Start counting.
His voice.
I shot my gaze to a red-faced Julian, my whole soul in turmoil. This changed everything and at the same time nothing at all.
Because it wastoo late.
The video was titledStepsister broken and dominated by older bro (LEAKED)and had thirty-sevenmillionviews.
“I-I’m sorry, I had no idea you didn’t know, I thoughtyouuploaded it—”
“How could I get a copy of this?” I paused the video and looked up at a flustered Julian. There had to be a way to get my hands on this.
The dirty motel clearly earned money in other ways—leaking sex tapes of unsuspecting visitors.
“Um, maybe get in touch w-with Pornhub?” Julian suggested, his discomfort ballooning with every passing second. “And tell them it’s been uploaded without your knowledge, I don't know.”
Julian shook his head and pocketed his phone, unaware of the storm inside me. Unaware ofwhathe just revealed. This wasn’t just a porn video. This wasn’t just dirty entertainment. It was a plan—one meant to destroy and also liberate.
And it was too late. So very much waytoo late.
Julian rounded his desk and scribbled something on a Post-it note, oblivious to my catatonic state. He passed me the sticky paper, adding his last words, “Let’s never talk about this again, and…here’s how to get in to see Pavlov.”
“Jade! Holy shit!” the man exclaimed, such relief flooding his weathered face. “Why’d it take you so fucking long to come seeme? Oh my God! I’m happy to see you, though.” He shook his finger at me and sat down behind the little plexiglass.
It took me almost a minute to recognize him. Who. Was. That? This man was pale and emaciated, with deep, dark circles under his eyes. Murder screamed in his gaze, and his hair…it was all gray.
“A-Andrei?” I asked, not believing my own eyes and reality. “W-what happened to you? Why do you look like this?”
"Stress, Jade! What do you think?” He spoke with energy as usual. “I’ve been here three fucking months! Your father’s been laying it on hard—you know.” He waved a hand at me. “My wife’s all alone at home with three kids, and one’s a newborn! Who I haven’t seen at all!” He paused to breathe. "My bank accounts have been frozen, and you haven’t shown up! This isn’t a private villa in Santorini!”
Strangely composed, Andrei finished his little monologue and waited for me to say something—to explain why I didn’t come sooner.
To explain how I was going to help him.
To explain…what happened.
Dread washed over me like a tidal wave. He had no idea. He was in the dark, having no clue that his best friend was dead…and didn’t even have a grave.
I swallowed hard, gearing up for the inevitable. “You…you don’t know?”
Andrei blinked at me, his face translucent. “Know what?” He chuckled, even in these abysmal circumstances, but the look on my face translated it all. “What?” he whispered, immediately figuring out that something…something happened. We stared at each other while I picked the right words. “What, Jade? Tell me.”
“Alex is…Alex is dead.”
There was no reaction. Andrei sat there, looking through the plexiglass, calm and collected, until he quickly shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows.
"No, no, no,” he chuckled again, full of disbelief. “There must be some mistake. Olya talked to him. On the phone. You were there too? She told me she talked to him when she came to visit—right after they arrested me.”
He was holding on to a tiny shred of hope, knowing that he was wrong.
“That was the night before he...it happened. Xavier killed him.” I gulped, holding back my tears. “They found us and Xavier k-killed him and took me and today…today was the first day he let me out of the house and back to work. So I came as soon as I c-could,” I stuttered through the explanation.
There was nothing else we could say to each other after that. Andrei’s eyes were empty; he simply sat there like a shell of a human being, unable to talk. I tried to ask questions—about his arrest and details of what he’d been told, but he couldn’t answer. Couldn’t say yes or no.
I stood from the chair and said my goodbye, promising I’d help, but he knew that was a lie. How could I help? What could I truly do? How could I escape the clutches of my prisoner?
Because my prisoner held me in his clutches in adeath grip.
