Page 105 of Maksim
But the gun pointed at Anya’s head left me little choice. I had to cooperate.
“You have no idea how much I’m going to enjoy this,” Henrietta says with a sick amount of satisfaction as she caresses the knife down my neck and over my chest. Anya whimpers beside me.
She’s going to die because of me. Because of my need for revenge. My eyes remain dry, my stare firmly pointed at Henrietta, but self-hatred turns my stomach. “You’ll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed killing your useless, pig of a husband.”
I’m sorry, Anya. I’m so sorry.
The satisfaction melts from Henrietta’s expression, and she retaliates by digging the knife just below my collarbone. I cringe and clamp my mouth shut, trying not to cry out, but a groan escapes me anyway.
“No,” Anya sobs for me. “Don’t hurt her.”
Henrietta’s head jerks toward Anya. “Don’t hurt her? She’s the reason you’re in this mess.”
“No.” Henrietta holds up a hold to correct herself. “Sorry, your scumbag brother is the reason you’re in this mess. Elira doesn’t get all the credit.”
“He isn’t a scumbag,” Anya snaps. For the first time in a while, I’m able to drag my gaze off my enemy to look at Anya. She glares instead of cowers like she’s truly offended for her brother.
Henrietta lowers the knife, slowly, resentfully, and takes a step toward Anya to get in her face. I work at the rope around my wrist tying me to the chair, but all it does is rub me raw.
“Do you have any idea who your brother even is? What he’s done?”
Anya leans her head forward. If she could, she’d be knocking her forehead against Henrietta’s. “I know exactly who he is. No matter what he’s done.”
Henrietta leans in even more and smirks. “Do you know who you are?”
Oh no.
I squirm in my chair. “Could we get back to the reason we’re here? Daniel isn’t worth all this buildup. We both know he never showed us the same courtesy.”
She raises her chin with an obnoxious laugh. “He took your virginity, you dumb slut. We laughed about you as soon as he got home.” She turns to Daniel’s sister, Caroline, and nods to me. “Shut her up.”
Caroline stomps to me and slaps me across the face, leaving a sting that doesn’t come close to being as painful as Henrietta’s words. When she points the gun at my head, Henrietta turns back to Anya.
“I asked you a question.”
Anya shakes her head. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know. That’s what makes you pathetic.”
“Just stop it,” I growl, eliciting Caroline to grab a handful of my hair and pull. I grind my teeth while straining to rise from the chair.
Anya looks between me and Henrietta, her lips pouted.
Henrietta stands straight and clasps her hands behind her back. “Did you know that Maksim is not your brother?”
Anya’s wide, puzzled eyes, narrow in a glare. “Shut the fuck up. We may not be blood related, but he’s my brother.”
“How is he your brother?”
“My parents adopted him.”
Henrietta smiles, wide and cruel. She struck me as calm and collected when I arrived, but I’m starting to see that she’s only beginning to unleash the wickedness locked behind all that makeup and Botox.
“What?” Anya asks, a sudden hesitancy in her voice. She turns her head to me. “Elira, what is she getting at?”
I want to lie. Of course I want to lie.
But how can I?