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The room was unfamiliar, and it stank. It smelled like a trash can that hadn’t been emptied in years. It was rather cold too, as if I were in a basement of sorts. I could barely breathe without gagging.
I felt myself lying on a mattress, but that was all it was. No bed, just a mattress that didn’t feel even remotely comfortable. It was almost as if it were a wooden batten, uncomfortable and rough on my back.
I sensed a slight movement from the corner of the room and let out a small cry. I pulled my knees to my chest and hugged them tightly. This was my punishment for being a hideous child.
I flinched as sharp light filled the room. Once I’d blinked the soreness away, I saw that only one corner had light. It was my father, with a small flashlight in his hands, face as stoic as a stone, yet terrifying and monstrous.
I couldn’t stop my body from shaking violently.
“Now, Ekaterina.” Father’s rough voice shook me even more. “I know you’re scared and that your biggest fear is being alone in the dark.”
If he knew, why had he done this to me? If he knew I was scared, why had he confined me in a room with no windows, no sunlight, no people? If he knew how afraid I was of being alone, why had he forced it upon me?
“To be quite honest with you,” he sighed, “I never planned on having more children after Dominik was born. But then your mother found out she was pregnant, with twins no less, it would have been a sin to terminate the pregnancy. However, I never counted on having a daughter.”
I continued to listen with attention, savoring the last human contact I’d have in a while. Although he’d yet to say it, I knew this was my punishment for not being born a boy, for being a disappointment.
“But there’s nothing I can do about that, right?” A dry laugh echoed around the room. “So you need to stop wasting those emotions on useless things, Ekaterina.”
My tears hadn’t stopped falling since he’d begun his little talk.
“I can’t have a daughter, not an emotional one at least, so here’s what will happen.” He approached me slightly, and I crawled back until I hit a wall—there was no way of escaping him.
“Today, you laughed obnoxiously loud for two minutes and cried for another three. That’s five minutes of your life wasted on emotions that will not matter in a few years, Ekaterina.”
A wicked smile took over his face. Bogdan had never been a warm family man, but I’d never seen him look as evil as he appeared in that moment. My blood ran cold, and his next words promised an eternity of suffering, for as long as I lived under his roof.
“For five minutes, you’ll spend five weeks here. Your task every day is to control those emotions of yours. You’re sad? Turn it into indifference. You’re happy? Turn it into indifference. A few weeks in here should be enough to teach you that lesson.”
That was the last time I saw anyone in weeks. That was the last time I saw light in a long time, and that night was the first time I learned how to stop my tears. But instead of those feelings turning into indifference, they grew into an immense desire for revenge.
Someone’s hands were shaking me, harshly. Even half-asleep, my fight-or-flight response was activated, and I managed to kick the person and throw them off myself.
My eyes finally opened as I took a much-needed deep breath. It was as if I hadn’t been breathing—as if my heart had stopped for the duration of the dream.
Only it wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t even a nightmare. It was one of the very first vivid memories I’d developed under my father’s roof—or rather, the tower he’d locked me in. My body was shuddering visibly, and a drop of blood fell down my chin. It’d been years since I’d had a nosebleed from stress, and it had happened whilst I was asleep.
“Why are you still here?” I asked, not a single thought in my mind.
Davorin seemed passive, from what I could tell—his mask didn’t allow me to see much. He didn’t question the blood as I wiped it away, which pleased me.
“You passed out—I couldn’t just leave you like that.”
He seemed unfazed that I’d kicked him not a minute ago. Slowly, he inched back towards me, and it was only then that I noticed he’d clothed me.
“What was the dream about?”
A knot formed in my throat. I averted my eyes, irritated that the memory had resurfaced. Being vulnerable wasn’t part of my game plan, and it hadn’t happened in years. I swore, whilst my eyes were glued to the floor, that it would never happen again for as long as I lived.
“We didn’t finish our conversation.” Before we’d got caught up in our desire, something I shouldn’t have allowed to happen but, for reasons I didn’t understand, had welcomed with open arms. “About Aleksei.”
Davorin sat next to me, his gaze on me. I didn’t want to be tempted again, so I kept staring at the floor. “Does Aleksei know who might be behind the hit and why?”
“Why?” He let out a sardonic laugh. “Your brother is either heavily respected or hated, never loved. Even those who respect him might turn their backs on him if they feel he isn’t fulfilling his role.”
“Then how did he find out about this?”
“After I started doing business again, a man reached out to me—no name—and told me the amount of money I’d receive for this one job would set my future great-grandchildren up for life. It didn’t take me long to connect the request to Emmerson.”
