Page 62 of Mistress A-0002

I snapped again, breaking my hold so that he could realize who was really in control. Crushing pressure gripped my wrist and deep pants left his mouth. The hateful daze as he began coming out of my spell had me smiling. But it didn’t last.

“Threats are for the weak.” He lunged forward, twisting my arm down and turning to slam me into the wall of the glass elevator so hard, the air got trapped in my lungs. Ethan shuffled to the side as I fought to catch my breath. “You try that on me again, you better be ready to die. Maybe you’ll be successful, and we’ll die together.”

“Promises,” I forced out, coughing. “Maybe we will.”

He let go, the rage evident as he stared me down.

“You may be mad at the world right now, but you brought this on yourself. You did this, Melissa. With me. With Jett. With Braddock and Ally.With Keith. You did this. Everything that is happening is your own fault.”

The elevator doors opened and a Mistress I’d never seen before was next to a guard and Nineteen, the High Leader. They were quiet, but the men were waiting and watching. They were there to protect their Main Master. That they were so quick to act only built the inferno inside even more.

“I’ll be watching you, Elec. You think you’ve won by exposing what a monster I am, but this game you’re playing won’t end well. Mark my words. The ending is the only thing that matters.It’s the only thing people will remember. None of this,” I said, gesturing and smiling. This is nothing but a page in a book that I’m the author to. That’s what you’re forgetting. This is my story. How many chapters you appear in is entirely up to me.” I jerked my wrist free, glancing over to Ethan. “Congratulations on your impending marriage, by the way. Pearl Mallory is…quite the catch. No water pun intended.” I slid my gaze to Elec. “You both could have been related in a sense. Pearl was Vivia’s cousin, right? Very interesting how that all played out. One could even speculate that their family is cursed. I mean, Vivia’s entirelinefell after you killed her. Her parents just…died. So many unfortunateaccidents. Best be careful the bad luck doesn’t rub off on either of you.”

Main Master

Bad luck? More like bad intentions. But Melissa had no idea how bad this was really becoming. She had somehow manifested bubbles of the truth to surface with her threat, and with that came questions I couldn’t let go. Questions that offered clues to my own murky past. And none of it was looking good for Melissa’s innocence. Had I thought delivering Pearl’s evil family to Ethan as a wedding present was a good idea? For Melissa, it was starting to spell impending doom.

The ‘curse’ she mentioned was far from bad luck. Maybe if she’d known I had Pearl’s father, stepmother, and stepsister enroute to the Gardens, she would have kept her mouth shut, but she dug her own grave bringing up Pearl’s family, and she didn’t even know it. During Ethan’s torture, Pearl’s father, Quincy, admitted to killing her mother. Why? Because she was supposedly having an affair withmyfather. Truth, a lie? Only one thing mattered: murder. But his confession hadn’t ended there, and it only dug up more secrecy than answers. That led me right to Pearl’s hospital bed, days after her facial reconstruction. Clearing her mind of programming was the easy part. Hearing her relive her past wasn’t. It taunted me. Burned the cold edges from my numb heart.

“You had a cousin.”

The words were not a question but a demand. Tears slid down her bandaged face, but she didn’t speak.

“Your cousin, Pearl.”

“Vivia.”

“Yes. Tell me what you remember of her death.”

“I feel like we’ve talked about her before?”

We had. A couple of times, not that she remembered those parts.

“Never like this. Never with you so open. We had no reason to. Not until…”I paused. “Your father just confessed to your mother’s murder. I didn’t know that. No one did. If he killed her because of my father. Of their supposed affair. If he... Vivia. What do you remember?”

Hope. That’s what I was praying for. Another truth besides the one where I killed the woman I loved.

Pearl shook in fear. “I was young. My mother was still alive. Aunt Carmela was…screaming.”

“You’ve told me that. Can you remember what she was saying?”

Time passed as Ethan’s chosen blinked through memories.

“My baby,”Pearl whispered. “I could barely understand her. She was going between languages. I don’t even know which one it was.”

“Think. Harder. Close your eyes. See yourself standing where you were that day.”

Time. It stretched as she moved into her memories.

“I’m in my father’s study. He’s…standing from his desk. The screams. She’s…calling out to my mother. She’s screaming. My baby. Claudia, my baby. She’s not stopping.”

“What do you see now? Push your mind further. When does she stop?”

A long pause.

“My father. He’s rushing from the room. The door is open. I’m…walking to it. Standing in the doorway as he’s running through the hall.”

“Stop right there.”

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