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“Doesn’t that annoy you?” he asked me.
“No,” I replied, lifting my legs up and under me.
“Why?”
“Because there is no spider in that web; she’s a fly that’s stuck, too,” I stated, opening the letter.
ETHAN
I watched her sit with her head held high in her throne-like chair, reading the letter. Since I knew my mother was alive, I was sure the reason the letters she had left for me always felt so relevant was that she was most likely close by, watching and writing them when she thought I needed them. My mother could watch over me all the time, but that didn’t mean she could predict what I was going to do. I knew she’d written this letter before I’d even thought of using Ivy because I’d seen this letter with my grandmother in the past. Knowing my mother, she at least wanted to get that one done with. The letter itself was short and simple. No words were wasted, and if she asked for something, there was a reason.
“I need a lighter,” she said, looking around her desk.
Getting up, I moved to her, and lifted one of the fountain pens from my suit jacket, twisting the top to show her the lighter. “So fancy. All my pens do is change colors,” she mocked me.
“I’ll order you some,” I replied, leaning against the desk.
“Brilliant, have them engraved with my name, too,” she ordered, and that was the difference.
It was what attracted me to her in Bogotá—she spoke to me as if I were her equal, sometimes actually lower. Her innocent act, that was reserved for people she didn’t think were on her level. Basically, she spoke down to them, and they didn’t even realize it. She even spoke to Giovanna in a cold voice. Those she did not respect, she was very polite to.
I watched as she put the paper in the silver tray she’d gotten from the counter and set it on fire like my mother had asked…like Ivy had failed to do.
“Your mother should have been a spy,” she said and lifted the paper. With the old ink gone, a new letter formed in its place. “I’m guessing since she, who shall not be named, did not burn this, you haven’t read it, either?”
“It’s not addressed to me.”
She sat back in the chair, and because she was also a drama queen, she coughed, clearing her throat. “Your mother says… Good, you listened. I’m glad to know my son hasn’t chosen an idiot.” She paused, frowning as she met my eyes. “For a second, I almost forgot how condescending she could be.”
“Again, don’t take it personally.”
“Again, I don’t. Now, where was I?” She went back to reading. “My wedding gift to you is this information. If your name is not Calliope Orsini…”
She paused with a frown on her lips, and her gray eyes shot to me, but I didn’t say a word and just stared back at her. She went on, “If your name is not Calliope Orsini, then know, she is going to come after you. I don’t know when, and I don’t know how. But if she wasn’t afraid of me at seven, she sure as hell won’t be afraid of you now. First test as the next Mrs. Callahan: can you defend your place?” She giggled to herself. “Ivy should have burned the letter; it wouldn’t have saved her, but at least she would have known why.”
She read on.
“And if this is you, Calliope, know that the crown you so desperately wanted, the power you so desperately craved, is now yours; however, it is only yours because of my son. You forget that, and you will find out in the worst ways imaginable, how ruthless, unforgiving, and cruel this world can be. This isn’t a fairytale. This is war, and it never ends. Sincerely, Melody... P.S. The code is 49-83-21-93-10.”
So that was the code for her personal safe. I’d never bothered to break into it.
Calliope looked up at me, tossing the burnt paper onto the gold tray. “How much you want to bet whatever door or safe this code unlocks has a real crown she put in just to fuck with me?”
“I wouldn’t put it past her.”
She tossed the letter onto the table and leaned back in her chair. “So?”
“So, what?”
“Is the letter all you wanted to show me?”
“Is the letter not important?”
She tilted her head to the side. “It is. And it also isn’t. I can’t read your mind,
Ethan, but I get close to it. Something is off.”
“Why do you say that?”
