After being cast out, Elena was seething with rage, her pride deeply wounded. As she left, she gritted her teeth and threatened Alia and her brother, saying, "You will pay the price for your arrogance; I will deal with you!"
Three tense days passed. The clouds of Elena's conspiracy were thickening over the Russian skies. Meanwhile, lost in her own thoughts, Alia stood on the platform of a deserted railway station in Russia. The cold wind caught her expensive white fur coat, giving her a mysterious aura against the snowy, pristine Russian backdrop.
A train sped past the platform. On the other side of the train's window was Viktor, wearing a black fur coat that accentuated his identity as a mafia lord and his ruthless personality. As the train flashed by at lightning speed, Viktor caught a glimpse of Alia for a fleeting moment. However, due to the train's speed, Alia did not notice that her beloved was passing her by in that very train. After the train disappeared, a profound silence descended upon the station, and Alia remained unaware that, within a matter of seconds, she had missed the chance to see the most important person in her life.
Standing on that railway platform, Alia was still lost in a deep trance. After the train departed, the surrounding environment grew quiet again. Alia adjusted the collar of her white fur coat and began walking slowly toward the end of the platform.
At that very moment, an old colleague of hers approached quickly and stopped her. The colleague smiled gently and said, "Hi Alia! Long time no see, how are you?"
This sudden appearance of the colleague interrupted Alia's stream of thoughts. Startled, she turned back and saw it was the person with whom she had worked on many covert operations in the past. Hiding her emotions, Alia replied in a calm voice, "Yes, it has been a long time. I am well, how are you?"
Amidst the crowd on the platform, this conversation with her colleague felt even more mysterious than Elena's conspiracy, as Alia's gaze was still fixed on the departing train as if she had subconsciously sensed Viktor's presence. The colleague's remark made Alia's eyebrows furrow. The icy touch of the wind seemed to stand still for a moment. With a crooked smile, the colleague said, "I don't know how much Viktor likes sex or how things happen, but..."
Alia stared at him intensely and asked in a cold voice, "How do you know that?"
The colleague, feeling somewhat flustered, looked around and began to stammer, "No... I mean, don't misunderstand me. Actually, I saw them at that private party last week. There's a lot of gossip behind the scenes about Viktor's private moments or his likes and dislikes; his strength of character and his personal habits came up in those discussions, too." Alia stopped in her tracks. It felt as if the ground were shifting beneath her feet. Her eyes narrowed with intense disdain. She asked in a cold voice, "Which woman was it?"
The colleague became visibly uncomfortable, as if he had let slip something he shouldn't have. He stammered, "No... I mean... I don't know her name for sure. But there are always many high-society women around Victor. At the party, he was seen in a very intimate situation with a mysterious woman. I thought you might have known..."
A fire began to burn inside Alia like a wildfire. She knows that much happens behind the scenes of Viktor's personal life and his mafia empire, but this kind of insinuation regarding Viktor's loyalty felt like poison being poured into her ears. She realized that this was not just common gossip; it could be a carefully planned move by Elena, intended to break Alia down emotionally.
Alia kept her steady gaze fixed on the colleague, as if she were trying to tear off his mask. She said in a cold, measured tone, "Are you sure it was just a party, or were you specifically sent to get these words to me?" The colleague backed away in fear, as if finding it difficult to endure Alia's icy gaze. He stammered, "Look, I didn't actually mean to say anything. I don't even know how Viktor behaves with women personally. I just felt bad, thinking that perhaps you didn't know these things..."
Alia stopped him mid-sentence. Her face held no warmth, only a stony, rigid expression. In a calm but firm voice, she said, "Do you think I don't know these things? The world Viktor lives in, these things are nothing unusual."
Alia stepped closer and looked the colleague directly in the eyes. Her tone carried the nobility and authority of a Mafia Godmother. She added:
"What you have seen or heard is nothing new to me. Viktor is a Lord and a boss of the underworld, and the rules of his world are beyond the comprehension of ordinary people."
"He is no ordinary man; he governs a powerful empire. I am not the kind of woman to fall into the traps of such rumors or webs of lies."
"Do you really think I would lose faith in Viktor over such trivial matters? The bond between Viktor and me is far deeper and more complex, something impossible for people like you to understand."
Stunned by Alia's spirited response, the colleague went silent. He realized it was impossible to provoke Alia against Viktor. Ignoring him, Alia continued walking slowly along the platform, her white fur coat billowing in the chilly wind—she was alone now, but her confidence was more unshakable than ever. Alia walked away with her head held high, her composure and unwavering confidence leaving the colleague stunned. Left standing on the platform, the man began cursing himself under his breath, muttering, "Everything is ruined! It's impossible to shake Alia so easily, and now I'll have to face Elena's wrath!"
As he stood there, trembling in his own distress, a heavy and chilling voice suddenly resonated from behind him, sending a cold shiver down his spine.
Viktor was standing directly behind him. He was wearing that same black fur coat, and his eyes held the predatory intensity of a tiger. Terrified, the colleague turned around, lacking the courage to even look Viktor in the eye.
Viktor gripped his shoulder firmly, the sheer pressure of his hand making the colleague wince in pain. In a low, menacing, and terrifying voice, Viktor demanded, "What exactly did you say to my wife? How dare you have the audacity to spread poison about my personal life?"
The movement of the air on the railway platform seemed to stop dead. The colleague realized in that moment that he might not leave this place alive today.The colleague trembled with fear, barely able to whisper, "No... no, Lord, I am not lying! I only said what I heard. It was Elena who sent me to your wife; she was the one who coached me on everything!"
Viktor's eyes were burning like a volcano. The pressure of his hand nearly crushed the colleague's collarbone. Viktor replied in a slow, gravelly voice, "Elena... that girl! She thinks she can play her dirty politics right under my nose and I won't notice? Just because she was my former assistant, she now has the audacity to strike at the boundaries of my personal life?"
Viktor shoved the colleague against the station pillar. His voice held a deep, menacing roar: "What happened with my wife or what she heard is not the point. The point is that no conspiracy can survive in my kingdom without my permission. I know Elena is working within the mafia underworld. But the game she is playing right under my nose—she will face the consequences of it today."
Viktor signaled his bodyguards. Without a shred of mercy, he said coldly, "Take him away. I will pull the truth about where Elena is hiding right out of this rat's mouth. Then I will show her just how horrific the punishment for playing with my family's honor truly is."
The colleague let out a cry, but there was no pity in Viktor's gaze. He was already drafting the blueprint for Elena's destruction. The colleague became desperate to escape Viktor's grasp, tears streaming down his face as he sobbed, "Please, let me go, Lord! I have a wife, I have young children. I will be left alone without them, please! It was a mistake!"
Finding no other way to survive, he caught sight of Alia in the distance and screamed, "Godmother! Alia! Please save me! No one but you can pull me back from the jaws of death!"
The surroundings of the platform grew heavy with the colleague's cries. Just then, Alia hurried back to the scene. Seeing the state of the colleague and Viktor's furious demeanor, she was stunned. Stepping forward, she took Viktor's hand and asked in a calm voice, "Viktor, what are you doing? Why is there such a commotion in the middle of the station? Why are you harassing him like this?"
The tense atmosphere on the platform seemed to pause for a moment at Alia's presence. Viktor looked at Alia, the fire of rage still burning in his eyes, but her touch softened his rigidity just a little. Viktor gently brushed Alia's hand aside, his eyes turning as hard as stone. Without looking at her, he said in a chilling voice, "Alia, you may be kind-hearted, but there is no forgiveness for this kind of betrayal."
In the blink of an eye, before Alia could even react, Viktor pulled a pistol from inside his coat. Without a second thought, he fired a bullet directly into the colleague's forehead. The deafening sound of the gunshot shattered the silence of the station. The man's body slumped instantly, hitting the platform floor with a dull thud.
Alia could not bear this brutal scene. Seeing the blood pool before her eyes, she screamed in terror and collapsed onto the floor, trembling uncontrollably. A desperate, broken sob escaped her lips: "No! What have you done, Viktor?"
Tears streamed down Alia's face as she broke into sobs. "You killed him like that? Wasn't he like family to me? We worked together, we shared so many memories... and today, you ended him right before my eyes!"
Viktor tucked the pistol back into his pocket and knelt in front of Alia. He tried to take her hand, but she pulled away. Viktor's voice was filled with a harsh, uncompromising reality: "Alia, after his betrayal, he was no longer your colleague; he was a venomous snake. In my world, showing mercy is synonymous with digging one's own grave. If I hadn't killed him today, he would have taken both our lives tomorrow."
Alia's sobbing continued unabated. To her, this cruelty from Viktor felt like a massive wall rising between them. On that station platform, where moments ago there had been the hustle and bustle of people, there was now only the sound of Alia's weeping and the heavy, chilling silence of Viktor's presence. Viktor walked away through the dark corridor of the station, his back turned to Alia's cries, seemingly unmoved by her distress. On the platform, the sound of Alia's weeping still echoed as she clutched her former colleague, feeling overwhelmed with guilt and sorrow for what she thought was his death.
But then, an unimaginable turn of events occurred.
As Alia held him, she noticed the man stirring. He slowly began to open his eyes. The gunshot hadn't been lethal—Viktor had used a specialized, non-lethal method to scare him, ensuring the man would fall unconscious rather than die. The sheer intensity of the blast and the precision of the strike had been enough to knock him out cold, serving as a terrifying lesson rather than an execution.
As Alia held him in shock, the colleague let out a weak, raspy breath. At that exact moment, Viktor paused at the far end of the platform and looked back. A mysterious, cold smile played on his lips. Viktor had seemingly orchestrated the entire situation to prove a point he wanted to show Alia that, in his world, life and death were entirely under his control.
Viktor lingered for a moment, staring at them with that chilling grin, reminding Alia of the terrifying extent of his power and authority. Then, he stepped back into the shadows and vanished.
Alia watched Viktor disappear while still tightly clutching the now-conscious colleague. Her tears were still falling, but the nature of her emotions had shifted she was beginning to realize that the games played in Viktor's dark world were far more complex, calculated, and frightening than she had ever imagined.