Читать книгу The Secrets of the Two-Faced Maiden. Part 2 - - Страница 10

Three years later, when Natalia moved from her grandmother Irina’s place to live with her parents, a neighbor from her building, Vyacheslav Kolyadov, began courting her. His older brother was the best friend of Yuri Semenchuk. One evening, he invited Natalia and her friend Olga to a restaurant. There, they met a mutual acquaintance, Alexander Sovеl, who at that time was the chairman of a dacha cooperative where Natalia’s father had purchased a burned-down dacha from a friend and begun building a house.

Alexander was already quite drunk and began asking Natalia and Olga if they had seen a girl with three life lines on her palms. He explained that about fifteen years ago, a large sum of money went missing from their company – or rather, it had been stolen. A clairvoyant in Moscow had charged him $5,000 and told him that this money would be returned to him and his friends by a girl with three life lines on her palms, someone who had «two faces in one,» like a Janus figure.

The clairvoyant had also predicted that the girl came from a very high lineage on her mother’s side, though she was unaware of her ancestry. She belonged to a very noble, possibly even royal, family. When he and others discovered her lineage, they would be extremely surprised. The clairvoyant also said that she was currently living with someone who was practically a «thief-in-law,» that she was ill, and that she had personal problems with this man – the thief who had stolen the money. Furthermore, he would try to kill her.

Alexander added that he had already searched half of Belarus and Russia but had not found even one person with two life lines, let alone three. Alexander himself had two life lines on his palm. The clairvoyant had predicted that the girl would be entitled to 10% of the stolen sum. By the time she revealed the location of the money, he would have already spent one-third of it. Only two-thirds of the money would be returned. Alexander wondered why, if she was entitled to such a sum, she remained silent.

When Natalia heard about the search for the girl with three life lines, she hid her hands, sensing danger. Besides the three life lines, almost nothing in this fortune-telling matched her reality – she did not know anything about her noble ancestry, the company’s money, or who had stolen it. She remained silent. Moreover, Alexander was the best friend of Yuri Semenchuk, with whom Natalia already had serious problems.

However, her friend Olga, already fairly drunk, said that she had seen someone with such a palm. Natalia nudged Olga and told her to be quiet. Olga then explained that she had simply read in a book about three life lines, which supposedly indicated that the person was of royal descent. Alexander believed this explanation, and Natalia felt relieved. She thought that if she showed her hands now, they would start questioning her, and she knew nothing.

At home, Natalia told Elena about what had happened at the restaurant. Elena also concluded that Natalia had nothing to do with this fortune-telling or the money. At that time, Natalia had not yet connected Alexander Kovalev’s strange behavior with Alexander Sovel’s story about the fortune-telling.

Some time later, Natalia met Yuri Semenchuk near the entrance to her building. He began threatening her again. Natalia told him everything she thought about him to his face and said that if he did not want to forget about his America, he should forget about her. She told him, «You should fear me,» and that she would never forget all his proposals, and that he had beaten her «with his feet» while she was bedridden. All of this happened in front of her friend Olga, who was walking home with Natalia. Yuri became very frightened – extremely frightened. He apparently thought that Natalia was walking with Elena, not a friend. When he realized it was a friend, effectively a witness to his threats, he ran into the building entrance. However, he said the words:

– You’re all finished, your whole family – maximum two months left to live.

The next day, Zhenya Semenchuk came to visit Natalia. He suddenly became interested in palmistry and asked to see the palms of Natalia and her sister. Natalia instinctively sensed great danger. When Zhenya arrived, Natalia was peeling potatoes in the kitchen. She realized that as long as her hands were dirty, her palms were not visible. She remembered the incident at the restaurant and decided again to hide her three life lines. Natalia peeled almost an entire bucket of potatoes, but Zhenya did not leave. She showed Zhenya her dirty hands, and he asked her to wash them. Then her sister Elena showed him her hands, which had only one life line, and explained that her palms were the same as Natalia’s because they were twins and everything was identical. This argument alone convinced Zhenya, and he left. Natalia hoped that she had managed to outsmart Zhenya. However, she understood that he had been sent by his older brother, Yura. Whether Zhenya’s account had convinced Yura, Natalia could not know.

1.5 Months After the Meeting with Yura at the Entrance One and a half months after the encounter with Yura near the entrance, Natalia’s father was summoned by the chief prosecutor of the Novobelitsky District in the city of Gomel. The prosecutor told him that Natalia’s entire family had been targeted by hitmen from the criminal underworld for $20,000. He was puzzled as to why their modest family appeared on a list alongside the families of gangsters. The prosecutor also said that two families on this list had already been killed, and Natalia’s family was next. However, three days before the hit was to be carried out, the hitmen themselves were killed, and this list was found among their belongings.

Later, the prosecutor came to Natalia’s home and spoke with her and her sister. Natalia and her sister could not understand what he wanted from them. No one had any reason to target Natalia’s family, let alone pay such a large sum. Natalia assumed that the prosecutor was joking and did not believe him. She did not mention the threats from the neighbor, Yura Semenchuk, as she could not imagine he was capable of such actions. Still, certain doubts lingered in her mind.