Page 60 of Cruel Bet

He looks uncertain, as though he’s going to argue so I barrel on. “I’ll be perfectly safe with you, Endo, and Dimitri there against one unarmed woman.”

“Fine. But stay behind me,” he concedes.

My heart is hammering in my chest as we head down the corridor, I quickly peek in on Mads, relieved to see that she’s safe and sleeping soundly. As we go downstairs, I can hear voices.

“Just calm down, Miss,” Dimitri soothes.

“My name is Adelina, why won’t you believe me? Where is my sister?” a distressed woman’s voice responds.

It’s a voice I’d recognize anywhere, a voice I’ve longed to hear for so many years, that I never thought I’d hear again.

“Adelina!” I cry, filled with joy. I start to run toward the living room, but Nikolai holds me back.

“Arianna?” I hear her call out in response.

“I said, stay behind me,” he growls.

“But it’s her Nikolai, I recognize her voice!”

“She could have had voice training, we still don’t know if it’s her. Not until you’ve seen her face. You need to stay calm and rational, make sure that she isn’t a lookalike, but the real deal.”

“She is, I know it Nikolai, it’s her,” I reply, utterly convinced.

Nikolai takes my hand so I can’t run away, but says nothing, allowing me to drag him toward the living room.

When we enter, a woman is sitting on a chair with Endo and Dimitri standing guard next to her. Her head is down, obscured by her long dark hair. As we enter the room, she looks up and I see her face.

It’s her. My sister Adelina. Back from the dead.

“Adelina, it’s really you!” I cry, tears of joy springing forth.

Nikolai lets go of my hand, allowing me to rush to her. Endo and Dimitri wordlessly step aside to let Adelina get up and go toward me.

“Arianna! I never thought I’d see you again!” she sobs, enveloping me in an embrace.

We hug for a long time, not saying a word, just enjoying the feeling of holding each other again. Eventually, we pull apart and I get a proper look at her. She’s thinner and older than I remember, her eyes haunted. Her hair is lank and disheveled, in need of a wash, and there’s a fading yellow bruise under one eye. Her skinny arms are similarly scarred and bruised. My heart breaks wondering what she must have endured all these past years.

“How is this possible? How are you here?” I ask in awe, cradling her face in my hands and studying her, as though she could disappear into thin air at any moment.

“I escaped, I finally escaped that monster!” she says, her voice a mix of terror and relief.

“Di Stefano? You’ve been with him the whole time?” I ask, guiding her to the couch and sitting down next to her, holding her hands in mine.

Nikolai, Dimitri, and Endo all sit down too, watching the reunion silently. They’re no doubt feeling both awkward to be part of such an intimate moment but reluctant to leave due to curiosity and their naturally suspicious natures.

“Of course, where else would I have been?” she asks, confused.

“I thought you were dead. Father told me you died. Adelina, we buried you more than nine years ago…”

Adelina shakes her head, confused. “Father told you that? He knew I was alive. How could he? Why would he?”

“To keep us apart. To punish me. To control me. To control both of us,” I spit.

At this moment, I hate my father with a venom I didn’t know was possible. If I saw him now, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.

“I always wondered why you never came… sometimes I thought that you were dead. Then I heard you’d married that awful Lucchese and I knew I had to escape, to come rescue you,” Adelina says, her voice small and so sad my heart breaks.

“If I’d known, I would have come. I’m so sorry, I should never have believed him. Everything he says is a lie. I didn’t marry Lucchese, Nikolai helped me escape and Father made Maria pretend to be me.”

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