Page 7 of Final Installment
“I’m sorry about Skender not making it.”
She rolled her eyes.“Yeah.Sure, you are.”Then, with a narrowed gaze, she asked, “What the hell are you wearing?”
“It’s a kaftan.Cheyenne and I found them while we were on vacation in Thailand.”
“Pink ismycolor,” she muttered.“You better not be wearing it tonight.”
“I’m not.I’m wearing black.”
“Perfect color to celebrate the death of my future.Not that you care.I’m over here, getting ready to sacrifice my whole life for our family, and you’re traveling around the world on stepdaddy’s dime.Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo.”
“It’s not his dime, and it’s work,” I insisted.I didn’t point out that she always lived off of our stepfather’s money.He’d paid for her private school, her college, two different vehicles, provided her a healthy allowance and anything else she requested.
“Oh, that’s right.Organizing deliveries.”She snorted derisively.“I can’t believe they made you a junior VP for that.”
“It’s a little more complicated than scheduling deliveries,” I argued, hating the way she always had to make me feel small.For one, it was delivery of contracted electrical power, not cargo.
“It’s logistics, Elona.FedEx mastered that thirty years ago.You’re not doing anything groundbreaking.It’s just galling that I have to work five times as hard as you to earn my bread.”
“So, what?You’re jealous of me because of my salary?”I shouldn’t have taken her bait.I should have let her pick a fight with someone else, but I obviously hadn’t learned my lesson yet.
She scoffed meanly.“Me?Jealous of you?Fucking please, Elona.I might be on the verge of marryingliterallya murderer who killed our father, but I’ll take a lifetime of being chained to that monster over a single day of being trapped inthatbody.”
She may as well have slapped me.If she had, at least then I would have a reason to hit her back.
My therapist’s voice filtered through my mind.It urged me to stay calm, to disengage and gray rock if necessary.There was nothing I could say that would ever get through Dafina or my mother’s need to always be the victim.It was stupid of me to ever think they would change.
A tense silence settled between us.Dafina’s face had turned an embarrassed shade of red, and I knew that she regretted what she had said.She wouldn’t apologize, but at least she was capable of feeling wrong.
She walked to her vanity and sat down, opened a drawer and started rifling through her cosmetics.“Well—aren’t you going to ask me?”
“Ask you what?”
“About the wedding!Abouthim?”
“Do you want me to ask?Because it seems like you really don’t want to talk about anything to do with Luka, the rest of the Beciraj family or your move to Albania.”
“Oh, I’m not moving to Albania,” she cut in with a bitter laugh.“I’m staying right here.After how hard I worked to get my promotion in the front office?Two years an unpaid intern.Two years as an underpaid assistant to the biggest asshole in all of Houston while also juggling my course load at school.Two years fighting and clawing to get noticed on the events planning team while also trying to finish my MBA?Nope.I’m not going anywhere!”
I couldn’t argue with her.She was right to want to stay here, to remain in the job she had worked so hard to get.“Is he moving to Houston?”
“No.”
“So...it’s going to be a long-distance marriage?”I tried to make sense of her plans.“He agreed to that?”
“He didn’t agree to anything.He doesn’t know yet.As soon as we get married and the wedding night is over, I’m getting on a plane and flying right back to Houston.”
My stomach lurched with anxiety.“Dafina, I don’t think it’s that simple.Luka will expect you to live with him, to...you know...share his bed and have kids.”
“He will get one taste of this.”She gestured to her body.“That’s it.”
Scared for my sister and her safety, I insisted, “Dafina, these people—Luka and his family—they aren’t used to being refused anything.”
“Well, we all have to learn to be disappointed once in a while.”She picked out a lip gloss.“If he doesn’t like it, he’s free to divorce me.”
I doubted it would be that simple.“And if he won’t?”
She applied her lip gloss and checked her reflection.“Maybe he’ll have an accident.”
