Page 66 of Teach Me How To Fly

Waiting for me, with his hands locked with handcuffs and his body tied to the chair.

“Are you okay?” Maksen quickly asked as he put his hands around me.

“Yes,” I mumbled, and I knew damn well that he knew I wasn’t okay at all.

Having him somewhere so close to me wasn’t making me feel exactly how I expected it to. It was more than I could ever imagine, but I had to embrace every feeling that was longing in me now and do what I wanted to do.

“Are you ready to go in there?”

“Yes. I am. Can anyone hear what I’ll be saying to him?”

The nurse turned to me and tilted her head in disappointment.

“No one can do that, but you and him. If he tries to do something or if you want to end the visit earlier, you’ll raise your right hand and someone will come to take you out. Don’t worry, you’ll be monitored all the time, there’s nothing he could do to you.”

I smiled at her and turned to Maksen, whose face was already drowned in feelings of anguish, anger, and worry. As I put my hands on his face, I offered him a comforting smile that only made him furrow his brows more.

“I’m not okay with this, Anna.”

“I know, but little me needs to do this. You’ll watch it the entire time, so it's just as if you’re there with me.”

He pinned me with his eyes, and the next moment, the only thing I could feel was his lips pressed on mine in a slow, steady kiss. I felt it as if he was trying to convince me not to go in there, but he knew very well that I wasn’t going to do that.

Instead, I took a deep breath in and turned to the nurse who was already waiting for me. She took out some keys from her pocket, then moved her feet to the metallic door and opened it, giving me enough space to walk into the room.

I glanced at Maksen for the last time before I entered the room, and I saw how he pulled a sharp knife out of his pocket. I gulped because I wasn’t sure how he managed to bring a lethal weapon in this building, but considering the way those men from the entrance looked at him once they saw his tattoo, I guessed it wasn’t so hard to believe.

Even though I noticed a flinch of fear creeping into his eyes, I felt safe. I knew he would’ve done anything to protect me, no matter what stood in his way. But it was the first time in my life when I saw fear on his face, and I didn’t like the feeling of it.

My legs were trembling and my heart seemed to stop beating as soon as I stepped over the threshold. Once the nurse closed the door behind me, I knew there was nothing else I could do but to look at the man in front of me and face him.

The memories of my childhood flew over me, and Sylvian’s face became more and more connected to everything I remembered. He was older now, with his gray hair carefully put into place, his black and white beard growing on his cheeks, and his eyes darker than I remembered them.

“Hello, Sylvian,” I said as I got closer to him.

With every step I took, I felt my knees turning into marmalade, ready to let me fall on the ground at each moment. But as soon as I reached the chair on the other side of the table that was separating me and Sylvian, I sat on it and felt much better that I didn’t have to support my body anymore.

“I had several dreams of seeing you again, Annalisa.”

Annalisa.

Fuck. No.

Every hair on my body reacted when I heard what he called me. He always used to call me Annalisa, and he was the only one who did it.

He deserved to die in hell — no, death was too simple a punishment. He needed to rot somewhere dark, where everything he did to me would be done to him.

“Don’t stay so quiet, my darling. Tell me why you came here. Does your itty-bitty father know you’re here?” he snarled with a gravelly tone of voice that made me quiver as I tried to look him in the eyes. His once powerful voice now was a mere whisper, barely audible even in this empty room we were in.

I was sitting in front of the man who destroyed me, who once held power over a child who did nothing wrong to anyone. But his appearance gave me comfort because I knew he was broken too now.

There was an air of neglect around him considering how long and messy his black beard was. He still had those piercing eyes that scared me when I was little, but now they were sunken and lifeless, framed by dark purple circles.

Yet, he still terrified me.

“No,” I said as I moved a bit on the chair, starting to play with my fingers in my lap out of nervousness. “He doesn’t know, and he doesn’t need to.”

“Oh, I see that you’ve become a strong woman then,” he quickly replied, clearly mocking me, judging by his expression.

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