for a while until a fireman eventually came in and found me. I tried to move it so many times, but it was too heavy. So, I had to just lie there screaming while it burned me. I think I passed out at some point, because I don’t remember much before the fireman was lifting me into his arms.”
The pain she suffered. The agony. God, I couldn’t imagine.
And at seven years old.
She must have been terrified beyond all belief. On top of it all, she hadn’t even had parents to comfort her afterward. No one to hold her, kiss her, help her heal. No one to tell her everything was going to be okay. To love her.
“Is that why you like swimming so much?” I rasped. “Because water represents the opposite of fire?”
She stilled. “I’ve…never thought about it before. Maybe? I’ve never been able to explain it, but I’ve always felt safe in the water.”
“That makes sense.”
When she cleared her throat, I wondered if she was choking back tears. “Anyway, the hospital did what they could for me, but they were grossly underfunded, same with the orphanage. Medical care at that time was abysmal. After they released me, I decided I didn’t want to go back to the orphanage. I figured if something like that was going to happen to me there, I might as well take my chances on my own.”
My muscles locked up. “On your own? But you were seven.”
She nodded. “I found some people who helped homeless kids like me survive Siberian winters on their own. They helped me find food and taught me how to keep myself warm.”
My hands grabbed her upper arms. She sucked in a breath. I was probably holding her too roughly, but I couldn’t have let go if my life depended on it.
“You lived on the streets of Siberia when you were seven years old?”
“Only for about six months or so,” she said shakily. “Then Sergei found me. His driver almost ran me over actually. When he realized I had no one, he took me home with him. Because he didn’t have anyone either. Ever since his wife Claudia died years before, he’d been depressed and lonely. I guess we were both looking for a family, and we found it in each other.”
The man hadn’t just lost his wife—he’d lost a baby, too. I couldn’t begin to imagine the holes that kind of loss leaves in a person. And Lexi had literally never had anyone.
“He saved me,” she stated emphatically. “The most powerful and dangerous man in the Russian mafia saved me. That’s why I’ll do anything for him.”
Which explained why she’d gone along with the marriage. Everything else I’d learned about her clicked into place after hearing her story. The medical bills Sergei paid for in Moscow after adopting her. The malnutrition, the dehydration, the protein deficiency.
And no fucking wonder if she’d been living on the streets for half a year!
It was a complete mystery how she’d even survived in those harsh conditions. The climate alone, not to mention the crime-ridden streets. She’d miraculously survived a fire, and then somehow scraped by on her own until being rescued.
So many times she could have died.
“I was able to work around the scars during my modeling days,” she went on, her voice pitching lower. “The photographers and my agency always managed to hide them in every shot. But they eventually said I needed to do something about covering them up. Skin grafts with plastic surgery and all that.”
The thought enraged me.
If that had been her choice, I wouldn’t care. But being forced to cover up the evidence of her survival, like something to be ashamed of? That was unacceptable. Those scars were a mark of her bravery and will to live. She should wear them proudly, like a badge of courage.
“I’d had enough at that point,” she continued, cutting into my thoughts. “I wasn’t about to go through major surgery to fix something that didn’t bother me, just to propagate some unattainable image of perfection. I didn’t want to be a part of spreading that message to women. Didn’t feel right.” She shrugged. “So, I quit modeling. Terminated my contract and walked away. It was so much easier than I’d thought it would be.”
Another piece added to the puzzle. This woman was far more worldly, far tougher, and far wiser than I’d initially given her credit for.
This woman was a survivor.
I was in awe of her spirit, especially after everything that had happened