Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 134 -

Весса.

I stared at Allegra, slightly confused as to why she wanted to know what the man looked like. Her entire demeanor changed the moment that I told her what had happened, and as it did, I felt slightly uneasy about the entire situation. "Why do you want to know what he looked like?" I asked her, waiting for her to give me an answer. She kept a stoic gaze as she turned and looked over her shoulder to see if anybody else was coming. "Becca, just tell me. What did this man look like?"

Again, with all the secrecy, she wasn't giving me a direct answer. But then again, I hadn't actually answered her question either. Letting out a sigh, I rolled my eyes and turned back to the unpacking. "I don't know. He was tall, blond hair. He wore sunglasses. There was nothing really different from him than anybody else, other than he looked very suspicious."

My reply didn't seem to impress her, and in fact, it seemed to annoy her more than anything. Not wanting to cause any more complications, I decided that I would try to let the situation go by changing the subject.

"So I was thinking, tomorrow morning, we're going to do a Big Breakfast here, cook a bunch of food, fruit, maybe sit out on the patio. My dad and his wife are going to be coming to join us "

"Becca, this isn't the time to talk about tomorrow's breakfast. This is serious," Allegra replied, cutting me off mid-sentence. I wasn't sure what had gotten into her, but the fact that she was acting the way she was became more than annoying with every passing moment.

Turning back to face her, I raised a brow and gave her a look of uncertainty. "Allegra, he was just some guy being nice, helping me load the stroller. I was being paranoid. You're overthinking things, and everything is fine now. Come on, we need to talk about tomorrow."

Trying to push off the subject, not wanting to discuss it anymore about my weird interactions with strangers in the market, I attempted to continue what I was doing, but her hand quickly reached out, gripping my arm as she turned me to face her. For some reason, I had a feeling that perhaps I wasn't just being paranoid, that maybe this person was in fact, someone I needed to be careful of.

"Never think that you're safe just because you don't want to believe that you're being paranoid." Her cryptic message caught me off guard, and I didn't understand why she would say something like that. Moving to New Zealand was a safe place to be. It kept us out of the eye of everybody else.

"I don't understand what you're getting at. Moving here was meant to keep us safe. Nobody knows where we are."

Laughter escaped her as she scoffed and then shook her head. "Becca, anybody can replace where we are. Nowhere is exactly safe, unless you were to have changed your name and your complete identity. Even then, who knows? Anybody can replace you, especially since you bought this house. Everything that you purchased with your cards or with any form of money is going to leave a paper trail, and just because we haven't heard anything in such a long time doesn't mean there aren't people out there looking for you."

Left with the possibility that somebody James had been in with back then could still be looking for me, perhaps Sergei's son, or anybody else that were from his clan, made my stomach turn. Neal and Allegra had told me that I would be safe here.

They had assured me that nobody was coming to look for me. That I wouldn't have any issues with being able to raise the children here perfectly safe and sound. And now, Allegra was telling me there was a possibility that they could have found me, that they could be coming after me.

My mind swirled with the thoughts of something happening to my children because of this shit. "Oh, my God! Are you f*cking kidding me right now?"

Panic set in, and as my heart raced, my breathing became shallow, a panic attack settling over me as I placed my hand against my chest, trying to calm my breathing. The last thing I wanted was to have to relive this crap once more. And yet, here again, I was caught in the middle of something that had nothing to do with me.

How was I supposed to live a normal life with my children if I couldn't get away from the past that seemed to want to catch up to me? A past that I had nothing to do with.

"Becca, calm down. It's okay. I'll tell Neal what's going on. Tell me exactly where you saw him-" I knew she was trying to reassure me, but the moment I snapped, my look at her cut her off mid-sentence.

"Don't you dare tell me that everything is gonna be okay! As if Neal can fix everything. He can't even get a hold of himself, Allegra. How am I supposed to trust him, or even you, for that matter, to take care of things, to sort out all of this bullshit if every time I turn around, it comes back to haunt me?" I didn't mean to speak to her the way I was, but I couldn't help it. I was angry. I was frustrated. Most of all, I was scared.

There was no telling if this man was actually part of some criminal organization, and there was no telling if my life was ever going to get back to the way I wanted it to be. But one thing was for sure, I would never allow anyone to get near my children that could possibly harm them, and if that meant that I had to cut ties with both Allegra and Neal, then so be it.

Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and counted backward from twenty. I had to calm myself because I was never going to think rationally in the state that I was in. If this guy was here to try and spy on me or potentially bring harm to me or the children, I had to be prepared to defend myself.

Firearms weren't something that were typically found quite easily in this country, and though I knew what I needed to do, there was a part of me that was scared to even do so.

"Becca, please don't be angry with me. I'm not saying that this is for sure that kind of situation, but I just want to make you aware so you don't put the possibility out of your mind."

Her soft-spoken words took me by surprise again. Was she seriously going to sit here and tell me not to be worried about something like this when she clearly stated that it could be somebody dangerous?

"Allegra, I think you have a phone call to make to your brother. And in the meantime, I'm going to put the rest of this away, and then I'm going to go spend time with my children because I can't deal with this right now. I can't deal with the fact that this shit keeps following me. I don't want any part of it."

She didn't bother waiting for me to say anything else after I spoke, nor did she bother to respond. All she did was nod her head and quickly disappear. I wasn't sure where she was going or what she was going to do, but at that moment, I didn't care.

I didn't even want to see her or her brother. Because even though they had done so much to help protect me and create a new life for me, they were also continuously reminding me of what had happened.

I wasn't their plaything that they could dress up and use whenever they wanted to. I wasn't somebody who could continuously be brought into the bullshit that had nothing to do with me. If they wanted to live that kind of life, then that was on them. But with the way Neal had been acting lately, I highly doubted that he actually gave a f*ck anymore.

*****

Allegra.

Becca freaked out on me over the entire situation; I should have almost expected it. However, I was taken back by her outburst, not realizing how angry she would be over the potential of having somebody follow her.

I knew for a fact that it had nothing to do with Neal or me. But at the same time, it concerned me because, had somebody that was dangerous potentially found us, it could end up being problematic.

The moment that I walked down the hallway, I quickly burst into Neal's room. He was there, sitting on his computer, tapping away with the phone to his ear. I had no idea who he was talking to, and frankly, I didn't care at that moment. But as soon as I walked in, and his eyes met mine, he quickly told the person he had to go.

Hanging up his phone, his brows furrowed, and a concerned glare was on his face. "This better be good. I was in the middle of a business meeting."

He knew very well that I would never just burst into his room for any reason, so with a deep breath, I decided to ask some questions of my own. "Do you have Becca being followed?"

"What?" he replied as his eyes widened slightly before shaking his head no. "Why would I need to have her followed if I'm already here? That makes no sense."

"Well, Becca had an incident at the market today. She said that she saw somebody watching her, but then she just played it down as being completely paranoid. But then it just so happened that when she and her father were loading the children in the car, that same person stopped and helped her load the strollers in the back of the vehicle. She said she found it very mysterious, but then just played it off as her overthinking things."

Neal stood there, staring at me, completely in shock. I didn't blame him. Honestly. The entire situation was completely flabbergasting. All of these months, we've had no issues from anybody. Other than James, of course, doing what he was doing. And then an idea popped into my mind.

"Neal, you don't think that it's 'you know who, do you?" I replied, just in case. Becca was looming outside the door, trying to take a sneak peek into the conversation I was having with my brother.

At my words, his brows rose quite quickly and then narrowed in anger as he clenched his fist at his sides. "He wouldn't."

"Oh, wouldn't he?" I laughed, shaking my head. "I suppose you better call him and figure this out."

If it was James, then Becca wasn't in any immediate danger. However, it would be problematic, and that was exactly the reason why I told Neal not to cut James off to begin with.

Now, Neal had a problem, and he had it fixed.

And he'd better do it soon-before things escalate.