Chapter 1
Yelena had been so used to getting updates from her girls that she doesn’t think twice about answering the phone when it rings. The immediate sound that greets her ears is a slight sniffling that makes Yelena frown. “Vikki? What’s wrong?”
There was a heavy sigh. “I need help.” She finally said and Yelena tenses up, sitting up from where she was slightly slouched in front of her laptop. “I’m not in danger or anything but-- ugh, this information… I thought she was a teacher!”
Yelena’s having a hard time following the conversation. “It’s alright, Vikki,” She switches to Russian, hoping to calm Viktoria down. “Start from the beginning. Is Irina still with you?”
“Yeah, she’s here…” There was a huff. “Melina sent us out to extract a Widow that was stationed undercover at an all girls school. We thought that they were a teacher…” There was a small pause and Yelena fills in the blanks before Viktoria confirms her thoughts. “It’s a kid. She’s one of the students. Sixth grade. Even smaller than Daria…”
“Do you think you can extract her safely?” Yelena questioned, trying to gauge which part they needed help with.
“She’s really little, mom--” Viktoria chokes out and Yelena suddenly understands that it’s her age that is an issue for Viktoria. “The other girls, they were bigger. They knew. But Daria, Varvara, and Ksenia? They didn’t really understand. They were really scared, I remember that. I don’t want to scare her.”
“I’m really proud of you for thinking of her and her feelings,” Yelena starts out, leaning back in her chair. “I can’t leave to come help you right now. I can see if your Aunt Nat can go over and lend a hand but I think that ultimately you might need to free her, sedate her before she flees and hurts herself, and bring her back here.”
“Not Melina’s farm?” Viktoria inquired and Yelena could hear that she was choking back tears.
“No. Melina’s Widows are older Widows. I think she’d be more comfortable here with Daria, Varvara, and Ksenia,” Yelena explained. “Where are you stationed right now?”
“Ukraine.” Viktoria replies. It would be about a seven to fourteen hour trip back and keeping the girl sedated could pose a problem. “I… I don’t think Aunt Nat is necessary… I just-- I just needed you.”
“I’m right here,” Yelena immediately reassures her, her voice soft. “I’ll be right here waiting for you.”
Yelena regretted having to sedate to extract but with Widows as young as that who were frightened and willing to bolt, Yelena didn’t want them to get hurt.
Irina and Viktoria show up two days later and Yelena has to come to collect the sedated Widow from the backseat of the car. Her girls seemed afraid to even touch her. “She’s not going to break if you touch her.”
“Yeah, but you’re a mom and she’s…” Viktoria shrugs and Yelena smiles at her girls, pulling them into a tight hug. They cling to her, taking a few minutes to unwind and just let themselves be held after the tough mission. “Her name is Carlotta.” She murmurs.
“Go clean up,” Yelena tells them. “I’ve got her.”
Yelena turns her attention toward the girl in the backseat of the car as Viktoria and Irina head inside. They had wrapped her in a soft blanket and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. They had injected the sedative into her arm and even placed a bandage over it, things that the Red Room wouldn’t do. Yelena slowly collects the girl up in her arms, using all the times she carried her sleepy clingy girls to bed to position Carlotta carefully against her.
Carlotta was barely smaller than Daria and lighter than her too. Yelena had to guess she was twelve or thirteen years old. Carlotta had dark black hair that was braided back carefully in two neat plaits. She was still in her school uniform, a plaid skirt and white blouse paired with knee-high socks and shiny black mary-janes.
Yelena carries her up to her own room. She had warned her girls about the new arrival beforehand so they knew not to crowd or make loud noises. Yelena settles Carlotta down onto the bed and adjusts the blanket over her. She locks the door to her bedroom and takes a seat at her desk.
Yelena accesses the files that they had gotten from Dreykov before they took down the Red Room and searched for Carlotta’s file.
Sure enough, there it was. Carlotta Novello, she was originally from Italy and had been taken when she was seven while walking home from school along with a classmate of hers that she had been walking with her.
The classmate had been killed two years later, or so the file states.
Yelena searches through Carlotta’s file and then looks through Italy’s center for missing and exploited children. It’s the first time that she finds a match.
Yelena is looking at a photo of a wide-grinning child missing one of her front teeth on her first day of first grade. The photo next to it was an aged photo of what they expected Carlotta to look like present day. They had done a pretty good job. The nose was a little small and the eyes a little big but there was the smiling face of Carlotta on the screen.
Some of Melina’s Widows had matches as well but elected to not return home for the safety of their families. They thought it was better they were presumed dead and they were helped to assume new identities to live their lives.
So Yelena waits for Carlotta’s input before making any choices or contacting anybody. Yelena barely heard Carlotta wake, the shift in breathing was the only indication that the girl was awake. Yelena bolts from her chair at the same time Carlotta springs up from the bed and toward the door. Carlotta lets out a yell as Yelena stops her from unlocking the door and she turns to try and fight Yelena.
Yelena had plenty more years of training on Carlotta and easily subdues her. “Carlotta. I don’t want to hurt you. I’m a Widow too. I need you to calm down before I can let go of you. Calm down and I’ll let you go.” Yelena repeats herself again in Russian and then in Italian.
The Italian seems to jolt Carlotta and the girl goes violently still in Yelena’s grip.
“There we go,” Yelena slowly lets her go, continuing to speak in Italian. “My name is Yelena Belova and I was known as the White Widow.”
Carlotta’s wide brown eyes stare up at her, confusion and fear not so carefully masked on her face.
“You’ve met some of my Widows, Irina and Viktoria. They brought you here where it is safe,” Yelena crouches down to get a better view of Carlotta’s face. “There is no more Red Room. The General is dead.”
Carlotta’s eyes flicker around the room and settle on the pictures on Yelena’s wall above her desk where she had happy photos of her girls proudly displayed. Her eyes then land onto the missing person’s poster that Yelena had pulled up on her laptop and Carlotta takes off across the room. Yelena watches her as Carlotta leans forward in front of the desk, eyes inches from the screen as she drinks in the sight of her first-grade photo.
Yelena watches as Carlotta’s face crumples, her lower lip trembling as she breathes out a single word. “Mammina…” She whimpers out at the sight of the name on the bottom of the poster, stating that Antonia Novello was offering a reward for information about her daughter. “My mamma.” She finally murmurs in broken English.
“Your mamma is looking for you still,” Yelena rises up from the ground and slowly approaches her. “Would you like to be reunited with your family? Or would you like to stay with Widows.”
Carlotta peers up at Yelena, tears brimming her waterline as she chews on her lower lip to keep it from trembling.
“You don’t have to decide now. You can think about it,” Yelena promised, keeping her voice soft. “Would you like to meet my girls?” Yelena gestured toward the photographs on the wall. “I have seven girls.”
Carlotta’s eyes flicker to peer at Yelena’s stomach and Yelena can’t help the sad chuckle that escapes her lips. “No. They’re not mine biologically. I adopted them. But I love them all the same. They’re all Widows, just like you.”
Carlotta shifts nervously so Yelena takes the group photo off of the wall and slowly starts to tap the faces to give her names to put with faces. Yelena lets her know ahead of time that Irina was deaf and that Daria was mute but that they could communicate just fine.
The young girl seemed reassured with more information now. Yelena can hear her stomach growl.
“Come on.” Yelena wonders briefly if Carlotta needed guidance like Alice and Ksenia or if she was more independent like Mischa and Viktoria. She knows that Carlotta is still very suspicious and doesn’t doubt that she’d lash out if she thought she was in danger. Yelena reaches out and gently braces the back of Carlotta’s neck, a trigger that all Widows had ingrained in them to teach them to subdue.
While Carlotta didn’t relax into the touch like Alice or Ksenia, she also didn’t violently flinch like Mischa or Irina. She lets Yelena guide her out of the bedroom and down the stairs.
Most of Yelena’s girls were in the living room watching a movie. Viktoria and Irina had showered and were snuggled with their sisters on the couch.
Their eyes slide toward her and Carlotta, causing the younger girl to shy closer to Yelena.
Yelena introduces them to each other.
This girl is not hers, perhaps not yet, but Yelena treats her like she is.