Is this destiny?

~ Los Angeles, the Cliffside Villa ~

Friday, June 5

2:10 PM

It is after lunch, Stella and Edward are in the study with Sarah, Aiden, JoAnna, Jeff, Sophia, Felix, Oscar and Elanor

While helping with decorations, Stella heard that Sarah and Aiden will be on a month-long vacation in Europe starting tomorrow. During that time, Stella also heard kids talking how after lunch they need about half an hour to set up the surprise for Sarah and that it would be the best if she is not there to see the preparations.

Stella spoke with Edward and they decided that this is the good time to gather them all and to share some information.

Back to present…

Stella looked at people in the room while thinking from where to start.

Edward reached and held her hand in his, squeezing it gently for support.

Stella glanced at Edward and showed a small smile of gratitude. No matter what, he was always by her side.

"There is no way to make this sound good, so I will just go to the main point.", Stella started. "Edward and I are not traveling. We are staying with Lebedev family and for the last two months, I am an Elder."

Six pairs of eyes stared at Stella in silence.

After few seconds, Jeff glanced at his parents and realized that they are not surprised. "You knew about this?"

Elanor responded with a small nod.

Ever since they discussed Lebedev and Voronin families when they met for Sarah's and Aiden's graduation, Hill and White parents are communicating about anything related to those families and safety of their children. Stella and Edward going to Lebedev base is definitely a topic they talked about, more than once.

"Why are you telling us this?", Sophia was the first one to voice one of numerous questions from the six people who were surprised by this news.

Stella exhaled. "Let's start from the beginning…" Stella told them how on the day of Jeff's birthday party she met with King and made a deal that she re-joins the family and in return he will stay away from her daughters.

"My intention was to keep him away, and by joining in a position of power I will get to know what is going on there, and potentially prevent any attempts he might make to get you.", Stella finished her explanation of how she found herself in current situation.

"That does not answer my question: why are you telling us this?", Sophia persisted.

"We found out that King didn't give up. He has evidence that Sarah's arm is fine. On the surface he is laying low, but he is setting up things in place to get Sarah in… as a Grand Elder."

Sarah's lips curved up and she leaned into Aiden's embrace. Sarah didn't know that Stella re-joined Lebedevs as an Elder and that Edward is in is as well. But she knows that King is aware that Aiden is awake and that her arm is fine, and that he wants her to be the Grand Elder.

Sarah scolded herself silently for not keeping tabs on her parents.

"You think that Sarah is in danger?", JoAnna asked Stella.

"Not Sarah. If King has plans for her to be the next Grand Elder, he will not hurt her."

"She is not in danger, but we are.", Sophia voiced her thoughts.

"Ideally, he would like to have all three of you.", Stella responded to Sophia's questions and looked at everyone present while adding: "He will not hurt Sophia or Anna unless he runs out of options. But there is another angle to this. Out of eleven Elders who are currently operational, at least five are openly eyeing the position of the Grand Elder. If they find out that Sarah has a chance, they will come and eliminate their competition. Currently King is keeping his plans a secret, but if it reached my ears, others could find out as well."

Stella looked at Sarah who didn't seem concerned at all. "Why are you so relaxed?"

"To answer that question, we need to go few levels down…", Sarah responded and stood up, leading everyone out of the study room.

They ended up in a large conference room with a massive desk in the middle.

Sarah moved fingers of her right hand while selecting options on Eve-vision. She would use voice controls, but Oscar and Elanor are present, and they are not aware of Eve.

A second later, large hologram showing King appeared like he is standing straight in the middle of the table.

Information about King floated in the air around him:

"Vasily Lebedev

Known aliases: King, Ray, Roi, Koroly

DOB: January 11, 1971

Eyes: Gray …"

Sarah smiled while observing Stella and Edward who looked at the life-size hologram of King with unreadable expressions. Elanor and Oscar also had their eyes open wide.

"King is looking at me, but I am looking at him also.", Sarah said smugly.

She did another set of movements with her fingers, and a stack of papers appeared on the desk for a second before it exploded into separate sheets which floated in the air, each containing different text.

"This is King's correspondence related to making me the next Grand Elder.", Sarah explained. "Some are emails, some are texts and we got audio files also from his phone calls."

Stella observed curiously hundreds of virtual sheets of paper floating in the air, around the figure of Vasily. It looked like it came out of the science fiction movie.

Edward reached to grab one of the papers. He was surprised when the paper moved toward his hand and floated under the right angle so that he can read its text.

"It's interactive.", Aiden answered Edward's silent question.

Elanor and Oscar also reached for one sheet each.

Felix and Jeff started reaching for papers and flinging them into air while passing them to each other.

"It never gets old…", Jeff murmured with a smirk at the corner of his lips.

"You knew that King wants you to be an Elder?", Sophia asked Sarah.

Sarah confirmed. "We are keeping tabs on King and his associates. Actually, we are tracking communication of everyone we know that has a connection with Lebedevs or Voronins. I didn't tell you because his reasons don't change anything. The facts are that he wants me… he wants us to join, so that he can use us to strengthen the family. Everyone close to us is in danger." Sarah paused and turned to Stella before continuing: "Just like in any other dysfunctional family, there will be internal power struggles, which means that some Elders will be against King's plans. We don't need to know the details because they don't matter. Each person who approaches us with an intention to hurt us or force us into anything is an enemy, and I don't care if that someone is threatening us because of his sick grandma or because he is greedy. They will all be eliminated."

"How much do you know?", Edward asked Sarah.

"Some information is locked. We know of seventeen bases which have data stored in internal networks, and at this point, we have no plans to go and retrieve it. However, everyone who leaves Eastern Europe needs to have a way to communicate with the base and with each other. We are capturing all that. Since you decided to join the family, I can share the information we gathered so far."

"I didn't have a choice.", Stella said.

Sarah showed a bitter smile. "I know. If King presented you options, and you choose to join the family, other options probably included that someone would be hurt. But… you could have told us. Your whole life you are making sacrifices to keep us safe and we all appreciate that." Sarah looked at Aiden and took his hand in hers before turning to Stella again. "Maybe it's time for you to acknowledge that we are big girls, and that we are not alone… and neither are you."

Stella walked to Sarah and gave her a hug. "Thank you."

"What about us?", JoAnna complained and hugged Stella and Sarah and a second later Sophia also joined in the hug.

Edward watched the four most important women in his life hugging and his heart expanded. Somehow, he knew that going forward they will collaborate. No more secrets... (other than the one that he is the SP3CT3R)

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