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Tangled Roots Run Deep

Summary:

After an unexpected email from an unknown email address lands in Ilya's inbox, he finds himself climbing a branch of his family tree he didn't know existed and the history and reality of Irina's life story comes into focus, for better or for worse.

OR

Ilya Rozanov has a long lost cousin.

Notes:

I know folks don’t usually like OFC’s in fandoms like HR, but I had this thought about a long lost family member helping to reveal more about Irina, who she was and how her life evolved the way it did and I couldn't let it go. Also, I am a huge fan of social media adjacent fics so I thought an email fic would be fun to play with. (Not promising it will stay exclusively an email fic depending on where it goes and how it grows, but I enjoy the challenge and will see how people receive it and feel about it before I try to branch out to anything outside of this format.)

I also loved the idea of having some images to provide visuals and make things more dynamic but I refuse to use AI to generate anything, so I have done my best to source images from open sources online & credited as best I can.

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All photos used/referenced come from Unsplash (unless otherwise indicated) and are linked directly with the contributor who took/provided them. As such, if any links end up broken at some point, apologies and hopefully the descriptions provided are helpful enough. (I just wanted to make sure the connection to the original Unsplash contributor remained rather than downloading photos at attaching them directly to the story.)

NOTE: AO3 doesn't let links open in a new tab by default, so when clicking links to images, make sure you RIGHT click & "Open link in new tab" to not lose your place in the story

Chapter Text

From: Daria Novikova <[email protected]>
Date: June 21, 2025 8:28 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Introduction

Dear Mr Rozanov,

I hope this email goes through and finds you well.

Please forgive me for finding you in what might seem like a slightly roundabout way. I have been trying to find a way to connect with you via the Centaurs and your foundation for the last couple of months and folks – probably understandably – either ignored me or turned me away outright. I am taking one last stab at connecting with you based on what I know of your foundation’s email format from the website in hopes that my sleuthing is correct and I manage to guess your address correctly. (I do also promise that despite what this all may sound like, I am not a stalker nor an insane fangirl – please just hear me out.)

My name is Daria Novikova. If my last name is familiar, it’s because my mother was Viktoria Novikova, older sister to your mother, Irina.

I don’t know how much your mother spoke of mine – she left Russia before you or your brother were born – but my mother spoke of Irina often and always with tremendous love and fondness. It is out of that love and fondness that I wanted to reach out to you and introduce myself.

I was born in Calgary in 1981 after my mother moved here from Russia. I grew up here and remain here, where I work at the university. Not very exciting really.

My mother unfortunately passed away last year and although I have a tremendous group of friends and “found family”, I don’t have a connection to any of my Russian family or culture. I was hoping that maybe connecting with you might provide some thread – however tenuous – to a family tree I have never really known much about and some connection to the sister my mother obviously loved immensely.

I have attached a photo of our mothers together from just before mine moved to Canada to hopefully confirm that I am not making this all up. Although I understand that if there is a chance you didn’t know my mother or I existed, this may really come out of nowhere. So I leave the next steps – if any – in your hands.

I would love more than anything to connect with you, introduce myself properly and get to know you if you feel you’d like the same.

I am available at this email address or by phone/text at my phone number below if you would like to reach out. I hope you will.

If I don’t hear from you, I will understand and I won’t push or reach out again. I just wanted to try.

I hope you and your family are, and continue to be, well.

Sincerely, 

Daria Novikova
587-555-8133

1 attachment
<Mom & Irina 1980.jpg>
Description: Photo of two young women standing side by side on the front stoop of a brick row house. The taller of the two has dark wavy hair cropped short and dark eyes. She is wearing a white button up shirt tucked into high waisted tapered jeans. One hand is rested on her hip, her other arm draped over the other woman’s shoulder. The other woman is shorter by a couple of inches and has long golden blonde hair in loose curls pulled to one side, cascading down the front of one shoulder. She is wearing a calf-length yale blue sundress adorned with small white flowers. Both women are barefoot, looking away from the camera towards each other and smiling as if caught mid-laugh.

From: Ilya Rozanov <[email protected]>
Date: June 22, 2025 10:17 AM
To: Daria Novikova <[email protected]>
Subject: re: Introduction

Fuck off scammer.