
"More or less. But the main idea still stands that yes, you appeared to be the most valuable asset to Alexander and so we began to plan with you as our core. But you were by far not the only value we needed to take away from Alexander."
I couldn't keep my mouth shut, and blurted out, "Like his countries?"
Misha raised an eyebrow. "How did you know?"
"Well, I've been with you for five months now. I learned a thing or two." I replied in a cold voice.
Misha could feel the cold and turned away. "Yes. You're right. We planned several attacks on the cities in which he has the most influence. How do you make a man hated in a country that adores him?"
I closed my eyes and then replied in a voice even colder than before, "You poison his reputation."
Misha didn't respond, but that was all I needed. They ruined my husband.
"So how much did you poison him?"
It took a few long, agonizing moments before Misha began to talk. "Enough. We began to shake his reputation before we ever took you. It's what convinced him to start going out to social gatherings. We turned his people against him, basically. They would start little, but very dangerous and important fights that would catch the government's attention. They always made it clear how they got access to the country, or to the people, or whatever. I'm sure you know that Alexander dealt with all countries and his influence reached a lot deeper than simply immigration documents and such. He would help out with almost anything, and so it was very easy to find ways to poison each of his... sources."
"You're leaving me speechless, Misha. I have no words, except you guys are truly masters of your work. I hate what you've done, but you've crafted it so well that I can't help but be impressed."
"This was a very important thing to me, and we had to do it well. We had one chance. Everything was going well, but we were stopped in Cairo. You see, our attacks grew larger, and with each, Alexander had to spend more and more money, and his people trusted him less and less. He befriended Jordan Jonathan, and that complicated things slightly since he is a very respected man. But we still had connections in every corner of the earth and that really helped."
"So what did happen in Cairo?"
"Alexander fought back. Now, when I say we fought back and he fought back, it wasn't like some war. We mostly fight with power and influence. Sure, many men die, but not enough for it to be considered war and stuff. Anyways, he was able to find men who could help him regain control of the situations, and so we've got half of Cairo on our side, and the rest is his."
"Okay, but I'm guessing that wasn't bad."
"Not really, since we managed to hit Dubai. The crew focused their energy on Dubai and so we managed to start up a good many fights and, like you said, poison his reputation. Dubai is a city full of tourists, and many of them come from countries your husband is very loved in. It caused definite chaos to the governments with which Alexander works."
"Okay, well, where are we now? What's going on?"
"He sent us a letter as I've mentioned. I don't understand why, but whatever his reason was, we're not going to give you back yet. There's still much more pain we can inflict."
"Go on," I said, after Misha trailed off for a few minutes, "You have to tell me now. It won't hurt much."
"Let me just say that in Russia, well, in Russia, we're the Kings here. And here, we can inflict the most pain."
"Brilliant. You do realize that this is my husband that you've been telling me about? You just told me all your master plans about how you want to ruin my husband."
Misha shrugged. "You do realize that to me, he is not your husband. He is my murderer."
I furrowed my eyes. Then I took a deep breath and undid my frown. "Yes, I do realize."
"So then you must understand."
"I do."
"Brilliant. Come, we must go."
He grabbed my hand and pulled me up.
I walked next to him in silence until I dared to ask him, "Why did you tell me all this?"
"That, my love, is a story for a different time."
"So where are we going?"
"First, we will rest. And then, we will go to a ball."