She’s fine. She’s on the beach alone.
Annalise
Why aren’t you there with her?
Me
Because I’m here with you.
Annalise
She’s going to tell my father that you didn’t behave well with her. Please go and spend time with her.
Even though shehurt her own feelings by sending me that message, she still did. She cared so much about the others that she forgot she might harm herself because of it. She was veritable by any means.
Me
She’s going to tell your father that she had the best time here. Don’t worry about that.
Annalise
I doubt that.
I stoodup from the bed and put my phone on the bedside, making my way to the terrace. I wanted to do my daily workout even though my body was tired, but I needed to keep my physical appearance.
As soon as I started doing my sit-ups and jumping jacks, I saw Katya turning back from the beach. She sat on the deckchair next to me, starting to look at me intently as if she was trying to ask me something but she couldn’t get the words out.
I rolled my eyes and stopped my exercises, then I gazed at her and gave her a subtle sign to say what she wanted. She gulped and I noticed that she might’ve cried the whole time she was away.
I saw how she instantly curved her lips into a confident smile, only to show me that she wasn’t affected by anything that had happened.
“How did you know about Laura?”
I smirked and ran my fingers through my hair.
“I know everything about anyone.”
“The only way you would’ve found out about her was if you spied on me.”
“I have people who spy on other people for me,” I burst out.
“And why would you have people to spy on me? Am I that important to you?”
Her remark made me burst out again, but this time with great laughter. “You’re nowhere near important to me, but you’re an important pawn that I can use to achieve my goals.”
“So you’re using me to get to my sister. Is that what you want? Because if you want her, I really don’t mind! You can take her and I can live my life as well as I lived it until this shitty marriage came up to destroy it.”
Wait a moment.
So she didn’t want the marriage to happen, which made her on my side in this whole charade. I could use that to benefit both of us. We could do as Lukyan wants until I find the perfect way to escape this.
Perhaps my family’s heritage involved an empire engaged in human trafficking and killing our enemies, but I wasn’t proud at all that I had to do all of those things.
I wanted to have the wealth I had, but not by doing what I had to do. Nevertheless, I loved to kill the people who made others suffer, especially those like Lukyan who took advantage of innocent girls.
“So you weren’t the one who demanded this marriage to be fulfilled?” I asked carefully.
She frowned and shook her head disapprovingly.