Page 51 of Mine

“It’s not your room.” She takes a step back.

“Correct. It’s the room I’m being held prisoner in. Cut the bullshit, Prishna. Why are you messing with me?”

“I’m not.”

“You didn’t leave this creepy doll on my pillow?”

“No.”

“Then who did?”

She takes another step back. Is she scared? Am I sensing fear in her?

I step forward. “Who did this?”

She looks down the hallway, toward Astor’s office.

“Astor?” I scoff. “Did Astor do this? Why would he?”

“I didn’t say that. But Astor controls everything in the house. If you weren’t so blind, you’d see that. I need to go.”

“No.” I advance, desperate for more information. “They had a child, didn’t they? Astor and his wife, Valerie?”

Prishna grunts and turns away.

“And she’s dead, right? Their daughter is dead, right? How? How did it happen?”

Did Valerie wreck the baby’s room? Driven mad by the grief of losing a child?

Prishna spins around, her gaze turning to ice. “Yes. She’s dead, just like her mother. This family is cursed, Miss Hart. The less you know, the better.”

Family.

I grab her arm. “Talk to me, dammit. What happened to their little girl?”

“That’s none of your business,” she snaps, yanking her arm away.

“Why do you hate me so much?”

“Because you’re ignorant,” she spits out over her shoulder as she stomps away.

I follow, though my head is telling me to let it go. “Of all the things I’ve been called in my life, ignorant is not one of them, trust me.”

“You think you can make him love you.” She turns around again, her face flushed. “Hear me, stupid woman. He loves her. Only her. When Astor finally gets sick of toying with you, you will be forgotten the instant you leave his sight. He does not care about you, not in the way that you wish he would, and he will never care about anyone like he did his wife.”

“No one would care if you left ...” Astor’s words echo in my head.

“You are nothing, Miss Hart,” Prishna growls. “Nothing to him.”

With that final jab, she storms out of the room.

My heart pounds as I watch her walk away.

I feel like a fool, I feel uneasy, I feel a little scared, I feel like I want to run.

No ... I feel like I want to cry.

The moment I get back to my room, Cillian appears in the doorway, all brooding and intimidating like his boss.

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