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“I can’t wrap my mind around that. How could people do that? And what kind of man is Markus that he bought you?” She shakes her head.
“These people are bad, Amelie. Bad. Including Markus, but he is not evil like some of them. He didn’t hurt me.”
“He didn’t hurt you? He just kept you as his prisoner?”
Before I can respond, the car door opens, and Markus climbs into his seat. His posture is stiff, and like a sixth sense washing over me, I know instantly something is going on.
He starts the engine and pulls out of the parking lot without a word. I decide to wait until we arrive at his penthouse before I press him with questions.
My sister has been through enough and doesn’t need to hear anything more about Timothy, whom I assume the call was about, and what has Markus so tense and worried. I do my best to abate my own worry and bask in the presence of my sister, who I have been without for two months.
“What happens next?” Amelie leans into my side and whispers in my ear.
I lick my dry lips. “I’m not sure yet. We’re going to Markus’s apartment. Then, we can figure it out from there, after a shower and good night’s sleep.”
Amelie’s pink lips press into a thin line. She doesn’t believe me. I can’t imagine what she thinks. How does she feel? She probably thinks she’s being pushed from one cage and into the next, but she’s not. I won’t let that happen. I won’t let her be trapped, not ever again.
“We will leave soon. I’ll take you home. We just have to make sure it’s safe,” I assure her.
She nods, and I look away, only to meet Markus’s gaze in the rearview mirror. Those amber eyes of his are punishing, their depths ice cold. I shiver at the intensity of his stare and look away.
When we arrive at the apartment, Markus still hasn’t said anything, and the tension stretches between us. I show my sister into the guest room and give her a pair of fresh pajamas and a towel.
I leave her to shower and go to track him down. I find him sitting on the edge of the bed. He looks up as I walk into the room. My throat tightens when I notice the anguish in his eyes. Whatever he has to say is going to hurt me.
“Felix called me. He found something else out while looking for your sister and Timothy.”
I’m almost afraid to ask him to continue. “Yes?”
Markus runs a hand through his dark hair. “I don’t even know how to say this because it’s so hard for me to believe. I can’t imagine what you’re going to think when I tell you.”
That sends my heart into my stomach, and I grip the edge of the doorframe to keep myself from sagging to the floor. “What is it?”
He swipes his tongue out over his bottom lip, and while the movement itself is sensual; it doesn’t distract me away from the feelings rippling through me like it normally would.
“There is a reason you look so much like Victoria.”
“I don’t understand…” How could I possibly be connected to Victoria?
“Fallon, you’re adopted. Apparently, your mom… your adoptive mother had lost a baby. It was stillborn. Through your father’s connections, he was able to adopt you quickly, making everyone think you were the baby she had carried.”
My mouth pops open, but no words come out. I just stare at him blankly. Everything is a lie. Every. Single. Thing.
Markus continues, “When Felix looked into Victoria’s mother’s whereabouts, he found out…” He pauses, and his eyes dart away for a moment before coming back to mine. “Just hours after you were born, your mother gave you up for adoption. From what Felix found, it wasn’t willingly. It looks like she had cheated on Timothy. When he found out you weren’t his, he forced her to give you up, threatening to take Victoria away if she didn’t.”
The shit keeps getting deeper and deeper.
“Oh my god, that’s awful.” An impossible decision. “He made her choose between the daughter she already had and the one she just gave birth to?”
“If what you’re saying is correct… that means I have to find her.”
“I’m sorry, Fallon. She is gone. Losing you was too much for her to bear. She left the hospital hours after you were born and committed suicide.”
My hand slips from the door, and my knees give out on me. Like a rag doll, I head toward the floor. I don’t have the strength to stop myself from falling.
Luckily, Markus catches me before I contact the floor. He pulls me into his broad chest and wraps his thick arms around me, holding all my broken pieces together.
I can’t even wrap my head around everything he’s just told me.
