Page 73 of Teach Me How To Fly

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MAKSEN

Annalise left with her father in his office, and I remained behind with Katya and Olivia. I was already prepared for any extreme situation that might come, and I wasn’t going to step backwards from protecting Annalise at any cost.

“Let’s go outside. I need to talk to you,” Katya whispered and I saw the despair in her eyes.

Olivia looked at both of us, but kept silent. Her face looked as if millions of thoughts were hidden behind it, and the tears that were almost rolling down her cheeks made me realize that she had been more than worried for us. After all, she raised Annalise.

“Do you need anything to drink?”

“Not now, Olivia. Thank you. Just come to us if you hear screams coming from upstairs,” Katya said and turned on her heels.

I followed her with slow steps, and the moment she opened the window glass door, we stepped outside and I felt shivers down my spine once the icy wind hit me. She turned to me and she was already crying.

“We’ll be marrying each other in four months, Maksen. We have to do something. My father is going out of his mind, talking about someone named Ender McKnight and how he’s going to destroy him. I-I tried to talk to him about taking Annalise with me, but he wasn’t happy to hear it and –”

She was talking so fast that I noticed she wasn’t even breathing, so I put my hands on each side of her shoulders and made her stop talking for a few moments. But as soon as I got closer to her and my fingers involuntarily pulled her sweater off her shoulders, my gaze fell on her skin and I saw bruises.

Many violent black and blue bruises were covering her skin and she instantly pulled herself away from my touch.

The next moment, all I knew was how fast I moved my gaze to her face and saw how much foundation cream was covering her skin. It was something I was used to when it came to Katya, but this time, it was too much even for her.

I grabbed her by her jaw and turned her gently to one side, and the moment her skin stretched, I noticed a darker color coming from under the layer of foundation.

“Did he beat you?”

She looked at me with fear in her eyes and was almost on the verge of bursting out crying again.

“Fucking hell!” I screamed, feeling the anger flowing in my veins as I couldn’t take my eyes off her bruises.

She instantly covered my mouth with her tiny hands, and her cold fingers made me look down at her. She was so scared. She wasn’t the Katya I knew anymore, and this happened in just three days since we left with no trace.

“We have to play his game until we create ours,” she mumbled, her voice trembling with pain.

“I’m sick of his games,” I growled, trying so hard not to raise my voice more than I already had.

Wait. She said something about Ender.

“You said something about Ender McKnight. What exactly did your father tell you about him?”

She looked at me attentively, then she wrapped her arms around her body and started chewing her lower lip.

“He said that he’ll get revenge on him at any cost. He didn’t tell me this, but I heard him talking when he was drunk.”

Revenge on Ender for what? I helped him win all the auctions and have all the beautiful girls he wanted to resell to filthy old billionaires. Why did he want to take revenge on Ender?

“Do you know that man?”

“Yes, I do,” I quickly answered, looking at her while I was thinking about everything that was going on.

“And why would my father want revenge?”

I kept the silence for a few more moments, and then I started walking in circles as I was also trying not to freeze.

I knew Lukyan hated Ender with all of his soul, but I also knew that they were good friends before something that’s unknown to me happened. I had to discover what that was, so I could dig deeper and find Lukyan’s plans.

He wasn’t going to tell me what he had in mind anymore considering I disobeyed him once again, but he was going to use me to do his dirty work because he knew better than anyone how good I was at taking care of bad people. Only that he was the bad person in this situation, and I was sure of that.

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