Chapter Text
Her new step-father Aleksander does not yell.
He remains perfectly calm and collected despite her escalating misbehaviour, with seemingly endless patience for the way she chooses to deal with the fact that, following her marriage, her mother is now even more uninterested in and emotionally distant from her than she was before.
The lack of response infuriates Alina, spurring her on to even worse escapades in the hope of dragging a reaction out of Aleksander (given that she has long since given up hope of getting one from her mother).
It is only when she is brought home by the police at 3am, drunk and belligerent, charges of underage drinking, shoplifting, vandalism and minor arson wiped clean from her record by Officer Ivan Kaminsky, a close friend of her step-father’s, that she finally gets a real reaction.
Aleksander’s eyes glitter darkly as he grips her arm and hauls her off towards his study.
Still no yelling, perhaps because her mother is asleep upstairs, but Alina finds his quiet fury far more intimidating than any shouting.
“I gave you time,” he murmurs softly as he bends her over his antique oak desk, “hoped you’d work it all out of your system without my interference.”
“Aleksander, I –”
“But it seems I was mistaken,” he sighs as he unzips her skirt and tugs both it and her lacy thong off.
Alina shivers as his fingers glide over her skin.
The first blow makes her cry out. The second is even worse and she tries to escape, but one of her step-father’s hands is pressing her into the desk as the other continues to deal out firm smacks.
“You can’t do this!” she shouts, hoping her mother will hear her and do something.
“Yell all you want, Alinochka,” he leans down to whisper in her ear, “your mother took a sleeping pill and she won’t be awake for hours yet.”
“I hate you,” Alina hisses.
“No you don’t,” he laughs, fingers brushing between her legs, where she is shamefully, confusingly wet, “you need this.”
Alina lets out a noise that is half choked-sob and half moan.
“Don’t worry, Alinochka,” Aleksander says, giving her three more smarting smacks in a row, “we’ll make a good girl out of you eventually.”