Page 102 of Teach Me How To Fly

“I need you to kill Lukyan Makenova. In exchange, I’ll give you all the information you need to discover who your real parents are.”

“My parents are dead. Are you fucked in your head? Tell me where Annalise is or you’ll end up with your brains on the wall just as your son did!”

Immediately I moved to grab him by his neck and push him to the wall behind him. He smiled at me, then took something out of his pocket and raised his hand to my face.

“One more movement and she’s dead,” he said between his gritted teeth.

I looked at the phone in his hand and I saw her sitting on a bed.

She was crying. She had a knife on her neck, ready to slit it in any second. And the man who held the knife had the most mischevious smile on his fucking face.

My gaze started bouncing from place to place, feeling my heart beating faster than ever in my chest. I was going to kill them all.

But before that, I had to play by their rules to save Annalise.

“Why would I believe you?”

“Let me free and I’ll show you.”

I could feel the confidence he had as he spoke and after I let him out of my grip, he took in a deep breath and stepped aside.

He opened the drawer and took out a large hardcover file. I furrowed my brow, looking at it and the moment he opened it, I stepped closer to him.

My fists clenched involuntarily, ready to punch him at any moment.

Calm down, Maksen. She needs you to be calm so you can save her. Your anger won’t do any good now.

“I’ve created the base to an entire organization to save trafficked children. All the girls I’ve ever bought were helped to create a false identity here and were led to the best jobs in the country,” he explained and my jaw fell somewhere on the ground.

“Why should I believe you? What you’re saying to me is pure craziness.”

“You have people to investigate things for you. Tell them about this and you’ll have your answers.”

I couldn’t believe what he was telling me. I’ve always thought about him as being the villain of the story, and now he turned out to be the man who tried to save those girls — just as I was trying to do.

It couldn’t be real.

He was Ender fucking McKnight, the biggest enemy of Lukyan.

What if he was his biggest enemy because he was destroying Lukyan’s plans with his organization?

No. I couldn’t fall for his words.

“He got blinded by the money he made, and he forgot that he was trafficking souls, not just flesh and bones,” he explained, turning page after page.

The pictures of the girls were sticking to my mind as I was looking at them and I could even remember some of them. That’s when Lysandre came back to my mind. I saved her, just as I saved many other girls and God knows how much I tried to hide them from Lukyan.

Did Ender do the same?

Don’t be fucking dumb, Maksen. He’s evil. He’ll say anything he has to say to make you agree with him.

But agreeing with him was the only way I could save Annalise, so I had to believe him for now.

“Are you going to do it?”

His question came out in a more sincere tone of voice than I'd expected.

I looked down at him, then at the file on the desk and a part of me wanted to believe it was true. Then, my rationality came and took control over my mind.

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