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Chapter 11
Ana
“So, how are you managing with the workload?”
Mari’s face hovers before me while she flutters over the stove, frying up a mountain of eggs and bacon. She looks really cute in that windowless kitchen, with her sunshine-yellow scarf wrapped around her head to hold back the dark curls that try to fall out of her bun.
“Actually, it’s really not so bad,” I say. I shut my bedroom door, throwing the keys of my new automatic hover-car, which Tzelik insisted on pushing on meafter finding out that I’d tried to take Asili on public transport, onto the little table by my door. “I’m on a part-time study at the moment, so it’s fine.”
“Yeah, but still.” Mari expertly flips an entire row of bacon over in one smooth motion. “He’s got you at his beck and call for PA work like every hour, and you’ve basically become his son’s full-time nanny, while you study Information Technology Multi…dimensionally.”
“Close enough,” I chuckle as I head across the room, unclasping the fur-lined cloak from around my neck and dropping it over a chair. “He doesn’t make me get his coffee or anything, he just clicks his fingers at whoever else is nearby for all the menial stuff. Work-load wise, it really just feels like full-time study while helping with Bianca and Marco at home and working at the packing company, so…”
“Yeah, but you didn’t have a life back here!”
“I don’t really have one here, either.” I push open one of the windows beside my desk despite the cold bite to the breeze. Any breeze is still amazing to me; I don’t think I’ll ever get overair that doesn’t blow out of a filtration system.
“Well, I hope he’s at least paying you well…”
I shrug. “The perks are good. I don’t pay for board or food, he’s taken over my coms and online connectivity bills, transport and amenities, too…” I look over at the keys beside my door, feeling guilt and unease settle briefly in my stomach. “Plus, working for him will look incredible on my resume.”
“Not to mention the wardrobe!” Mari exclaims as she turns off the gas and begins fishing slices of toast out of the oven, serving them up over four mismatching plates. “Don’t think I didn’t notice how freaking classy you look!”
I sigh and brush a hand over my expensive skirt as I stare over acres of moon-lit, perfectly manicured grass. “He said my clothes were ‘an affront to his name’ and had his staff throw them all out so that he’d never have to burden his eyes with them again.” A particularly cold breeze passes over me and I turn away, heading to my closets. “Secretly, I just think he can’t admit to doing something nice or selfless for anybody else, so he hides behind feigned insults. If I’m honest, my clothes weren’t really warm enough for this planet. It’s nice not to be shivering all the time…”
“Well, he’s got damn good taste, in clothing and in women, it seems.” She waggles her eyebrows at me, and I determinedly ignoring the way my stomach drops and twists at the insinuation.
“It’s not like that!” I snap, maybe a little too forcefully, as I take off my shirt and throw on a loose, cropped beige jumper with a wide scoop neck. It’s cashmere-soft, looks extremely high-quality, and is about as casual as my new wardrobe gets. Even the comfortable lounge clothes look elegant and expensive, and I shove away the thought that he must have spent thousands of credits to fill my huge closet as I swap out my skirt with soft, high-waisted white pants that somehow make me look curvy instead of chubby.
“It’s not like that, is it?” Mari says with a knowing grin as she begins to slide perfect fried eggs straight from the pan onto each plate. “Is that why he bought you that gorgeous, lacy black bra with the diamond sitting right in the middle that you’re currently wearing?”
“Shut up!”
“Breakfast is ready, come get it before you have to leave for the bus!” she calls out to our family.
“Listen,” I say as I step into fuzzy black house slippers and head to my bed. “I’m going to send you guys some money tonight. Should I transfer to mom’s account, or is she still having problems?”
“Send it to mine. She’s still locked because of the overdraft fees, and we need a little extra for groceries this week, so I don’t want it all gone on interest yet.”
I notice that she’s only set plates for four, as Marco shuffles bleary-eyed and messy-haired onto the screen to grab his food while Bianca pops primly along behind him. “Where’s Elena? I’ve only been texting her lately, and she’s been dying to catch me on face time.”
“Oh, she stayed at her new boyfriend’s house last night.”
“Hello, my little honey pot!” Mom calls out as she flies on-screen, her dark hair pulled into a braid and her skinny little body seeming frail in her stiff factory uniform.
“Hey, Mom. You look tired.” I swipe open my Galaxy Snap and engage the projected interface screen against my knee, diverting attention between my family and my online banking now as I log in. “You been skipping sleep again?”
“Yes, thank you for noticing,” she says sarcastically, although her creased brown eyes wrinkle with a smile even as she grabs a plate off the table and begins piling the contents between her slices of toast. “Marco,stay awake at the table!”
“Ma,” Mari huffs, scrambling to help her make a sandwich out of her meal. “You said you weren’t running late today!”
Mom says something in reply, and Bianca’s voice raises in annoyance in the background, but I suddenly can’t focus on them anymore as I stare down at the small screen of my Snap, trying to make sense of the numbers in my account.
This is wrong…
Tzelik has been paying me wrong—this isn’t what we agreed to.
“I…guys, I’ve got to go,” I say, feeling breathless with a sort of strange panic. “Talk to you later.”
