Is this destiny?

Vasily's smile dropped and his brows furrowed.

"When I found out that you are pregnant, JoAnna treated me like I am going to hurt you or your child. I would never do that, but it made me wonder why she assumed that I would, and her fierceness told me that she believes I did, so I started digging… I realized that you think I am at fault you lost your previous baby..."

Vasily lifted his hands in surrender for a second and continued talking.

"I won't deny that it happened while my men watched over you, but… I have a feeling that you don't have all the facts. Why would you blame me for your ectopic pregnancy? If I didn't authorize the procedure, you would die of bleeding. It was your luck that my doctor discovered your condition. If you were still in the mountains playing with that failure from the Voronin family you now call Hong, you would not get medical help in time. I know that you will not believe me, so I collected all the files and recorded testimonies of the doctors involved. You can find them in the folder '11-2020-001'… The way to reach the parties involved is also there, so you can check for yourself…"

Sarah paused the video and closed her eyes while struggling to inhale.

"You didn't know about this.", Aiden said in a raspy voice while fighting to contain the tornado of emotions that raged inside him. He remembered that she told him it was a miscarriage, and based on her reaction, Aiden can see that Sarah didn't know it was an ectopic pregnancy... but it seems that there is more to it. Is she hiding something?

Sarah took a deep breath and looked at Aiden. Her heart cracked when she saw his confusion mixed with sorrow and she forced herself to talk: "I knew that I lost the pregnancy, and I was convinced that Vasily forced an abortion on me while I was unconscious, because he didn't approve the two of us having a baby."

Aiden's brows furrowed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Sarah's whole body shook in front of Aiden's disapproval of her actions. She thought that it won't matter because she was already miserable, but now that she is facing him… she realized that she was wrong. She craves for Aiden's support and approval, and if she wants them, she needs to explain with the hope that he will understand.

"When I woke up in the hospital, I found out that I lost the baby and that the chances of you waking up were grim. For the next three months, I lived in a nightmare. When you woke up, you assumed that I miscarried, and I couldn't find it in me to say that it was Vasily's fault. We lost the baby and we hated him, and those were the facts that would not change no matter what I said."

Sarah saw that Aiden lowered his gaze and she panicked.

"Please, try to understand. If the roles were reversed, and you had a chance to make the ugly truth a bit prettier, knowing that the outcome will not change, would you do it for me?"

Aiden had to agree that he would do the same.

Aiden lifted his gaze and looked at Sarah with all the complex emotions swirling in his dark eyes. "But now… it seems that he didn't take away our baby. Our baby was doomed from the beginning, and Vasily saved your life."

Aiden didn't say that his heart is aching because Sarah held onto that bitterness without telling him about it. He can't blame her. He blames himself for being so weak that Sarah thought she needs to protect him.

Sarah was relieved that Aiden accepted her explanation without blowing up. She knows that it will take time for him to absorb the information, but the fact that he is still by her side means a lot.

However, regarding Vasily saving her life by terminating her pregnancy… Sarah was not sure what to believe. "I will ask JoAnna to check the files and confirm."

"You have difficulty accepting that he did something good for you."

Aiden understands Sarah's resistance to believe that Vasily cared about her, and Aiden hated Vasily as well. However, during those few seconds in the warehouse, Aiden saw that Vasily wanted to protect Sarah, even at the cost of his own life, and Aiden respects that.

"I don't know what to think. I hated him for so long that…" Sarah inhaled a shaky breath. "Let's watch the rest of the video."

Aiden hummed in agreement. This is a lot to process and they should hear Vasily's last message for Sarah before deciding what to do about it.

Aiden was pleased that Sarah wants to continue watching. In a way, it showed that her mind is open to possibilities. If this was Sarah from before, she would not even look at the USB, discarding it as lies but now… things changed.

'Too bad that it's too late for Vasily', Aiden thought.

"You realize that Vasily knew who Hong is.", Aiden said before Sarah resumed the video.

Sarah nodded in agreement. "He knew that I was in the mountain with Hong at that time. And he knew who Hong is from the beginning, yet he didn't say anything."

Sarah didn't know how to interpret this. It seemed that everything she thought about Vasily was wrong.

Sarah pressed play, and Vasily continued talking.

"I would never hurt you, Sarah. I would never hurt any of you. As you know, I don't have children, and I didn't have an option to live outside the grasp of the Lebedevs. I thought about leaving many times, but there was no place for me to go, so I stayed here. My way of surviving was to accumulate enough power so that others don't pester me. However, I was curious about Milena. She got out and started her own family. I admired her courage to stand up to all these geezers who were forcing their way of thinking on everyone. When my father stepped down, Milena lost her backing, and your grandparents were back with their demands to force Milena and all her children to return to the family. Milena was here fighting for her right to stay outside and I was impressed by her tenacity to keep you away from this world. I decided to step in and maintain that deal instead of my father. Part of that deal was for me to keep an eye on her, she knew too much about us to be left alone. While watching over Milena, I watched over her three daughters and I saw how special you are. Sophia is wise beyond her age. JoAnna is brilliant. She is a doctor, but I am sure that she would shine no matter what profession she chose, and you, Sarah, you are the brightest star in the sky. If I have a daughter, I would love to have one just like you."

Vasily smiled with a smile that reached his eyes.

After a few seconds of silence, Vasily continued: "Over time, I got attached to you girls. I attended your birthdays, graduations, recitals, and any other performances. You didn't see me, but I was there. Sometimes I would miss an occasion because I was on a mission or I had to deal with some crisis, but I made sure to send my men to record it for me to watch later. I was unable to stay away from you when I saw that someone has bad intentions…"

Vasily started narrating various incidents when he interfered in their lives.

"… Sophia was in college when that scoundrel Mark Neumann approached her. He made it sound like they are hiding their relationship because of their studies, but she didn't know that he was seeing two other girls at the same time. One of them was Sophia's classmate! Mark was a no-good man, but he avoided being caught well, and Sophia trusted him blindly. In order to make it clear to Sophia who Mark really is, I hired an actress to pretend that they slept and that she got pregnant and… you know the rest. Everything about that is in the folder '04-2014-014'. I don't know if Sophia is watching this, but if she isn't, I leave it up to you to decide if you will share that with Sophia…"

Vasily gave a summary about each of the folders, including the incident when JoAnna was in her second year of college. The incident was about a boy bragging how he will put something in JoAnna's drink to get her to relax enough so that she can go to his room… of course, that boy never managed to get close to JoAnna, he was busy healing his multiple fractures.

Vasily also spoke about JoAnna's mentor, Dr. Gregory Light, (who stalked her from Seattle to Los Angeles), and how Vasily knew that he is after JoAnna, but Milena told Vasily to let the sisters handle him.

"The three of you did beautifully; I was very proud. If you didn't manage to get him, that man would not leave Los Angeles with Anna because I was watching him. I gave that Dr. Light a good 'greeting' once he was in the custody of the Lebedev family…"

Vasily didn't approve of Jeff with JoAnna, mostly because Jeff is from the White family, which is tangled up with the Voronins, but Vasily acknowledged that Jeff showed his sincerity by pummeling Dr. Light and that he protected JoAnna more than once.

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