Page 22 of Twisted Promise

He glanced up briefly. “I watched you.”

So creepy but so rich.

“For a year.”

Alright, he was just creepy now. Handsome but disturbing.

“So, what do you do in your free time?” she began.

If he was going to be her boyfriend, she needed to know more about him. The icebreaker was awkward, but it would do.

She kicked the icy spot that made her fall, then rubbed it with the shoe tip as an apology because it indirectly gifted her a rich and handsome boyfriend.

“Maybe swapping houses like trading cards, out-bidding other millionaires for gold-leaf toilet paper, or collecting exotic animals on your private island that you conveniently forgot about?”

Alessio stared for a long time, so long that she became self-conscious and wondered if there was a toothpaste stain on her chin.

He replied with a curt, “Shut up, you idiot.”

It was affectionate, void of his usual terse and cruel undertone.

He added with crippling insistence in every letter, “I keep my properties, it’s normal toilet paper, and I hate animals.”

Before she could mention the pseudo-study about psychopaths and animal hatred, he beat her to it.

“I don’t golf, either.”

* * *

NINETEEN

It surprised her that they lasted a year, and he still had no intention of breaking up with her. She thought he dated her for the experience or to pass the time, but his actions spoke otherwise.

She learned a lot about him. He wasn’t as bad as everyone said he was, just a bit inexperienced when dealing with people, but he was as perfect as a boyfriend could get.

They moved in together before sophomore year, which her parents heavily voted against because they hadn’t met him, but she was determined to leave their suffocating roof.

Though there were no threats of financial cutoffs or no-contact ultimatums, their fights worsened over time, blaming whoever was more at fault.

My fault. Anya used to think constantly.

What went wrong with their love?

When Alessio extended the olive branch and asked her to move in with him, she accepted it like a life vest—not enough to save her, but good for keeping her head above water.

Moments with him temporarily made her forget, and a prideful part of her loved the convenient distraction he was.

Initially, he refused to charge her rent since he owned the house, but she insisted on paying rent for equal rights and protection. He fought to negotiate the lowest market deal for her.

The conversation finished in five minutes, and his stubbornness reminded her of the petulant cat she saw at fifteen.

However, Alessio absolutely needed to learn life skills.

One was separating whites from colors before starting the washer. His red shirt stained her white pants pink, and he didn’t look guilty for a moment because his shirt shrunk.

“We’ll go shopping for clothes on Sunday,” Anya said, with no hope that the rest made it safely in the wash cycle.

“And no online shopping,” she rejected the obvious thought in his mind. “It’s better to feel the quality before buying.”

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