Dom Vadim's Vow

Call Home

Vadim waited until the door to the bedroom closed, sighing when the sound of her foot connecting with it echoed through the cabin, and then dialled out the number to Iwan.

“I have her.”

“Thank f**k. Is she okay?”

“She’s feistier than she was seven years ago. I was forced to play dirty to get her to come home.”

“How dirty?”

“She has a boyfriend here,” he sighed and rubbed his forehead frustratedly.

“Unfortunate.”

“She fancied herself in love with him. I used it to my advantage. I know he paled in comparison to how she feels about Aisha or Professor Carta, but she has feelings for him. I destroyed him right in front of her and then threatened her two allies. She folded like a house of cards.”

“Who was he?”

“Nobody. He was the face in front of the brains of a small tech start up. They secured a handful of local investors for a project which may have made them a small fortune if it was successful but nothing which couldn’t be bought. I went to the fundraiser prepared. I called in a favor to Keary.”

“Is the lover likely to cause problems?”

“If he can afford the airfare to London after the way I shut him down, then he’s welcome to try.”

Iwan chuckled at Vadim’s words. “Ruthless.”

“Any word from the others, Eliska?”

“She’s holed up in a tropical resort in Thailand right now. She has a shoot there which will last a month. We’ll need to make sure she has no way to find out her sister is home for at least a month.”

“It’s unlikely she will stay away. While I was leaving the venue, the spy she’s been having follow me around popped out of the woodwork. My guys intercepted him and he’s not going to live to see tomorrow, however, it’s unclear as of right now whether he managed to get a message off to Eliska before we got him.”

“Keep me posted.” Iwan gave a loud sigh.

“Willie?”

“She’s so far up Eulie’s ass she can’t see daylight. I sent them to Germany on a gastronomy tour of all f*****g things. Wasting my money on sample size portions of food in the name of furthering the child’s career but we all know she’ll never work in a real kitchen. Christ, Vadim. Last weekend Eulalie dropped a pan and the simple sound of it forced her to the floor curling into a fetal position like Satan was pounding on the door.”

He chuckled at the man’s description. “I imagine Willie was right there to pick her up off the floor and carry her away.”

“Probably hopped her up on so much medication she was incoherent for days. I swear my daughter is the worst thing to ever happen to her children. She couldn’t bond with the first one because she suffered depression after delivery to the point, they needed to lock her up for months. Then the first one abused the second one to the point the baby couldn’t speak around strangers until she was four. Then the third one endured the poor misfortune of looking like her father. When he died, I knew those girls were in for a rough go. My daughter is not the brightest bulb in the pack. I never wanted her to get married and have kids but that damn Earl promised he would take care of them. i***t had to have a massive heart attack leaving a woman with hardly any brain in her head to raise three kids.” He gave a loud sigh. “I frequently wonder how much different their lives would have been if their mother hadn’t been born with an umbilical cord strangling her.”

He sighed quietly, “Iwan there was nothing you could do. The doctors did their best. I got the medical files from back then and I reviewed them with a world-renowned specialist in obstetrics. Your wife was not at fault. The doctors were not at fault. It was a freak event. Yes, Willie was deprived of oxygen for a bit too long, but she was able to live a normal healthy life despite her low IQ.”

“Her mother was a bloody scientist and I’m a financial genius. She should have been destined for greatness.” He groaned, “then I let Earl take her from our home. He made her think she could be independent. Two weeks after their wedding she damn near burned their house down. Forgot she put a cake in the oven and went shopping for the afternoon.”

“But you got her the maid to help, and she did.”

“Now I have to hire nannies under the guise of their safety to make sure they don’t get lost going to the damn toilet in their own house.”

He gave a sad smile, “You’ve done the best you could Iwan.”

“To what end. I have a daughter who thinks she is capable when she isn’t. A granddaughter who thinks the best way to get through life is on her back with her legs in the air. Another one who can’t wipe her own arse without permission and the last who is so damn terrified of me she ran away to another country to escape us.”

“We should have been honest with Essence about the real reason for the marriage and the operating procedures of the company. Eliska’s obsession with me was turning into a problem. We skipped Essence’s graduation ceremony because Eliska was going to cause a scene.”

“I thought if we presented it to her under the guise of forcing the heir issue, Eliska would back off. She threw a million-dollar antique at Essence’s head, in my own house. The girl is unhinged.”

“She spent the most time with her parents before Earl died. God only knows what went on in the house when the maid wasn’t home.”

“Not to mention the fact Eliska craves attention so bad she latched onto you from the minute she first saw you when she was a toddler. Thank god you have common sense enough to know better even as a young boy.”

“She’s been obsessed for far too long. I was hoping this latest photographer she’s been hooking up with would calm her down but the number of vulgar images I received yesterday alone was enough to make me change my number yet again.”

“How does she keep getting it?” Iwan gave a sad laugh.

“This time she broke into my PA’s car when she was in the shops and swiped her phone.”

“Anyone else I’d tell you to put a bullet in them.”

“Anyone else and I would.” He growled with frustration “Eliska’s stupidity and obsession is going to get someone killed. She was convinced I was seeing Essence and got into Aisha’s apartment in Tokyo because she thought Aisha was covering for us.”

“It could have gotten the girl killed.”

“I know. Aisha is safe for now. She’s been having an affair with her boss for the last several years. She’s content to be the other woman. I don’t think Essence knows Aisha is playing the game she’s playing. Its one thing to be trading antiquities for a guy as shady as Jiro Kato but to help him smuggle s**t to Australia and to be his mistress is a whole other level of dangerous. I never once considered Aisha would meet with Essence while she was smuggling but now, knowing Essence has been in Sydney all this time I can’t help but wonder if she wasn’t using her.”

“Aisha loves her, more than her own sisters do. I believe Aisha is in over her head, doesn’t know how to get out and maybe,” Iwan spoke softly, “Essence was the only good thing she was getting out of her trips to Australia.”

“It could be, but I don’t trust her.”

“You don’t trust anyone where Essence is concerned, and you know it.”

“I don’t trust anyone period. Essence or no Essence.” He retorted dryly.

“What about Essence?”

“She jilted me two weeks before our wedding. I do not trust Essence as far as I can spit.”

“You put a tracker in her?”

“Damn right I did.”

“It’s not a good way for you to earn her trust.”

“I don’t need to earn her trust. I need to procreate with her and ensure our companies have an heir they are worthy of. It would be better still if she delivered back-to-back boys, one for each.”

Iwan chuckled, “you do know you catch more flies with honey.”

“You did not see the way your granddaughter was behaving in Sydney. She’s lucky I don’t douse her in the vinegar.” He gave an exasperated sigh. “Iwan, are you certain this is the way?”

“She will not trust you any other way, Vadim. It only became apparent to both of us when we heard her on the video chat with Aisha when she was home for Christmas did, we realize we created an atmosphere for her where she was absolutely terrified of the pair of us. If we want her to behave, you need to push the fear factor.”

“All the work I did to freeze out Eliska made Essence terrified.”

“You never did like her, Eliska I mean.”

“She pinched a baby because I refused to hold her hand.”

“She was a child.”

“She was old enough to know better,” he corrected.

“You were always soft on Essence.”

“Essence bears the misfortune of being born the rose betwixt two thorns.”

“You make her sisters out to be animals.”

“Animals have better moral compasses than Eliska and I’ve seen squirrels with bigger brains than the one Eulalie possesses.”

“This is an unfair assessment. Eliska was spoiled by her family and given everything she ever wanted. She wanted you. You denied her. You have never been the warm and fuzzy type and you could have stuck with this, but you stupidly got involved with her.”

“I needed the information.”

“You were ruthless.”

“Her behavior could have caused catastrophic results for both of our companies. The rumors were bad enough. She now tows the line and behaves. All it took was one video to be leaked for her to understand we weren’t messing around.”

“You made her think you loved her back and it has caused the situation we find ourselves in now with Eliska being obsessed.”

“I never once uttered the words. I never kissed her let alone slept with her.”

“You wined and dined her.”

“I take you to dinner all the time. Are you obsessed with crawling into my bed, Iwan?”

“Do not be disgusting,” Iwan’s voice held a trace of laughter in it despite the scolding. “Wilhelmina is calling me. They probably managed to offend a chef or accidentally locked themselves in a bathroom and can’t find their way out. I will see you Sunday afternoon?”

“Yes.”

“I love you, son. I will see you then.”

“Love you too,” he hung up the phone and closed his eyes wishing for once life wasn’t as complicated as it was. He wondered what a boring safe life in the countryside would be like and then gave a groan of complaint as screaming from the bedroom carried towards him. Now what?