Hope & Fear

"What?!", Elias was surprised, but by now, he was used to getting surprised, "What are you talking about? Are you out of your mind? You can't recognize your own brother?!"

Aria was about to reply, but not giving any chance to do so, Elias spoke again, "Then…you are saying, you don't know this guy?"

"No! That's not what I said at all.", Aria started speaking, "This guy was one of my brother's friends, he was a good senior friend of mine, but just for a small duration."

Elias was still confused. But something popped up in Aria's mind as her eyes widened, "I get it now! My brother's name and this guy's name, both are Ivan! That's most probably why you guys are confusing him with my brother, is that it?"

A relief in Lucian's eyes emerged all of a sudden.

"What..are you saying. We got played again?", Elias' voice softened with stress, then he turned his face towards Lucian, possibly to get a view of his reaction.

"Lucian, tell me, what is your next step then?", Elias rapidly asked, while stressing out.

"It looks like I have a view of the bigger picture now, I really do.", Lucian spoke up. 

Aria looked at him and said, "I-I messed up?

"Lucian, tell me whatever you figured out, are you thinking the same?", Elias spoke instantly.

June 13th, 2023,

"We are going to your house now, speak bullshit and your life is gone.", as the car progressed, the masked men warned Ivan. 

He was silent. Just a few minutes before, everything he was carrying, like his wallet, was abducted by these men. In the wallet, they found some documents that had Ivan's house address mentioned in it. 

With a kick on the door, they slammed open the door of the house, and opened Ivan's blindfold.

The masked men spread across the house like ants, going through all the furniture and corners that can contain personal information about Detective Ralph, named Ivan. 

One of them found a picture laying inside a drawer of a wardrobe and instantly shouted, "Here! I found a picture, this must be his relative!"

As all of them surrounded that guy, he presented the picture. It was a photo of Ivan and a girl, standing side-by-side, smiling.

"Is this his girlfriend?", one of them said looking at the photo.

"No, that's most probably his sister….I think", another one said.

"Why do you think so?"

"I don't know, just a gut feeling."

Ivan was sitting on the floor with his hands tied up, in another room. The chatters of those men were hearable to him.

"What are they talking about?!", Ivan was trying to understand the situation better, "Oh! They must have found the picture of me with Aria Volkov! That's the only picture of a woman I have in this house."

"Good thing, sister's picture is not here!", an idea popped up in Ivan's mind, "Girlfriend or sister, which one should I make Aria? Her brother's name is the same as mine, then obviously sister."

"If I can somehow convince them that Aria is someone close to me, they will use her as a hostage instead of my sister! I'm doomed already, the only thing I can do is save my sister from this mess!", Ivan was stressing out as he started dragging his own body towards the other room.

"No! Please, don't do anything to my sister! I'll do anything you say, please don't do anything to her!", Ivan screamed, looking at the one holding the picture.

One of those men came forward and kicked Ivan's face, saying, "Stop those pity screams, we'll just have both of you. No.4, call the boss and inform him we found Ralph's sister. We are now ready."

"What? Progressed any further?", a voice came from the phone.

"Yes Boss. We have figured out the identity of one of Ralph's close persons. His sister, it's Aria Volkov."

A moment of silence went by and that voice uttered again, "How are you sure that it is his sister?"

"Boss, I'm sure of it! This was the only person who's picture we found in his house! And he himself cried out to 'not harm his sister'. That just says it! And his surname was unknown, wasn't it? Now we know that too!"

"You just used way too much of your dumbass brain. But I guess what you are saying is right. Doesn't matter if it is his sister or not, the fact he cares about her is enough. Do the job quickly and let me talk to them."

"Yes Boss!"

"So his surname is…Volkov. So, Ivan Volkov.", the voice behind the phone was a man, who whispered to himself.

"Sister, wherever you are, please stay safe. I might never be able to see you again, but you have the freedom that I'm going to lose now, please stay safe.", Ivan was running an analysis of all the details he observed around him in his mind. 

With a relief in his heart, and an act of fear on his face, he started struggling through his tied hands, again.

The group of men then divided into two parts, leaving 5 of them in Ivan's house.

"And…I'm sorry, Aria. I just had no other choice. Your elder brother was a good friend of mine. I guess the unfairness of the world surfaced again the day it made us meet, but this time, I was a participant in this unfair game. Who knows what kind of danger I just put you in..", Ivan thought of the last things he could, as his mind faded into the darkness that was yet to conquer his life.

Current time,

"That's my theory. Actually I'm pretty much hundred percent sure that's what happened.", Lucian explained his theory to Elias, and all of a sudden, everything made sense to Aria.

"So…all of those things I did, the act of betrayal, trying to save my brother, trying to save you, all of them were useless?", Aria couldn't believe the revelation she was facing.

"You tried to save your brother. There's nothing wrong with that. Though your brother was never kidnapped in the first place. But Aria, now that I can understand the situation, I wonder, why didn't you ever tell me about your brother? Or show me how he looks? If I knew who your brother was, I could've catched the lie earlier!", Lucian asked Aria.

"I-I-I'm sorry.", her eyes softened as she whispered, "I, I just didn't want to get my brother involved with us, we are both technically criminals."

"I understand. I completely do.", Lucian looked towards Elias now, while his hands rested on Aria's shoulder.

"No..but what do you mean? 'Earlier'? Do you mean you already suspected that Ralph is not Aria's actual brother? Then…then why did you set up this trap? You said Ralph will reveal crucial information about O3 if we execute this trap, but you already suspected that Aria wasn't his sister. Then, why?", tension filled Elias's head, as his grief got mixed with confusion.

He was questioning his life decisions at that moment, doubting every bit of trust he had on Lucian. Not being able to view the full scope of Lucian's plan, he was walking on a thin line, between hope and fear, fear of not getting success in his life, which was not fortune anymore.

"I'll tell you what I hypothesized, and what came out to be true. And they are pretty much the same….