His Runaway Queen

Effie Growing up, I had the best life possible. I had my mom and dad and even two older brothers. I was the youngest and always treated like a princess. My dad was my hero, and I tried to spend all my free time with him. If I wasn't with him, I would usually be at my mammaw's bakery or at her house, helping her bake. I loved to be in the kitchen with her, and I even talked to her about my dream of going to culinary school for college to be a baker when I was old enough. She was my dad's mom, and I spent a lot of time with her. My brothers were both computer geniuses, just like my dad. So if they weren't hanging out with their friends, then they were with Dad in his office talking about computers and learning anything new that they could. They were also both really good at sports. My oldest brother played football and my other brother played baseball. They both got scholarships to college to play professional ball. There was even talk of them being able to go pro with it. Even though they both liked to play, I wasn't sure if they would continue with it after college. They wanted to work with my dad in the family business at my Poppy's company. They were really good brothers and even though there were a few years between us, they always tried to do stuff with me. They tried to get me to play sports with them, but I wasn't very good at it. I even ended up blacking my own damn eye one time. I still can't figure out how I managed that one. But they always told me that I didn't need to be able to play sports with them. I was good at cooking, and they were good at eating, so they would do that with me. They tried to help in the kitchen, but they weren't good at that at all. So I guess we were even in that way. Everything was going fine in my life until I turned fifteen. By then, both of my brothers were already in college. My youngest brother was eighteen and had just started college, and my oldest brother was nineteen and a sophomore in college. I was the only one left at home, and more often than not, I was with my mammaw or my dad. I was never close to my mom, so I wasn't often around her. My mom and dad were hardly ever at home at the same time, and when they were, they had been fighting more and more. When I turned sixteen, they got a divorce, and even though my mom didn't want me, she fought to take me away from my dad. I was the only thing that she got in the divorce since my dad had proof that she had been cheating on him for years. The guy that she was sneaking around with was some powerful guy and he tried to do what he could to get his lawyers to take everything from my dad. But because of all the proof that my dad had, he wasn't able to make it happen. So he helped to take me from him instead. Even though I didn't want to go and was old enough to make up my mind, the judge made me go with them. I later found out that he paid the judge off to at least make that happen. That was all that he was able to do, though. Even though I was taken from my dad and uprooted from my home, I still called and texted him all the time. Mom's new asshole boyfriend tried to take my phone from me and give me one that was monitored by him, but I refused. I wouldn't come off with my phone and wouldn't let them have it. When he tried to stop me from taking it, I just turned the ringers off and hid it in my bra so that they couldn't find it. I never used the phone that he tried to give me and always left it at his house when we moved. When we moved, they moved me across the country to Russia, and I was NOT happy about that. I was very smart and had a photographic memory and could remember everything that I read or listened to. I could also speak several languages as well as read and write in them. My dad knew, but my mom didn't care about my education because she never wanted me. When she got pregnant with me, she wanted to have an abortion, but my dad wouldn't let her. Because of that, she has always hated me and never wanted to have much to do with me. That's why I always spent most of my time with my dad and my mammaw. At one point, she even tried to tell my dad that I didn't belong to him, but a DNA test proved that I did. Since she never wanted me, she didn't pay attention to how I did in school or anything. That was all up to dad to take care of. So she didn't realize or even know that I was exceptionally smart. I could have graduated from school early, but I didn't want to. So because she didn't know how smart I was, I was able to put an app on my tablet that helped me learn how to speak, read, and write Russian. By the time that we got to Russia, I knew the language and could understand everything that went on around me. But I didn't let any of them know. We got settled in his house in Russia and I hated it with a passion of a thousand suns. I wanted to go back home. I wanted to be back with my dad and mammaw. I didn't trust this guy at all and knowing what a b***h my mother is. I had a really bad feeling about being here. Turns out that the feeling I had was correct. And as I turned seventeen, I paid closer attention to what was going on around me. Thankfully, even though my mother got custody of me, my dad got visitation and I was allowed to spend holidays and the summer with him. Every chance that I got, I went to stay with him. I let him know about not feeling safe being over there and we made a plan to get me away from there, just in case. So that if something happened, I could get away and no one would be the wiser. The only thing that I hated was that I wouldn't be coming back home to Washington State. I would be starting over in a new state, and I would be alone at first. In the year that I had spent over here, I managed to make friends with some boys who were the sons of the head of the Russian Mafia. They were Rodion Smirnov's sons. My mother's husband was one of the members of the Russian Mafia but he wasn't at the top of the food chain so to speak. He was just a lowly peon in the middle of the totem pole. But he had dreams of being higher up in it all and even one day being a leader. I grew the closest to the oldest boy, Leandro. We spent a lot of time together and eventually started to date. Because I was still underage, we never took it further than holding hands. Right before I turned eighteen, we finally slept together. It was the most magical night of my life. I was in love with Leo and wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I thought that he felt the same way about me. Boy, how wrong that I was. A couple of days before my birthday, I went to Leo's apartment to see him. I had overheard my mother's husband talking, and I needed to let Leo know what he said. I didn't want to keep it from him because their lives were in danger. Not only were their lives in danger, but mine was as well. I managed to record everything that he was talking about on a video so that Leo would believe me. I had a key to Leo's apartment because he didn't want me to ever have to knock. He said that it would one day be my home, so I should have a key to come and go as I please. When I let myself in, I could hear voices coming from his office. I walked in that direction and I heard him talking to some girl and his brother. He was telling the girl not to worry because he didn't love me. He only loved her and would only ever love her. That I was just a job to him because they didn't trust my stepdad and wanted to keep him close to them. That as soon as they figured out what was going on, he would be dumping me and finding a real woman. After all, who would want a stupid American woman when he could have a Russian woman? He kept talking to them, but I didn't keep listening to them. I quietly walked back to the door, took his key off of my keychain, laid it on the TV stand, and then slipped out of the door. I shut it quietly and then headed to the elevator. When I got back downstairs, I told the guard who was always with me that Leo wasn't home and I'd come back later. So he took me back to my mother's house. I knew that none of them were home today. He was in a meeting and she was out spending his money. So when we got back, I went up to my room and shut the door. When we first moved here, I found out that my room had a secret tunnel in it that led outside. After some snooping, I managed to find out that no one even knew that it existed in the house. So I kept my emergency bag stashed on the other side of the door. Thankfully, I didn't have any cameras in my room. There were plenty of them outside of my room, throughout the house, and on the grounds. But there weren't any in the tunnel or at the end of it. So I grabbed a couple of duffle bags and filled them up with all of my clothes and stuff. I didn't really have much here, because I left everything back at home with my dad. I made sure that my messenger bag didn't have any trackers in it and then put it across my shoulder. The phone, laptop, and jewelry that I got from any of these people I left here on the dresser. The only thing that I had from Leo was a teddy bear and I knew that there weren't any trackers in it. So I took it with me. After I had all of my stuff packed up, I double-checked that I had everything. Once I knew that it did, I went into the closet and hit the secret panel to open it. I stepped through the doorway and grabbed my bookbag. I got my phone out of my pocket and turned it on, put the bookbag on my back, and picked my bags back up. After I made sure that the door had closed back all the way and latched completely closed, I started down the steps that led to the secret tunnel. When I got to the bottom of the steps, I stopped and listened for a few to make sure that I couldn't hear anything. Once I knew that I was in the clear, I walked down the tunnel that would take me to my freedom. I had to walk for about half an hour before I got to the end of the tunnel. Once there, I sat my bags down and then sent an SOS out to my dad, letting him know that I was coming home. We had everything prepared for if my mother happened to call him to see if he had talked to me. And even though I was going back to the States, I wasn't going back to Dad's house. I knew that they would find me there. And even though I am about to be eighteen in a couple of days, the last thing that I wanted was for any of them to find me. After I sent the SMS to my dad on my phone, I used a texting app and used it to send two texts to Leo. One to let him know that I heard everything that he said, I was done with him and leaving, not to look for me. And that his key was left on his TV stand. And the other was to warn him about my stepdad and attached the video to it. After I sent those messages, I deleted the app off of my phone. Before I put my phone back into my pocket, I saw a text from Dad telling me to be careful and that he loved me. We were using burner phones so that they couldn't be traced or linked back to us. The last time that I was home, I left my regular cell phone at the house with him. That way, no one could tell that we had a plan, and that we had been talking. When they came to him looking for me, he could say that he didn't know where I was at. Technically, that would be true because he wouldn't know where exactly I was at. All he would know was that I was in Texas, but he wouldn't know where. At least until the heat died down off of him and he was able to join me. Then both he and Mammaw would be coming to live with me. I couldn't wait for that day to get here. For now, though, I am ready to start my new life. As much as I loved Leo, I honestly hope that I never see him again. I know that it will take me a while to be able to move on. But I hope that one day, I'm able to find a man that will honestly love me for me. For now, though, it's time to start my new life. I put my phone in my pocket, picked up my bags, and left the tunnel. I made my way through the woods and came out the other side. When I came out of the other side, I had brown eyes, and brown hair thanks to a wig and contacts. I had a vehicle stashed there and when I got to it, I unlocked it and tossed my bags into the back. Now to get to the airport. Goodbye Russia, hello Texas.