LOGINKathe and I opened our mouths almost simultaneously in a way that seemed cartoonish. As soon as we saw the bottle of wine that Mia was taking out of her backpack, it immediately changed the mood of the night.
"No way!" I blurted out immediately. "We're not doing that today, Mia!"
"Of course we are," Mia said with a mischievous grin. "It's Friday!"
"I agree with the blonde," Kathe said, pointing at Mia.
Kathe a
The amount of information I had just received was more than I could bear. I looked at Sebastian, calmer than I expected, and at Olivia, who seemed angry about everything she had just confessed, or perhaps about her past. I felt like my head was about to start spinning, but maybe it was because of everything that had happened last night.I leaned back on my knees, my hands on my head, and then I looked at Olivia intently. She shifted her gaze slightly, as if there was something more she wasn't telling me yet.Sebastian lay down on the sofa next to me. "I have a problem," he said.I looked at him. "What problem?""My mother is cutting me off, leaving me out of everything important, and she's put me under investigation. Most of my accounts are frozen until who knows when," he sighed."So we're in the same boat," I said, looking at him and then back at Olivia. "Do you have a plan?""I—" She shook her head. "I was hoping we could do something together.""What did Ian tell you about Carlos?
Olivia's POVThe moment I saw Sofia's face, I felt a lump in my throat and I was unsure whether I should continue speaking. My mouth still hurt terribly when I talked, but I had been through so much and now I had my sister and a potential ally in front of me, and I couldn't stay silent.I began to tell them, little by little, without giving away that Sofia is my sister because I'm not ready to tell her yet.I started with how my mother had died just a few months after I was born, murdered by the betrayal of a close friend, or so I was told.I ended up in an orphanage, where unfortunately, they didn't just take in children from the streets, but they chose a few for special programs. Some were chosen as spies, others as informants, others as deadly weapons. I was lucky that they didn't consider me so special and they trained me in self-defense.When I was barely five years old, they started replacing my diet and games with disguised training. Everything was changing and becoming more an
Olivia's voice echoed through the apartment, hoarse and trembling, but unmistakably hers. I froze, unable to process what had just happened. All week she had remained silent, a shadow in the background, and now… she was speaking. As if the wounds on her mouth had somehow healed.Sebastian turned abruptly, his eyes wide. "Olivia… since when have you been able to speak?"He stepped away from me, his hands shaking. "I don't know…" he admitted, his voice fragile, as if each word cost him strength. "I was too afraid to try, and… it still hurts," he said softly and deliberately.My heart raced. "Why now? Why tonight?"Olivia looked at me, then at Sebastian, her gaze heavy with unspoken words. "Because I know what Damian is hiding… Ian told me about your fiancé, and I want to do everything I can to stop you… from marrying him."The room fell silent again, but this time it wasn't an oppressive silence, but rather an expectant one, heavy with the weight of the revelation. Sebastian stood still
Sebastian's eyes flickered, almost as if my question had taken him by surprise. He looked at the motorcycle, then at me, his jaw clenched."It's not mine," he finally said. "It's Ian's."I frowned, but didn't say anything more.He brushed the paper in his hands. "He put the tracker on you because he's investigated Carlos more than I should have. He knew things about him that perhaps none of us knew."The night air seemed to grow thicker, the silence oppressing us once more. I felt the grass beneath my hands, damp and cold, giving me stability as my mind wandered. I returned to that memory of him pressing me against the wall in an empty house, of how Carlos had almost... I felt my chest tighten at the mere memory of the act and how he had disrespected me in every possible way.“Sebastian,” I whispered, “are you saying that… Carlos, the man I was going to marry next week… there’s more to him than we knew?”He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he seemed to just drift off, as if the answ
Sebastian squeezed me much tighter, tighter than I expected.I pulled away slightly and looked at him. For the first time in almost a month, I felt like I was truly looking at him."I told you, we're going to figure this out, together," he promised, and kissed my forehead.Then, he just stared at me."You have a mole on your eye," I said, noticing something, and he laughed.It seemed like everything was alright, and then we sat down on the ground, on the fresh grass, staring into a dark abyss—a mountain or a lake, something I couldn't quite identify because of the time."How... did you know I was here?" I asked, genuinely curious.He seemed to hesitate for a moment, and leaned back."Ian put a tracker in your backpack," he said.I stood still, not even noticing what had happened. That explains the close hug he gave me before I left."Where?" I said, grabbing my backpack and quickly opening it like an idiot.In a moment, as if fate weren't cruel enough, one of the papers flew out of my
The silence of the street was overwhelming; we were on the outskirts of the city. Many of the houses around us were empty, or there were simply vacant lots. I stopped for a second to catch my breath. When I heard a car engine in the distance, my brain, combined with the adrenaline, made me catch my breath and keep running as fast as I could.As I kept running, I saw two lights on the street, but I didn't stop. I ran and turned into an alley, which could have been more dangerous for me, but I couldn't get a car in.Then, at the end of the alley, there was a main street, and a motorcycle pulled up in front of me at full speed, extending a helmet toward me. The feeling of imminent danger was still there, but it wasn't coming from the stranger in front of me, but from someone behind me."SOFIA!" I heard Carlos's voice in the distance, and without thinking, I grabbed my helmet, jumped on the motorcycle, and clung tightly to the person in front of me.He sped off, leaving the place behind,
I clenched my nails with a force I didn't know I still possessed and turned to see Carlos standing before me. He had an expression that told me he'd heard everything, but then I returned to his question.My hand automatically went to my cheek and I felt a tear fall down it.The anger and the mix of
I heard a knock on the door behind me and thought maybe it was Carlos who had returned for something, but my distrust made me open the door more slowly than usual. Standing before me was a fair-skinned girl with curly red hair, slightly taller than me. She had an innocent aura about her. She looked
The morning light filtered through the curtains, soft but persistent, as if reminding me that the outside world kept moving on. I opened my eyes slowly, feeling the weight of the previous night, but also something different: a spark, faint but undeniable.I got out of bed, my body stiff, but my min
I woke up with a stiff neck, as if I hadn't slept well. As soon as I moved, a wave of nausea and a slight headache washed over me, along with memories of the previous night. Laughter, conversation, half-opening boxes, and simply continuing to eat and drink as if we were teenagers again. The room







