Silence and apprehension filled the living room. The silence of a dead city, the apprehension of a frightened lady. Andrew regarded her quietly from his side of the sofa, Beatrice never looked so scared, her unnatural expression was even infectious, filling him with apprehension as well.

'What is she hiding? is it so bad that she has to get this awkward just by telling it?'.

"Why don't we sleep for now and tomorrow I will tell you?" Beatrice evaded the topic with a smile, it seemed the fear was even overshadowing her own curiosity to know what had happened the night prior.

Andrew's cold words stopped her.

"Beatrice, if you keep evading the subject, it is going to make more suspicious of you".

"..." The beauty fidgeted and bit her lips, sitting back down with a defeated expression, 'if something I don't wish is for you to doubt me'.

"Okay, I will tell you... but you must promise that you will tell me what happened tonight, all of it!" Her piercing glare, more pointed than her accusatory finger, made it clear that this was not a confession, this was an exchange.

"You have a deal" Andrew didn't mind, in any case, there were so many things that took place last night that an explanation was unavoidable, it was the first time in his life that these events happened and more so, he also got her involved in all the mess. Beatrice deserved an explanation at least.

...

Several seconds of Beatrice wondering what to do resulted in a single request.

"H-Hmph... come here" She patted the side of her sofa, indicating for him to come.

Clueless he sat down beside her and Beatrice jumped on him... delivering the deepest, warmest hug; going as far as to take a whiff of his scent.

'D-Don't tell me she's a stalker...' Sophia gasped, mirroring Andrew's thoughts.

"I'm so sorry about them, your parents... about mistress Alexandra... and Mr Max. I'm sorry that I couldn't be there with you and hug you like this, I'm sorry I never showed myself... I'm sorry Andrew-"

"Wait wait! Explain yourself!" Andrew pushed her away, but she refused, her physical strength astonishing him.

Beatrice retrieved her phone that thankfully still on her trousers, looked for a picture and showed it to him. It had bad quality and clearly, it was a photo taken of an old picture.

In it, there were four individuals. Two adults, a little boy and a teenager. Andrew recognised his father Max, the tall Caucasian man in refreshing attire, and his mother Alexandra a ravishing blonde with blue eyes that mirrored his, dressed in an autumn one-piece dress. Himself with what he could gauge was seven years old or so. And lastly, the last person, a boy that was taller than him, embraced him tightly and smiled with his short hair to the camera. Whoever took the picture, Andrew didn't know or recall.

"Why do you have this picture? I didn't even see it" He could tell the photo was authentic, just by watching it, it was like a cascade of blurred memories poured down, all of them of his childhood.

"This is a picture of us... I held it dearly for all these years, the real picture was in your mother's hands" She looked at the phone longingly before sighing.

"Us? Where are you?" Andrew snatched the phone from her, "Were you the one that took the picture?".

'Andrew! How can you be so tactless?' Sophia scolded him, leaving him flabbergasted.

"What are you talking about!? why am I tactless?!" As usual with anything the rude ghost said, the boy got angry while Beatrice mumbled in confusion, 'when did I call him tactless?'.

Andrew checked the picture again and struggled to try and find the beautiful girl that he was looking for, if he had been this young then Beatrice should have also been a rather bountiful and pretty teenager, but he couldn't find her.

"This is me!" It wasn't until a fuming and tomato-red-pouty Beatrice pointed out at the boy that was hugging Andrew that he twitched his eyebrows.

"N-No way... you're big bro Brandon? Stop messing around".

"I swear to god it is me!" Beatrice took his shoulders and shook the with fake tears in her eyes, 'I knew this was going to happen!'.

"That's impossible... he was a boy!"

"I wasn't! I was just... too boyish I had to survive and being a boy was the best option!" She stated words he didn't understand, 'Survive? what does she mean?'.

Nevertheless, for Andrew, there were bigger concerns, he shamelessly placed his gaze on Beatrice's huge knockers that struggled to remain in her shirt and she blushed at his brazen stare.

"What about those big breasts of yours?! Did they grow up from one day to the other! huh?! Brandon had no breasts that I remember".

"Hey! you little-" Beatrice clenched her fist and resisted the urge to knock the boy out, in the end, she pouted and puffed out her chest pridefully "Y-yeah that's right! they grew up during the years, so what?! you like them don't you?!"

"..."

'...' Sophia checked her own chest enviously.

"Impossible... but that doesn't explain anything, how can it be you?" For all intents and purposes, he decided to believe her, but even then, he needed more context.

Knowing what was to come, Beatrice stared at the nothingness of the massive living room and hugged her knees. Andrew adopted the same position albeit clumsily. Awaiting her answer.

"My real name is Valentina Trusova. Ten years ago... when I was thirteen... I was but a parentless girl in the filthy streets of Dagestan. My father was murdered when I was nine. My mother abandoned me when I was eleven, I came back home one day and she wasn't there from that moment on I had to fight for my life".

!!!

'My lord...'

"Dagestan? Y-you're Russian like my mother?!"

"Yes... the one to find me at first was your mother, Alexandra... she, your father and you were having your holidays in Russia, and for some reason, I imagine because the mistress so wished, you happened to come by Dagestan... that was the first time I saw you, Andrew" her hand extended forward with a smile as if the moment she recalled their first meeting. The horrible events surrounding her life seemed to vanish.

She caressed his hair with a soft touch and pulled his cheeks slightly as if to know they were real and not illusory.

Sophia noticed her gaze and Andrew's and gulped slightly, clenching her hands. She could notice it... the chemistry.

Andrew allowed her to touch him and instead looked down, trying to recall.

"I don't remember very well, but yeah, we once went to Russia... that's where my mother is from, a-and that's where I first met big brother Brandon".

"Your mother was born in St Peterborough. Anyway, long story short... I saved you from a bear cub... the mistress said you saw something ugly in the house you were staying at and ran away".

'I-I remember... I saw a horrible ghost back then' If there was a reason he could still remember those holidays, it was because of how hideous that ghost had been, marking him for life.

"I happened to be there at that time when you ran into the forest and met that bear cub that apparently had also fled from its mother's care, if the mum happened to be around, we would have both died~" Beatrice smiled, recalling those memories as if the image of her fighting a bear to the dead was something 'fond'.

'R-Russians are something else' Sophia remarked.

"Y-Yeah, Brandon saved me... w-wait why did you never say you were not a boy!?"

"Because I couldn't!"

"Why!?"

The two started shouting at each other's faces, fed up, Beatrice used her superior 'violence' to pin Andrew down a straddle him with a snicker.

"..." He frowned and struggled but couldn't break free from her hold.

"I remember how I would pin you down like this back then, Andrew~".

The boy saw the images in his mind of him playing 'wrestling' with his big brother Brandon who would always win as if he was an expert in the field. Except this time, the image had been replaced by a breathtaking woman that could corrode the heart of any man, with a pair of boobs that one just wished to hold. Before, he would have tried to stand up and 'beat' his older brother Brandon.

Now, however... he blushed, desiring to beat something else.

!!!

Beatrice looked down, blushing on her own and gasping a little... even then, she refused to stand up, instead, she wiggled her butt into a more comfortable position, making Andrew groan before she continued her story.

"T-The mistress helped me... get away from that life. Stealing bread every day to survive, and sometimes I had to fish in the lakes. I didn't have any education or anything. Saving you earned me your parents' favour. She learned my circumstances and in order to repay the favour they took me with them to New York in their private jet... they helped me through all of my immigration for the next few years. At that time it would have been more advantageous for me to remain a boy instead of a girl, so that's what I did..."