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Her hair smelled like strawberries and reminded me of a time when things were easier. I pretended to be asleep when she stirred awake and pretended like I hadn’t been crying at all. The next morning, neither of us mentioned it.
We spent the morning having breakfast with Carina’s parents, who inquired politely about our traveling. The conversation was awkward and stilted, but I soon realized I was the only who felt that way. Carina’s parents barely seemed to notice, her dad buried in paperwork and her mom busy chatting on the phone. They wore matching distant expressions that didn’t give off their true feelings. But if they were upset about Amber and me being there, they didn’t mention or show it.
“I have to go to the studio,” Carina told us after breakfast. “Would you like me to tell Madame you’re back?”
I exchanged a nervous look with Amber.
“No,” I shook my head finally. “He could find out… I’m sure he knows about Madame, and I don’t want him finding out we’re back in town.”
Carina nodded with understanding in her kind eyes, and we exchanged warm hugs before she told us to sit tight until she came back. With her parents going off to work, Amber and I were left to our own devices in their incredible apartment.
Amber and I flitted from room to room, and I marveled at my own freedom. After months of being locked away kept only for Thorn’s entertainment, it felt incredible to be able to do anything I wanted to.
I couldn’t read Amber though, despite keeping a close eye on her. Eventually, we settled in front of the TV with bowls of mac and cheese prepared by Carina’s parents’ housekeeper.
“How are you feeling?” I asked Amber carefully, and she shrugged, never moving her eyes off the TV.
“I guess it’s going to take some getting used to,” she admitted.
“I know,” I said softly. “It’s going to be hard to adjust… but this is normal. The way we were treated before definitely wasn’t.”
She didn’t reply, keeping her gaze fixed on the TV as she ate. She raised her feet up on the coffee table, and I cringed. It must’ve been worth a fortune, like the rest of the stuff in that beautiful room.
I picked at my food absent-mindedly while my eyes danced over the room, coming to stop on Amber’s feet again and again. I was about to say something when my eyes focused on something on her ankle, a small black sign under her frilly socks.
“Hey,” I said, setting my plate down. “What’s that?”
“Huh?” she gave me a confused look over her shoulder.
“On your ankle,” I clarified. “What’s that?”
She glanced down and blushed when she saw what I was talking about. Right away, she put her feet down and turned her attention back to the TV, as if I hadn’t said anything at all.
“Amber,” I said in a warning tone. “What the hell is on your ankle?”
She stood up to leave but I was faster, reaching her in a few steps and pulling her sock down, the lace revealing a tattoo on her tiny, bony ankle. It was a coiled snake, the tattoo I’d seen time and time again on the other girls in the house.
“They…” I whispered, pressing my palm to my mouth. “They did this to you.”
“No,” she replied coldly, prying her ankle out of my grip and glaring at me. “I chose it.”
“Chose… what?” I cried out. “What does it mean?”
She raised her head high as she went on to explain.
“It’s the serpent,” she said. “It’s the mark tattooed on all the girls who go through the mansion. Ellis said it was a sign of the man who sells us.”
I twitched when she mentioned Ellis’s name, but that wasn’t the worst part.
“Why is it on you?” I asked her roughly.
“I wanted it,” she shrugged as if it were the simplest thing in the world. “Ellis asked me, and I said yes.”
“You agreed,” I said. “To what, exactly? To be sold?”
She didn’t answer, stubbornly staring ahead of her.
“He said I’d be taken care of,” she finally said defensively. “That my life would be better for it.”
“And you believed him?” I shook my head, trying to stop the tears from falling. “The man that kidnapped you. You believed him, after all he did to us both?”
“How is that so much different to Thorn, Harlow?” she asked pointedly, turning her accusatory eyes at me. “Ellis and Thorn were cut from the same cloth. That’s why things ended the way they did. They were two of a kind, and there was only room in the world for one of them.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I accused her bitterly. “That man would have killed us both.”
“And Thorn wouldn’t have?” she countered, and it shut me up. She sighed and got off her chair, shaking her head in exasperation. “Doesn’t matter now, anyway. I left with you. I chose to stay by your side. And that’s all that matters.”
