Page 52 of The Mistake

“It’s business as usual.” Cassie sighed. “I don’t know what else to say. Not a lot has changed. The club goes on. The club pussy is always around. I’m not … Rage … he, er, he always put up with me, you know, because of who I was. After Dad and everything that went down, I guess you could say I’m not everyone’s favorite person.”

This was ashock to me. “You’re the club princess.”

“Iwasthe club princess, Charlotte. Now, I’m just … no one. Rage takes care of me.”

“I had no idea,” I said. “Do you miss Dad?”

“Hell, no, him being dead and seeing you actually happy, that’s everything.” Cassie sighed. “If anything, this has made me realize that I didn’t stand up enough for you.” She lifted her head and I saw tears in her eyes.

“Cassie, don’t cry.”

“I’mtrying not to. I don’t want to cry, and it will totally spoil my makeup.”

“We’re going in a sauna, it’s going to ruin your makeup,” I said.

She chuckled and then allowed the tears to fall. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t cry.”

“You can cry. Everyone can cry.” I wanted to pull her into my arms and hug her. I didn’t know if it was possible for me to tell her it was going to be all right, but I wanted to. Instead, I stayed silent and watched her.

“I’ve been going through all the things back home, and along with that place are the memories, and I’m so sorry, Charlotte. The beatings he gave you. I tried to stop so many of them, but I was a coward.”

“Stop it,” I said. “It’s a goodthing you didn’t try to intervene. He’d have started on you as well.”

“I’m older than you. There had to be something I could have done to protect you.”

“No. You tried to do something,remember?”

This made Cassie sob more. We didn’t do this. Whenever we went shopping in the past or had a girls’ day, we didn’t talk about the giant elephant in the room. We just talked about everything and nothing.

“Dad was too powerful,” I said. “He had too many connections, and there was nothing any of us could do. You tried and we made the most of it. You always tried to give me something.”

“Charlotte, this was the first birthday I was able to get you something without fear, andit wasn’t even something you could own.” She pointed toward my neck. “Look at that. Ivan got you that, and your husband got you that.”

This made me laugh. “Ive had to give me the wedding ring and I think Ivan insisted on the engagement ring. They’re part of the deal they made withRage. As for this.” I pick the necklace up between my two fingers. “Ivan scared Dad, remember? He was the only person who had ever put fear in our dad’s eyes. As for this, I love this. You and me, finally at a spa, and at the end of the day, we don’t have to pretend that I didn’t have a good time. I don’t have to look miserable or sad. I can be happy.”

Tears filled my eyes now and Cassie climbed off the table and moved toward me. I stepped down and with the towels between us, we hugged tightly.

“I am so,so, so happy you are finally getting to live a good life.”

I didn’t know if I should tell Cassie that Iswore my loyalty to Ivan Volkov. Instead, I just held my sister and thanked whoever was watching down on us, and asked them to take care of her.

She’d been as good of a sister as she’d been allowed to be. I knew she had always wanted to stop everything that was going on, but there was no way for her to do so. When Dad was on a warpath, there was no stopping him. I was gladly the target.

“I love you, Charlotte.”

“I love you too.”

We climbed back on themassage tables and stared at each other, laughing.

Hubert entered the room with the two women following him.

“Is everything okay?” he asked.

“It’s fine,” I said.

The ladies came to finish our massages. Cassie wouldn’t let go of my hand throughout. After the massages, we opted to use the sauna, which I didn’t like. Cassie loved it, for me, I hated it. Sweating in a hot room was not my idea of a good time, and it made my nose wrinkle. All the stress the women had worked out of my body was back. After the sauna, we took long showers, and then got changed and headed up to the restaurant.

Cassie ordered some kind of fruit concoction drink, and I asked for their energy shake. It sounded nice. When it came tothe table, it was green, and I stared at it.