Seeing Red

I twirled the recently-dyed blonde hair around my finger as Anatoly and I watched Gary Bettman read over the alarming stack of papers in his hands. The harsh Toronto rain pounded against the glass, the storm outside brewing angrily onto the Canadian city. "This puts you in a very difficult position, Anna. I don't know how or why this happened, but someone had to pull strings somewhere to have this done."

"Enlighten me, Gary," Brendan Shanahan, the new man himself in charge of discipline, leaned back against his chair. He sat on my left, Bardin on my right, the three of us facing Bettman. "What exactly is going on? You asked for my help, but frankly, I am just confused."

Lightning crackled outside in the sky, casting a brief light over the unnaturally dark city. The balding commissioner set the paperwork down and leaned back into his own chair. "According to all official documentation, Miss Trovato here was born in Italy to Amadeo Trovato, of Italy, and Adelina Trovato of Finland, on July 17th, 1986. She chose to play for her mother's country, and has done so ever since."

"So what's the issue?"

"Lev Anisin and Renata Anissina. Ring any bells?" Shanahan shook his head. "Anisin was one of the UN diplomats for, at the time, the USSR, from 1986 to 1990, when he and his wife were killed. There had been talk of a daughter, but Anisin sheltered his family from all media. There simply was no confirmation of anything. The last record that Anatoly dug up was of Anastasia Anissina at an orphanage in Moscow. After that, there is nothing. She vanished off the face of the planet."

At that moment, the phone went off at Bettman's desk. He picked it up, spoke a few words of having whoever it was call back later, and hung up. "We have two birth records here: one for Anastasia Anissina of Omsk, and one for Anastasia Trovato of Venice. The only problem with this is that there is a court order of adoption from a judge in Rome, granting Amadeo custody and rights to Anna. It lists her last name being officially changed, her birth record established in Italy with a change of birth location, and everything else."

Shanahan's jaw hit the floor, much as mine did after the KHL Awards. "So now what? This is going to take months to fix, or longer even!"

"I actually contacted the Russian Embassy in Washington DC, and they patched me through to Dmitry Medvedev and Vladislav Tretiak. They are on their way here now, as the weather is holding them up. I figured it was best to find out our options before making any decisions." Gary rubbed his forehead, obviously put in a frustrating situation. I couldn't really blame him; I didn't want to deal with it either.

"How is Medvedev here without security?"

"He has it taken care of apparently, and I honestly have no idea how he got it approved, but the sooner we get this taken care of, the sooner we can fix the problem." A quiet knock hit the wooden door, Bettman immediately shooting up to answer it. Anatoly and I stood, still silent, but Shanahan was slower to respond.

"I'll be back, Gary, while you guys sort this out. I don't think I'll be of much use anyways." The discipline coordinator shook both of the newcomers' hands warmly before quickly taking his leave down the hallway.

I held my hand out to Medvedev, hoping to keep my face straight. All I could think about was him and Putin approaching me after Worlds, mentioning these names and various phrases. "President Medvedev, it is an honour."

The shorter than average man smiled at me, his eyes dark as he took my hand in his own, bringing it to his lips and kissing the back of it. "The pleasure is all mine. I hope we can figure out this mess, as Volodya and I are both very interested."

He sounded genuine and his smile didn't falter as he moved to sit in Shanahan's chair. I turned to Tretiak but was immediately engulfed into a hug. "I wish I would have put it together sooner. I hate to be so forward, but you look so much like your father."

Lightly returning the hug, he swiftly sat in Anatoly's chair, one hand on my shoulder. My former GM reached for the doorknob, quietly making his escape. They would call when it was time for him to come back in. These matters were going to become private.

"If a man from another country came to adopt from Russia, what would the procedure have been back then?"

Dmitry straightened up; his eyes never left Bettman while he was addressing him. "There would be paperwork on the adoption process in our records, which isn't there. Follow-ups would have been scheduled, especially for Lev's child, but there would have been no reason for the girl to be in an orphanage anyways. She still had family at the time, and we still would have made sure that one of our own men's family was taken care of."

Tretiak had been reading through some of the papers near him, immediately pushing them towards Medvedev. "Look at this! It was still done while Gorbachev was in power."

Gary leaned over the desk at the Russian adoption papers, but shook his head. Medvedev grabbed the top one, and his face paled considerably. "This isn't even about the hockey anymore. The adoption wasn't even validated. Anna left Russia illegally, obviously unaware of the situation. Trovato took a child that was not legally his by adoption standards."

"What?"

Gary's voice faltered as the Russian man pushed the paper to him, his finger pointing out the blank line. "Misha, or Mikhail Gorbachev to you, would have had to have signed this paper for an international adoption. Otherwise, the child would not be released until done so. I don't know how to why he got a hold of her, or how, but he did and this creates a nightmare for Russian-Italian relations. They had to have known about this, and the fact that one of their own diplomats did this causes a rift."

I covered my face with my hands as Medvedev talked about the problems that would come with this. Almost immediately, a thought popped into my head. "Does this mean I can't play for Finland anymore?"

All three of them looked at me, but only Tretiak opened his mouth. He had a sad smile on his face, almost one I couldn't place. "The fact that you have played this long for Finland without this coming out is astounding. According to these documents, all perfectly legal examples and representations, you are not an Italian citizen, you are not a legal member of the Finnish national team, and you are not Anna Trovato."