Anxiety was the least suitable word to describe William’s emotion at the moment. Apparently, another body was also found in the lobby of his apartment. This time, it was accompanied by his first fictional autobiography novel. When they identified the bodies, William was certain that someone crazy must have done this to scare him since the deceased were all his exes. The one found at the publishing company was Howard Dorough and the one found in his apartment was Alexander McClean. Who the hell would have wanted to mess with him like this?

He was in the interrogation room in the Krasniy police station. But the two police officers in there with him were not those from the station. They were from the capital. The case has caught the attention as it could be serial murder and the one who could possibly know the perpetrator was William himself.

“William Hendrik, yes?” One of the police officers started to ask. The other police woman kept her mouth shut as she observed William.

“Yes,” William answered calmly.

“I’m Detective Boris Vladamir. You’re good to be interviewed?”

“Yeah. I’m good.”

“Okay. First, from the police record, you changed your name at the age of 9. Correct?” The detective started off with something William didn’t expect.

He felt uneasy as an old memory he wished to forget began to haunt him. “Yes,” he forced himself to calm down as he answered the question.

“Your original name was William Stoff, correct?”

“Yes.”

It was unusual for the house to be so quiet. I got up from the bed and looked around. “Mommy?” I called out. There was no answer. That was odd. Mom would never not answer me. What was she doing? She must’ve paid more attention to my sister. That’s not fair! I got up angrily and stormed my way to my mom’s room. “Masha?” I called out my sister’s name this time before reaching for the door. There was also silence. Oh… I get it now. They must’ve decided to play hide and seek with me. I must catch them! As I pushed the door open, feeling excited expecting my mom and my sister to be surprised, I was greeted with a sight I could never forget.

The detective took out his notepad and began scribbling on it. “Mr. Stoff, would you care to list down the names of anyone who could have malicious intentions towards you,” he spoke.

William tried to get the image from his memory out of his head before he responded; “As a writer, there are those who hated my work and I was sent death threats but I never revealed my identity. Never went to any book signing… well except for once. But that was a long time ago before I was recognised in the writing world. And I never displayed any picture of myself online or wherever. The publishing company was also very discreet at making sure my identity was not known to the public. So, I’m sure this was not the work of one of my haters.”

“Okay. Then this must be someone you knew personally. Anyone you know that might want to harm you?”

“I have exes but none of my previous relationships ended badly where they would want to kill me. Well… But… my latest ex was being rather stalker-ish,” William said as he recalled that lately Nick had been bothering him a lot. Especially after the night he had that one night stand with Marcus. After that, Nick went all psycho like a crazy ex-boyfriend you see in movies. But William could never have imagined him being violent. He was, afterall, scared of blood.

“May I know his name and whereabout?”

“Nick. Nicholas Carter. He lives in the penthouse, Unit 3, 21st floor, Solntse Condominium. But I doubt he would have done something like this as well.”

“So, anyone else you might think of?” The detective asked again as he kept scribbling on his notepad.

“I’m not sure at the moment. No one crossed my mind.”

“Okay,” the detective said. The police woman next to him then raised her head and made eye contact with William. She squinted her eyes slightly as she asked a question; “Then, what about your father?”

William’s face changed. He could only reply with a moment of silence. It was clear in his expression that he was holding something back. It could be anger. But it could also be sadness. Of course, no one would have wanted to be reminded of the person who had destroyed someone’s childhood completely. That man’s name was Gavril Stoff.

I saw mom on the floor, covered in red. Masha was on the bed. She was also covered in red. I knew that it was blood. And I can feel it in me that they’re not alive anymore. It was an instinct. It wasn’t some kind of knowledge that was registered in my mind. But I just had that feeling. That feeling that something bad had happened and that I was supposed to run away at that moment. But I was too stunned to move. I just stood there and looked at them. Part of me wanted to believe that they are not my mom and my sister. I wanted to believe that this was all a bad joke. “Will,” I heard my name being called. I turned around and saw my dad with a bloody knife in his hand. “Daddy?” I called out to him, trying to place an ounce of trust for him in me. We were caught in a deadlock for a moment before he lunged forward. The next thing I felt was a sting to my stomach.

The memories hit him fast. But he managed to hold himself back from crying despite his hands trembling slightly. William then spoke in an unsure tone; “He’s in prison, officer.”

“We found out that he had made a lot of ‘friends’ in prison and some of them were already released. If he wanted to harm you, he didn’t need to do it himself. He could pretty much hire others to do it for him. I heard from your editor that he had been sending you letters?”

“He did.”

“What is the nature of the contents of those letters, Mr. Stoff?”

William shook his head a few times to clear the memories from his mind. “Could you please identify me as Mr. Hendrik instead of my old name? I feel uncomfortable being regarded as that. I haven’t been called that in a long time that it didn’t even feel like it was really my name. So, please, officer…” William said.

The policewoman nodded her head, remembering that trauma victims, no matter how old they are in later years, will never really move on from the traumatic events of the past. “Yes. I’m sorry, Mr. Hendrik. That was insensitive of me.”

William shrugged his shoulders. He’s tired. He just wanted to get on a bed and sleep. He didn’t want to think about anything else anymore. He didn’t want to remember what happened that night. “Anyway, I don’t know the contents of the letters. I never read them. They’re in my drawer in my apartment. You can have them for all that I care.”

“With your permission, can I send one of my men to get them for me?” Detective Vladamir asked, appearing to be calm. But in his head, he was thinking of also checking out William’s place to find anything useful. It was after all quite a hassle to get a warrant for that. It was better done with permission from the homeowner.

“Sure. I’ll hand over my keys.”

The policewoman then nodded her head at him. “Well, I think we can look at the letters first to find some clues. I’ll get back to you as soon as we find something. For now, you need to stay somewhere safe. Do you need me to arrange a place for you?” She asked.

“No. I’ll be fine. I have friends waiting for me.”

Detective Vladamir looked at the door, thinking to himself for a while. “Sure. By your friends you mean the Chenkovs, correct?” He asked, thinking that there could also be another possibility for such things to happen to William.

“Chenkov?” William asked, looking confused.

This is when the detective and also the policewoman detected something strange. “Those people waiting outside. They’re quite ‘famous’ around here. Mafia family and all,” Detective Vladamir indicated.

The looks on William’s face made it very obvious that he wasn’t aware of their true identities at all. “What?! Mafia?” William asked, almost wanting to laugh at how silly that sounds. Marcus? Mafia? No way in fucking hell. Marcus is like the sweetest guy he had ever known.

“You… didn’t know?” The detective asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, detective.”

The detective looked at William straight in the eyes with concern written on his face. William was already annoyed by this point. “I see. I guess that's why you said no one crossed your mind. You didn’t know that your friends out there… Two of them are the heirs to mafia groups in New Russia. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Chenkovs before, correct?” He asked.

Of course. Who has not heard of the famous mafia family? They’re almost like a legend in New Russia. Existing in the underworld but also running legal businesses all around the country. William nodded his head as an answer.

“They are cousins. One of them is Stepanov Chenkov, the main heir and the tallest one… that’s Marcus Drago Chenkov, the heir to the second family. You should know who your friends are, Mr. Hendrik. And a word of advice, you need to be careful of them. I mean, after all, cutting up dead bodies is nothing to them,” the detective spoke in a manner of joking with a hint of seriousness in it.

William was dumbfounded. He turned his head to look at the door of the interrogation room. The door that separated him from those people outside. What are the odds? And what are the reasons? But most of all, will their true identities matter? Will knowing this change anything at all?

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Next update: 2023.11.10

*Author’s Note: If you recognise the names of Will’s exes, you are a true fan of ____. Lol. The number of words exceeds 1K to make up for the weeks I didn't update. -K