PS, IVY
1133 Words
Ivy looked up from the note in her hand when the door opened, and her gaze connected with Anna's.
“My beautiful bride,” Anna said with a smile as she drew closer to the bed with a tray in hand. “I see you're making good use of the notepad you asked for last night.” She set the tray on the side table, and straightened up.
“Yeah, I did. I have something for you to help me pass along,” Ivy said.
“Really? What's that? Anything at all. You know I'm always ready to help you.”
“Okay.”
Her eyes went back to the note. She read it three times before carefully folding it.
“You wrote a letter, Bride?”
“Yeah. Could you pass it to Vladimir please?” She stretched out her hand.
Anna's brows knitted, as she collected the note from her hand.
“I have questions, but I won't ask.”
Ivy smiled. “Don't worry. I have a feeling I know what is in your mind, but don't worry.”
“Alright–” she turned to do as she had been instructed, but paused halfway to the door. “Bride, do you want me to taste your food before I leave?”
Ivy looked at the tray, shook her head, and sighed. “I'm not hungry.”
Anna didn't argue. She just nodded her head, and walked out of the room.
“I wonder what she wrote on the note,” she thought as she walked towards the dining room where the entire family were having breakfast.
On arrival, she stopped for the guards at the door to acknowledge her.
“Anna?” Her husband, the head guard, was just coming out of the dining room. “Why are you here?” He asked in Russian.
He asked because she wasn't on the schedule board for the general family anymore, since she was now the personal maid of the new Bride.
“I have a note for the boss,” she replied.
“Hmmm,” he thought about it for a second, and then nodded. “Come with me then.”
Anna followed him into the dining room where everyone was seated, chatting between themselves as they devoured the table full of delicacies.
No one acknowledged her presence until she arrived beside the boss.
Suddenly, they were all curious to know what she was doing next to Vladimir.
The most curious eyes on the table was Natasha Bratva. She watched like a hawk, trying to decipher what Anna was whispering into her son's ear.
“Are you sure?” Vladimir questioned her when she told him about the note.
“Here.” She stretched it to him from under the table.
“Hmmm, okay. Thank you Anna.”
Anna's eyes lit up with love, and affection. He was like a son to her, and she loved him dearly because she understood him the most.
“I'll leave now.” Bowing her head, she hurried out of the room.
Vladimir waited until she was out of sight before he opened the note.
“Hey, it's Ivy. I was way out of line last time, and it's unlike me to behave that way. I should apologize for that.”
He chuckled internally especially at the end part of her note.
It wasn't lost on him that she didn't really apologize. If anything, it was quite backhanded.
Still, he was a little impressed she was intelligent enough to know when she had crossed a line.
He folded the note, and pushed it into his front pocket.
Natasha watched her son with burning curiosity in her eyes.
She wanted more than anything to know what the note said, even though she had a tiny suspicion who it could be from.
To satisfy her curiosity, she decided to interfere.
“Why is the Greene girl not joining us for breakfast, son?” she questioned in an instigating tone.
Every other conversation in the large dining room that stretched both far and wide, stopped.
The queen was speaking to the king, and they had to pay rapt attention.
Vladimir looked up from his plate, to respectfully hold his mother's gaze. “Because she doesn't want to.”
The silence thickened. That wasn't the ideal response, and they knew it.
“Since when has that been enough reason for a family member not to avail themselves at the dining table? We have nephews, nieces, and even distant cousins on this table. Why should the new wife not be amongst them?”
Vladimir knew his mother didn't like the Greene's, which unfortunately included Ivy, and therefore wouldn't waste any opportunity to point out exactly why, but he wasn't in the mood to humor her.
“Do you want me to force her to sit with us after she was almost poisoned?” He questioned reasonably.
“Was she the only one who was almost poisoned? You could have drank from that goblet too, thanks to her. She needs to realise she is now a Bratva, and act accordingly. If she doesn't adjust, I'd have to forcefully make her. In fact, starting from now.” She rose to her feet with fury in her eyes.
“Sit down, mother.” Vladimir arose too.
Natasha's chest tightened, at the verge of exploding.
Although he was her son, his words trumped hers as the head of their family.
If she publicly went against him, it would just give ammunition to the children of her dead husband's siblings who envied his position, to openly challenge him.
“Fine. But fix this,” she stressed between her teeth, and then retreated.
He bowed slightly to her, before walking out of the room.
Andrei was walking in just as he was walking out.
They were mere inches away from clashing, but Andrei's phone rang, and so he hesitated.
“Vlad?” He ignored the phone, looking up at the boss.
“Prepare the materials. We're going hunting in thirty minutes,” he instructed, and continued on his way.
Andrei, who was going into the dining room for breakfast, turned in a different direction to do as he had been ordered, whilst Vladimir went straight to his room.
He picked up a package from his closet, and then stepped out again. His earplugs began to flash, signalling someone wanted to connect.
Ignoring the flash, he walked straight to Ivy's room.
On getting to the door, he threw a quick glance at the package in his hand, and then back at the door.
“Don't do this,” his pride said.
He knew he should listen, but it seemed his hand had a mind of its own, as it went straight to the door, and knocked..
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