NATIA & The Invisible Island of Sawaiki

Family story

Her father, Andrey Ivanovich Orlov, was born into a powerful Russian family. The Orlovs have a legacy of centuries old. They were very influential in both the business and political realms. Andrey was born as the second child and first son of Ivan Nikolaevich Orlov, a business mogul. Ivan was a cold hearted patriarch who ruled his family with an iron fist. He saw his children as nothing more than assets that could be used for business collaboration. One thing Andrey and his sister Natasha learned early in their life was, they were never to have a private life free from business.

Andrey was forced into a marriage of convenience with Viktoria Alekseeva, daughter of Sergei Alekseev, for an alliance with their company. The Alekseevs were another powerful family. Andrey and Victoria were childhood friends but their marriage was a failure. Even after three years into their marriage, they couldn’t find common ground, although they had a son, Aleksandr. They decided to separate; but in secret, since they feared opposition from both their families. They got divorced and Andrey got custody of his son, Aleksandr. Andrey and Viktoria both decided to leave their families for some time, to wait for the storm caused by their separation to calm down.

Victoria left for Canada while Andrey, along with Aleksandr, went to Australia. Andrey met Natia's mother, Hope, there. She was doing her research in Marine sciences there. They became friends and eventually fell in love. Andrey thought his father had finally decided to leave him alone, since he hadn’t heard from home for more than a year. How very wrong he was about that!

One day he had two different visitors. Both of them had life-changing news for him. In the morning came Hope, bearing the news that she was pregnant with his child. He was on cloud nine hearing that. Hope decided to move in with him and they made plans for the future too. Little did he know that his happiness was not going to last long.

They went out to celebrate in the evening. When they came back, Ivan Nikolaevich was waiting for them at the house. And what he had to say shattered their dreams.

When Andrey thought his father had let him off the hook, Ivan was actually searching for his ex- daughter-in-law.

Andrey and Viktoria’s marriage had been the backbone of his alliance with the Alekseeves. Ivan had invested in it so much that, if it was broken, not only would he suffer losses in business, but also it would jeopardize his position in the family business. He had cousins who were waiting for him to make a mistake to grab his position. He couldn’t afford that.

He had found Andrey quickly but Viktoria had gone off the radar. Even Andrey couldn’t reach her. After moving to Canada, she had cut off all contact with him too. When she didn’t contact him, even for the sake of Aleksandr, Andrey thought she must have wanted to cut all the ties and move on.

However, unknown to Andrey, Viktoria was suffering from some terminal illness. She was pregnant at the time of their divorce too, but chose not to tell him. When Ivan finally found her, she was on her death bed, only a few months after giving birth to Andrey’s daughter, Sofia.

Thus, Ivan’s hopes of retaining the alliance with the Alekseeves by reconciling the marriage of Andrey and Viktoria were all lost. He tried to negotiate for another alliance. It was for that matter, it took him a long time to come to Andrey.

Ivan was straight forward in his demands. Andrey has to end this new relationship if he wants Hope to live. They were never to see each other. And Andrey has to have a contract marriage with Viktoria’s cousin, Vera Dmitrievna. Then he would get his daughter Sofia too, who was under the care of Alekseevs.

Andrey knew Ivan never fails to follow through with his threats. He wouldn’t even bat an eyelash before he ordered Hope’s death. Andrey actually felt a little relieved that Ivan didn’t know about Hope’s pregnancy. If he knew, he wouldn’t have offered to let Hope go. Ivan was the kind to wipe out anything that stood in his way. Even if it was his own blood. And he would consider Andrey’s unborn child only as an obstacle that would hinder him in attaining his goal. He would get rid of it the moment he knew about it and most probably the mother too.

So Andrey chose the only possible way to keep them alive at the moment. He agreed to Ivan’s terms. Andrey married Vera Alekseeva and Hope went into hiding when her pregnancy began to show up, on Andrey’s instructions. She gave birth to Natia in secret and left her with her parents, who were Chinese immigrants in the U.S. Andrey never contacted Hope again to avoid Ivan digging further.

Natia lived with her grandparents, Chen Ying and Hai Mei, in San Francisco until she was seven. Her mother would call her often but rarely visited her in person. On her seventh birthday, she was told there was a surprise for her. A tall man came with her mother and said he was her father.

Ivan had died by then and Andrey wasted no time in searching for his child. He had lived in anguish not knowing anything about his lover and child. He didn’t even know if the child was safely born or not, or if it was a girl or a boy. He even prepared names for both genders. Maria, after his mother, if it was a girl, and Fedor, if it was a boy.

Things changed in Natia’s life after her seventh birthday. She stopped living with her grandparents and started living with her mother. Still, they visited grandpa and grandma frequently. The man who claimed to be her father and asked her to call him ‘papa’, started visiting her on her every birthday. They would go on a vacation afterwards for a few days every time.