Page 103 of Heart of a Villain

“Definitely me. I have a wiser aura.”

Ayesha smacked her again.

“See there?” Sayeda said, pointing to her shoulder. “Nine times out of nine, the younger sibling is the more violent one.”

“What’s your source?”

“Life. I’m very knowledgeable about most things.”

“You sound like Adrían.”

She rolled into a seated position.

At the same time, she and Ayesha sat with their legs crossed on the sofa, facing the doors. Back at her place in Brazil, due to her generous salary, she’d had a nice view. The Chamas mansion had a nice view even though she’d moved from a luxury flat to “servants’ quarters.” However, it had been a long time since she’d had the opportunity to enjoy sitting, staring, and relaxing.

“How would we start?” Sayeda asked. “Me getting help. And, if it’s too much for you, I can find a therapist who isn’t as close to this as you are.”

“I want to do this,” Ayesha reassured her. “Think of it as step one on my path to becoming your real sister.”

“Uh, how quickly we forget my first night in Sweden. You’ve been my ‘real’ sister for a while. The twin thing is like finding a gold nugget with a ruby hidden inside.”

“Do you think a lot of babies got separated and swapped in the eighties and nineties?”

“If I didn’t before, I do now.”

A moment of silence passed between them, and she knew it was Ayesha giving her a chance to ease into this next part of their conversation. She felt guilty, keeping Ayesha up, knowing her sister didn’t get much sleep these days with a baby, but she needed her. Each time the realization hit her how much, she felt selfish. But it was as if, from this point on, she couldn’t do without Ayesha, Adrían, and the rest of the family in her life, ever again. If this was a cult, she wanted to be indoctrinated. If this was a cartel, she would bleed to remain part of it.

“It’s not,” Ayesha suddenly said.

She looked over. “It’s not what?”

“I get the sense that you’re comparing our life at the ‘Alpha Compound’ to your life inside Chamas. It’s not the same.”

She picked up a pillow and tossed it, lightly smacking the side of Ayesha’s arm. “Stop doing that! Get out of my head.”

“And into your car?”

“What’s what, Billy Ocean? That’s such a Joel answer.”

Ayesha, laughing, cozied up further in the chair. “I know. I have a crush. More than once, I’ve imagined us meeting younger. We’re four years apart, so I always envision me as a college freshman, and he’s on the extended-year plan.”

Sayeda bubbled with a laugh.

“I go to one of our sporting events but leave to find the bathroom.”

“Then you get lost,” Sayeda supplied. “And, as you’re looking around, trying to find your way back, you run into him. I’m talking smack dab, face first.”

“And he’s wet—not only from sweat but he just got done dousing himself with a bottle of water. I look up, and he hits me with those eyes, and he’s like… ‘Hey.’ And I just about die right there.”

“Squealing on the inside.”

“Squea-ling.”

“But you’re in two different worlds at that time,” Sayeda continued. “You exchange a few words, you completely unaware that you left an impression on him at that very moment. Then, you graduate and move to New York for your big city job.”

“My law firm is going up against his small business in some corporate case. Although I’m new, I’m not the same person I used to be. I’ve been scorned, so I’m ready to take this innocent small business down, but in walks the owner, and it’s my college crush.”

Again, they both went silent.

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