Just moments before, Athena had still seen the black-haired woman in a silver dress sitting in her seat. There was no way someone could forcibly take a young lady in a crowd like this without causing a commotion. Had Yelizaveta gone to the bathroom?
"Did she go to the bathroom?" Athena voiced her thoughts. The woman didn't stop moving restlessly, almost running here and there, weaving through the hustle and bustle of the crowd in search of Yelizaveta, before Nikolov took her hand and sai. "Calm down. I'll have my men look for Zavet."
Despite Nikolov's words, Athena still wasn't calm. She seemed traumatized by something or someone suddenly disappearing. Nikolov, seeing the panic on Athena's face, grabbed her shoulders, bringing her pale face back to focus on him. Her blue eyes stared straight at him.
"It's not your fault, she'll be fine." Nikolov said, as if aware that Athena was currently blaming herself for her carelessness, which had caused her to lose sight of Yelizaveta.
Nikolov was waiting for a report from his subordinates, at the same time, a message came into his cell phone.
Nikolov let out a sigh of relief, his face less tense than before. "I know where Zavet is now. Follow me." Even though she had heard firsthand that the young lady was fine, Athena still couldn't rest assured until she saw the woman in person with her own eyes.
Still not letting go of Athena's hand, Nikolov took her to a room that was still in the same hotel. As time went on, they left the party crowd downstairs until, gradually, it was just the two of them in the elevator.
She saw her reflection in the elevator doors. She looked so small standing next to Nikolov. After reaching their intended floor, they passed through a long, quiet hallway and stopped in front of a room where three men in black suits stood. "Boss Nikolov," one of them said, noticing Nikolov's arrival.
Nikolov just nodded as if he already knew who the person he wanted to meet was.
"Come on." Nikolov led Athena to walk beside him as he entered the door.
The room they found was quite large and tidy, with no signs of torture or violence. Everything looked perfectly normal.
"Yo, useless Nikolov, you just remembered to come see me now?" From the other end of the room, a woman's voice rang out. A woman in her forties was sitting on a single sofa with one leg crossed over the other. She was wearing a black top that revealed a tattoo near her collarbone, with a coat draped over her shoulders. She also had piercing eyes and jet-black hair that was cut short like a man's.
Nikolov walked closer, making Athena have no choice but to follow.
The woman remained motionless, smoking a cigar that emitted smoke with an aroma that reminded Athena of the incident three years ago.
"Auntie." Said Nikolov who without warning received a kick from the woman.
"Are you stupid? I don't like being called aunty by you." She commented. Not reducing the blow given to Nikolov.
"Hah... Big Boss." Nikolov seemed to ignore his hand that blocked the kick from the woman he called auntie, he even laughed.
"So, where is Yelizaveta?" Asked Nikolov.
"You didn't say anything about my cute niece being here. What are you afraid of? It's like you're hiding your own sister from me." Said the Big Boss, not moving from her position.
"I'm not hiding it, I even planned to bring her to see you tomorrow." Nikolov defended, speaking very calmly and casually.
"Tomorrow is too long."
"You're always so impatient, is that why you kidnapped Zavet?" Those words came out of Nikolov's mouth so easily that Athena thought that for someone who had experienced kidnapping and being a victim, remembering someone close to her experiencing the same thing still caused fear within her.
"You can't call it kidnapping if she walked in here without a fight." The woman's dark eyes shifted to Athena beside Nikolov, she scanned Athena from head to toe, as if assessing her by the look in her eyes.
"She's in the next room. But before that, Nikolov, you stay here. There's something I need to discuss with you." Someone led Athena to a different room, towards where Yelizaveta was.
"Oh, Athena! How did you get here?" Without warning, the blonde woman slapped Yelizaveta's forehead, causing her to groan in pain. "Ouch! What are you doing?"
"You just disappeared, did you think I wasn't worried about you?" Athena didn't hide her anger and Yelizaveta didn't ignore it either.
"I'm sorry, okay. I saw you were having a nice chat with Nikolov. I didn't want to bother you guys, besides, auntie wouldn't let anything bad happen to me, and it wouldn't take long for you to find me." Yelizaveta's excuse still didn't seem to be able to bring Athena back to a better mood.
"I'm sorry, okay. Now, let's have a drink and watch." The woman she had known for three years simply pulled her hand away. That night, Athena didn't remember much of what had happened between the two of them, as it was nearing midnight and they had already drunk several glasses of wine. But in the midst of that trance, she seemed to see Nikolov's shadow and hear his voice.
In the morning, Athena woke up with a terrible pain in her head. She checked her entire body, and she was still wearing the same clothes as last night. Her eyes traveled around the room, which was still the same as where they had spent the night. It was a room with a double bed, but no one was on the bed.
"Ah! My head hurts so bad!" From under the bed, she heard a familiar voice, Athena moved and saw Yelizaveta who had fallen off the bed and was sleeping on the floor.
"Is your bed so comfortable that you choose to sleep on the floor?"
"Oh, shut up!"
After the party, they spent a few more days in Russia before the day of their return finally arrived.
"Aah! What's wrong with Brother Nikolov? He didn't pick up my calls?! He didn't even take me home!" Yelizaveta was angry at her phone call which was again not picked up by Nikolov.
They hadn't seen Nikolov since the party the other day. According to Yelizaveta, she had already informed her brother about their return today, but, let alone seeing him off at the airport, he hadn't even answered his phone!
"Forget it. Maybe the director is busy."
"Busy beating people up?" For the past few days, Yelizaveta had been telling her that her family was a notorious mafia in Russia. Hearing the word "mafia" already filled Athena's mind with negative thoughts. Did that mean Nikolov was also doing things typical mafia people do?
"Ah, never mind! I don't care if he comes or not. Come on, our plane is leaving soon!" Athena was still looking through the crowd, hoping to find a tall, familiar figure among the people.
It's nothing, it's just that they don't know when they'll meet again. Or maybe they'll never meet again.
....
"Ah! Even though no one is waiting for me to come home, I still miss home!" Yelizaveta said after they landed. Athena agreed with the younger woman with a smile, as she agreed that there was nothing better than home to return to.
"Have you contacted Mr. Ili? Why hasn't he come yet?"
She had already informed Mr. Ili of their departure and arrival times. Unusually, Mr. Ili, who was never late, still hadn't shown up.
"Let me call him again. I'm worried something might have happened to him." In the midst of her attempts to contact Mr. Ili—the personal driver she had known for almost seven years—a black luxury car suddenly stopped in front of them.
The driver's door opened, revealing a tall man she hadn't seen in days.
"Do you guys need a ride?" Nikolov Zhestkiy said with a smile.
…