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It’s of a girl with platinum blonde hair.
She’s wearing a ballerina dress and is posing for the camera with a bright smile on her face.
The picture is dated eleven years old and according to the info Gibbs handed me, the girl in the picture is fifteen.
Her name is Juliette Lobonov, the star of the show. The prima ballerina at that young age. This picture of her shows her as Cinderella.
“Is that her?” Salvatore asks.
We’re at Renovata sitting around my desk. He’s sitting next to Gibbs.
The girl looks different to Ava. Of course, she would be different. It was eleven years ago.
And according to the intel Gibbs gave me, this girl died in a house fire in St. Petersburg ten years ago. She and her family; Ilya Lobonov’s brother, and sister-in-law.
“Vincent…” Gibbs says, and I look at him. “It’s her, isn’t it?”
It is.
It’s Ava.
My version of her may have dark brown hair, and she might be eleven years older than she was in this picture, but I can see it’s her.
She’s a child, and her face has changed into the beautiful woman she is now.
But I can see it’s her.
What’s the same is her eyes. The girl in the picture doesn’t emanate the pain yet, but there’s the spark that I see whenever she talks about her dreams. This is a picture of her in her element. In her first love. Ballet.
The pride and happiness is practically leaping off the picture.
It’s a happy picture. What I’ve learned though is sadness.
It’s her so that means Ava is Ilya’s niece. So she more than knows Dmitri and Yuri.
“It’s her. How did you come by these?” I know Gibbs has his ways that are probably his trade secrets, but I still want to know. This is the third time he’s come to see me.
Last night, I told him to extend the search on Mark to include her. I knew I wasn’t getting shit from her, and the same way I knew something was off with Dmitri, I knew the same rang true here too.
“The name change office. I worked my way from there. The files are stored at the highest level of security because most often, people in the witness protection programs have to get their names changed. His couldn’t be found. So, I figured since our guy was so tech savvy, he must have had some influence. Friends in high places who could turn a blind eye. But I have higher friends who can look a little deeper and find something hidden. They found he didn’t just change his name but the girl he was looking after as well, and his son’s.”
I’ve just gotten over the fact that the girl in the picture is Ava. What does Gibbs mean by the girl Mark was looking after?
“His daughter?” I fill in, and both Salvatore and I look at each other when he shakes his head.
“No, she isn’t his daughter. If you are telling me that this girl is Ava, then Mark’s not her father. He’s not Ilya Lobonov’s brother.”
“So, who the hell is he?” Salvatore asks.
“It’s a good thing you people keep me in business. It certainly balances out my high blood pressure… Mark, whose real name is Alessandro, was Sovientrik to his best friend, Roberto Lobonov, Pakhan of the Ivanezh Bratva. I’ll add here that Mark was a high tech ex-military intelligence analyst who worked as a link to government intel, hence his hacking abilities. If that girl is your girl, then her real father was Roberto Lobonov. She was somewhat of a princess. Her family were treated like royalty. They all supposedly died in the fire, but Alessandro and his sons went missing. One of the sons is the guy who died six years ago. As to the other, I don’t know.”
Holy fuck.
What the fucking hell?
I just stare at Gibbs and allow the shock to take me.
What the fuck does all that mean? It’s clear that something is more than amiss.
