Page 8 of Teach Me How To Fly

He snorted, a wide grin showing on his face now. “You betrayed me since you started to have feelings for Annalise, Maksen. You didn’t think I was blind all this time, did you?”

“I don’t feel anything for her,” I answered with a slow tone of voice. “We’re best friends and that’s all. We grew together and we care for each other.”

He looked at me attentively and I knew he didn’t believe me by the way his eyes narrowed.

“I wanted to wait for this moment, but this seems like the right time to do it,” he spoke, pulling in a deep breath.

I noticed a gleam in his eyes and by the way his lips curved into a mischievous grin, I knew he had something in his mind. I knew him better than anyone.

“Prove it to me that you don’t feel anything for Annalise.” He slightly raised up from his seat to emphasize each word he spoke.

“Tell me how and I’ll gladly do it.”

The motherfucker had the audacity to make me prove something to him for the first time in my life. I was a man of honor and he disappointed me that he didn’t believe me. Well, he shouldn’t have believed me though because I lied. My heart has beaten for Annalise ever since I could remember.

“You’re going to marry Katya in six months when she’ll turn eighteen years old.”

I tried to keep a neutral expression on my face, but the sudden feeling of heaviness that grew in my core made me want to open the door of the helicopter and jump out of it.

“I’m not going to marry her,” I said between gritted teeth as I felt the anger growing even more inside my body.

His eyes squinted and were lit with a twinkle of mischief. “As much as you and I both know, what I say, you follow. That’s the vow you made all those years ago when I decided to get you out of that fire and make you into a man your father would’ve been proud of.” He snorted as he kept his eyes on mine.

“I’m not going to marry her.”

I spat every word as I felt the raging anger hitting on each of my nerves. I felt like a mine ready to explode at any moment, yet I had enough control of myself to keep a straight face as I scrutinized Lukyan.

“You owe me your life, son. Unless, you want me to end it just as easy as how I saved it?”

I had to play his game, just as I always did. Obeying his orders offered him the satisfaction that he had control over me and my life, so I had to make him believe that he still had me around his finger.

It could’ve been so easy to get up from my seat and break his neck, but what would’ve followed was me losing the fight for the life I truly wanted. I wanted to kill him, but I had to do it when he would’ve least expected it.

But until then, I had to calm myself down and pretend to be the same Maksen that wouldn’t ever have questioned his demands.

I wasn’t going to do anything that would upset him, because I knew he had the power to take me away from Annalise. And I would rather live a miserable life if that meant having her close to me.

I had to accept the marriage and think of a way to work it out. It was Katya who we were talking about, so it should’ve been easy to manipulate her.

I had to beat him with his own rules and he wasn’t going to be happy about it.

“I’ll marry her.”

Fuck this.

* From Russian, “Nochnoy Tuman" means "Night Fog" in English.

5

ANNALISE

It’s been over two weeks since I last saw Maksen.

I kept thinking about that day and my stomach twirled with pain, reminding me of how cruel my father was. I knew they were dangerous men, but I expected that hatred to not be directed towards each other.

I wanted to talk with him so badly, my skin itched every time I took a glimpse of the closed gates of my house. I kept sitting on my favorite seat, imagining how happy I would’ve been to see Maksen’s charcoal car entering our garden.

But he wasn’t going to come.

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