Selene blinked several times quickly and shook her head, trying to comprehend what she just heard. Then she exclaimed, "Did you say I'm your sister? Yah, right! What games are you playing?"
Victor smirked and said calmly, "This is no game, believe me. It's something out of a fairy tale for you, I'm sure. You're now a descendant from Drakos nobility, partially at least." He said the last part with clear disdain.
She looked at Victor to discern whether he was telling the truth or indeed playing some game, but she could not tell either way. The man was unreadable, except for the fact that he clearly despised her. "Ok, let's say I believe you. If I'm your sister, then why are you treating me like this?"
"Oh, that's a long story," he replied, looking away for a moment. Then he clapped his hands, startling Selene. With a scornful gleam in his eye he continued, "Fortunately for you, we have time on our hands enough. You see, I can't kill you like I wish to. No, I can only make you disappear. Forever. That's the deal that I made with our father. And so here we are."
Selene put her hands on her temples, rubbing them, and said, "This isn't making sense. I don't understand what this has to do with me. What did I ever do to you? Is this because I haven't yet agreed to work with you?"
Victor laughed, then replied, "Don't be ridiculous. We'll get that technology with or without your cooperation." He sighed and continued, "No, you can blame all of this on fate. You have done nothing, poor sister, except be born. You see, my fath- er, I mean, *our* father, is among other things, an excellent businessman. A decent father. But, sadly, not the best husband. He had a tendency to…let's say, dally occasionally."
Selene was listening intently, when he paused to ask the man who had been standing guard to get him some water. The man went to the small refrigerator and brought him a bottled water.
Victor took a drink before continuing, "Of course, I never knew of these things as a child. There was always tension, but…well…." he coughed and said, "It turned out that Mother was aware of these affairs, but because they were nothing serious, she looked the other way. This is where you come in dear sister, so pay extra attention to this part. The assistant to my father's executive assistant left for some reason or another and so Olivia Kimura was hired to replace her. According to my father, he is the one who pursued her, except this was not just a brief affair. He fell in love with her, and she became pregnant with you." He paused to see her reaction, taking another sip.
Selene was frozen, looking down, with eyes darting side to side. Her arms were by her side, knuckles white from clutching the end of the sofa cushions so tightly. A big piece of her life that had been missing for all these years was now being filled in…if she believed this man who she had only recently met, and who, more importantly, had kidnapped her. Her mind was in disarray. She didn't know what to believe. Olivia Kimura. Did that mean she had Japanese ancestry? Olivia. Wait.
"What happened to Olivia? Where is she?," Selene suddenly cried out.
Victor smirked and responded with, "All in good time. As I was saying, your whore of a mother was pregnant. Now, how do you think that made my mother feel? He was even thinking of divorcing my mother…." Victor shook his head, mouth in a grimace, remembering that time. He had promised himself he would never beg another person for anything ever again. For a brief moment, Selene saw the pain in his eyes. But as soon as it was there, it was gone with a head flick, as he continued, "Let's just say we convinced him to stay, at least until the child," he paused to give her a scornful look, "was born. I was not privy to what happened after. All I heard was that the child had been stillborn and that the quote unquote tragedy tore the couple apart. My father stayed with my mother, and as for your mother…she committed suicide. Post-partum depression apparently. And that was that."
"But clearly that was not that," Selene said, getting upset at the disdainful tone in Victor's voice while telling her that her mother had committed suicide. Tears started welling up in her eyes.
"No. Unfortunately, you did not stay dead, did you?," he spit out. Then he took a breath, calming himself. But before he continued there was a moment where Selene noticed again that there was a pain he was trying to hide. "My mother developed early onset dementia, and…"
Selene cut him off to say, "I'm so sorry to hear that."
"I don't need your sorrys," Victor said, looking at her with confusion, not expecting to be cut off.
Before he could continue, Selene said, "Well, you have it anyway as I'm sure it was a difficult time.
He gave her a quizzical look and then shook his head before continuing, "Toward the end, she was going in and out of different time periods in her life, not recognizing people or thinking someone was someone else. I was there with my father one day, just the two of us. It was then that she revealed that you had not, in fact, been stillborn. Apparently, she had paid the hospital to lie to your mother and my father. Her assistant arranged for you to be given to an international adoption agency, who guaranteed you would be adopted to a couple outside the country. And so, you were." Victor paused to take another drink.
Selene said, "So then how did I end up in foster care?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing and the tears were flowing non-stop at this point.
"It turns out that you were a naughty baby, Selene dear. You would not stop crying. Ever, apparently. That poor couple in France could not take it anymore and they actually gave you back to the agency," Victor responded and then started laughing. "Have you ever heard of such a thing?," he continued in between breaths and laughter. Selene was trying to hold back tears. When he stopped laughing, he said, "In any case, they didn't want you and somehow felt a responsibility to bring you back here. But then it turned out that the agency could not find other homes for you because of your temperament. So, in the end they were forced to give you up to the State. And from my research, you moved quite a bit from home to home. I take it other families didn't want you either?"
She started sobbing and put her palms over her eyes. "So that answers your question, dear sister. I don't want you either. Why would I want to split my inheritance with the child of a whore who seduced my father and caused my mother such misery?"
Selene looked at him through tears and cried, "I don't want your money. I'll sign whatever contract you want. Just let me go."
Victor sighed and took another drink of the water before leaning over. He said, "If it were that easy, do you think I would have gone through all this trouble? Unfortunately, that's not how inheritance works in my family. No. Now that father knows you are alive, my only bargaining chip is the threat of having you killed."
"So what are you going to do with me then?," Selene asked hesitantly and with fear in her eyes.
Victor's smile looked evil to her as he said, "I told you dear sister. I'm going to poof, make you disappear."