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“Why would you bring kids into a world like this?” I question. It’s something I never wanted an answer to before. When I walk through the hallways of the orphanage, I can never think about bringing them into this world. As heartless as I might be, I’m not that cruel.
“Hmm. Truthfully, I thought children would work in my favor for a few of my business dealings. The Italian Mafia are big on family. I was a single woman. If they saw I had a family, they might have been less inclined to kill me and persuade business deals because they thought we had common values.” She smiles. “It worked only for one deal, and then I was stuck with you two.”
“At first, you were both annoying, but you learned and adapted quickly; you more so than your brother. He followed in your footsteps not long after,” she says. “And I saw my empire grow. I saw potential in you.”
It doesn’t hurt like it should. I’m not at all surprised since I didn’t expect anything maternal from her whatsoever, but it’s the ease with which she states it that’s unsettling. We may be alike in so many ways, but there was a line I would not cross. I would not take the innocence of a child for my gain in any way. Especially considering how my brother and I were stripped of ours far too soon.
“That’s fucked up,” I tell her.
“Yes, I suppose it is.” She shrugs. “But look at you now.”
“Yeah, look at us now,” I mumble angrily. My brother is God knows where, and my first real contact with him in months was him yelling at me. Not once did he ask about me, let alone our business. And the business is just as important to him as it is to me. At least that’s what I always thought, but maybe I was wrong about that as well.
“Take it over. It was always meant to be yours, Anya. Announce your brother’s death. Let him live his fantasy chasing some dancer. Your brother only ever stayed because of his loyalty to you, and now that’s shifted.”
My head whips in her direction. “What do you mean?”
“He hated the business, hated that you lit up every time you learned something new.”
“He did not.” He would have told me.
“But then he discovered the ruthless side of it. Not just the drugs and other things, but his first kill when he was a teenager and how he enjoyed it. That’s why he stayed.”
I remember the first time he killed someone. Afterward was when I noticed he started wearing gloves. I don’t know exactly what happened, but he changed after that.
One thing I know is that Alek and I have one another’s back, no matter what.
Even amongst all this shit, we have each other.
“The business was meant for you. It’s time, Anya, for you to grow up and claim it. Or I will take it back.”
“He will come back,” I promise her, and it goes unsaid that she’ll never lay a hand on our auctions. She had her business in the past, but these auctions are ours.
“But he may not.”
I never thought the day would come when Alek would abandon me. The voice telling me that he’ll return grows smaller as time ticks by. The old bitch is right about most things. But not that. Alek won’t leave me forever, will he?
“Get rid of your ‘not’ boyfriend. He’s a problem,” she says as she stands.
Why is River looking into my family?
Maybe it’s as the old bitch says; perhaps he’s been using me this whole time. He’s made it clear he wants in on the business, so did he think fucking me was the only way to get it? But if that were the case, then why hasn’t he fucked me yet?
Deep down, I know River isn’t after that, but I can’t help but be hindered by the self-doubt Meredith lays there. It’s a dangerous world we work in. Lies and trickery are a constant. What if I’m betraying my own instincts to make room for River? What if Meredith is right?
When did I allow myself to have a high enough opinion of him that I could… trust him? No, absolutely not. I shut that thought down. I can’t put myself in any vulnerable position.
“I’ll be watching you carefully, Anya. You can’t trust anyone but me, remember that.” Her tone is far more bitter than the sinking feeling in my gut at the thought that River might be tricking me. But I know that’s not the case. Isn’t it? Or am I only being a fool? He is nothing to me, I remind myself.
She walks out without a goodbye, not that I expected anything more from her. I never have.
CHAPTER 29
River
My phone buzzes, and the profile picture that appears with her ringtone pops up. My cock immediately goes stiff at the image of her lifting her top, revealing those perfectly pierced nipples and the earrings I bought her.
I ignore her call and focus back on the papers.
