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Zero. None. Not a single one.

“Great, then let’s go back to my place.”

Her defeated sigh tells me that’s not happening.

I shift instead, leaning back against the headboard and pat the narrow space beside me, fortunately she doesn’t argue this time and follows.Her head finding her favourite spot on my chest as she lies on top of me which makes me chuckle and she smacks my chest lightly.

“Can I fuck you?” I ask. “Shut up, my sister is here.”

“Pretty please?” I pout even though she doesn’t see it. “Don’t push your luck, Sergei.”

“Maybe you wanna suck my dick? Or maybe your greedy cunt does?”

“Sergei.” She gasps, mortified upon hearing my crude words.

“Worth a try.” I shrug and wrap my arms around her.

We lie there for a while in comfortable silence, her breaths evening out almost losing all battles against sleep, her mouth open, eyes closed, hair in a loose bun.

I remove the pencil holding her thick mane together, and run my fingers through the silky strands, gently massaging her hair that usually lulls her to sleep.

“Did you know; when a whale dies, its body sinks to the ocean floor. They call it a whale fall. Entire ecosystems live off it for decades.” I mumble in a low voice and she hums lightly.

“Tell me more.” Her voice full of sleep, barely hanging onto reality.

My gaze settles on her. “Like the world accounted for it, how well-thought-out things are.” I chuckle at that.

“How?” She groggily speaks again.

“Like the universe made you, just so I could live.” Just how she gave me hope when I had nothing.

I listen to her heartbeat, the calm surrounding us for another hour and get up to drink some water.

Lifting her off me gently and lying her down on the bed, she turns into a tiny ball as I cover her with a blanket and leave the room.

The light in the next room is on, and I hear muffled voices when I get past it. My steps halt when I hear Elara’s name.

“I’m trying.” The feminine voice is slightly wavering. I glance through the door slightly left ajar. “S-she has a boyfriend now.”

Amara’s breath catches in her lungs when she sees my reflection in the mirror and I don’t bother hiding anymore.

She cuts the call, hiding the phone in her pocket as I march towards her.

“Did you just say ‘Elara’?” My voice is so calm, it borders on sinister.

Her eyes widens and she’s already shaking her head. “No!”

“One more try. Who were you talking to?” My hand shoots forward and I grab her by the throat, lifting her body off the ground effortlessly. “I’ll know if you lie.”

She’s thrashing around, her hands smacking mine, attempting to loosen my grip and failing.

My other hand slips into her pocket and I snatch the phone away before my fingers close around her throat again. All the colour drains from her face, leaving her pallid beneath my grip.

“Who was it?” My voice comes out disturbingly steady, a brutal contrast to the storm raging inside me.

“H-her ex-boyfriend.” She gasps and my grip loosens as shock courses through my body.

She falls on the carpet with a muffled thud, panting and choking and smacking her chest to breathe as I click a picture of the numbers she recently contacted.