Page 24 of The Life of Anna-Tenth Anniversary Edition: Act 2

“I saw a video. Devin showed me.”

“A video?” Aaron stared at her. “Oh, God. Anna... was it—were there three girls? And Alex was...”

Anna nodded. “You know about it?”

“Anna, that video... it’s not real. Or, at least—God, Devin showed that to you?”

“It is real. He laughed when they screamed.”

Aaron shook his head. “No. Anna, no. It’s not. Yes, he told me.” He sighed. “Do you remember when we were dating? And that afternoon when that pain started. That excruciating pain?”

“How could I forget?” Especially now that she’d experienced the real thing?

“Hon, Devin drugged him and made him do those horrible things. Then Devin tortured him and that’s when you started hurting. Anna, he was drugged. We talked after you went to sleep and he told me.”

Anna shook her head. “No, even drugged Alex wouldn’t...” But Alex had done bad things another time when he was drugged. When he raped her after a trip. That’s when he told her he was going back to Frankfurt. She stared out the window. Was it possible...

“Alex was the man you loved, Anna. He was exactly the man we all knew him to be.”

The idea that Alex was exactly who she’d thought he was... Her lungs tightened and she swallowed hard, sucking in a long, hot breath. Knowing that the video wasn’t real didn’t ease the pain. If anything, it made it worse. If Alex really was the man she thought he was, then the loss was even greater. Anna angrily brushed her tears away and stared hard out the window. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? He’s dead.”

“He didn’t get killed on purpose.”

She swallowed over the lump in her throat and stared at the passing cars, trying desperately to reignite the flames of anger inside her heart. Anger kept the sadness away. “He promised me he would come home.” Her voice cracked on the last word. “That he would come back to me.” She shook her head.

“You need to give yourself time to grieve. You never had the chance to do so. He loved you more than anything in the world.”

“And a lot of good that did. I wish I’d never met him. I would have been better off if he’d never saved me.”

“That’s not true, and you know it.”

Anna glared at Aaron, anger rushing through her body. “When you have lived my life, then you can tell me what’s true or not.” She stood, pushing back her chair so hard that it fell backward. “Don’t talk to me again.”

She spun on her heel and stormed out of the deli, hurrying back to the studio to hide in the bathroom and weep for the loss of her husband. For Wilhelm and Kurt. For everything good in her life that had been taken away.

There is no hope. There is only Devin.

Chapter 14

The weekend before Petrushka opened, Devin took Anna to the Summer Gathering. She hadn’t been to Washington, D.C. since Alex died, but Devin wanted her there this year since she was “awake.”

“I don’t want any of your attitude while we’re here,” Devin said as they deplaned.

“Yes, Devin.” She meekly followed Devin through the airport. Ian and Tyler had traveled with them, but Devin had left Maggie at home because he didn’t want Anna to be spoiled. She would attend to herself.

They arrived at the hotel a while later and Tyler took her to his room while Devin met with the Elders that had already arrived.

He pushed her into the bedroom. “Take your clothes off.”

Anna immediately obeyed, undressing quickly while Tyler watched with a wicked grin that was so much like his father’s, it made her sick. When she was naked, he turned her around and pushed her onto the bed.

“On your knees.”

She obeyed and braced herself for him to take her ass. Instead, he just looked at her. He pressed into her lower back and she arched her back.

“Much better.” Without warning, he smacked her between her legs.

Anna gasped, but didn’t dare move. He hit her again and again until tears were running down her cheeks.

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