74

ALINA

I found Lisa staring at the window, her legs folded beneath her and knees oulled to her chest. I didn’t know when I'd fallen asleep. The last thing I remembred was sitting in the spot for what felt like hours, drowning in thoughts about all the possible ways Alexander would react once he learned the truth. Both truths.

There was no real way out of this. Whatever option i might think of definitkey neded in me being dead.

I pushed that fear down and walked to where Lisa was. She hadn’t even realized I was awake, so lost in her thoughts, which was completely unlike her. And I hadn’t seen her since the day of the explosion. Jane mentioned she had been sent off on some kind of assignment. Something about the way she looked now made me forget my own problems.

I placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, and she flinched hard like I’d hit her.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.” I gave her arm a reassuring squeeze. She nodded and offered me a smile. Or attempted to, rather. Her lips barely lifted.

Her face looked gaunt, and the skin under her eyes was bruised with exhaustion. She looked even worse than she had the last time I saw her. The bright, cheerful girl who once knocked on my door every morning was gone. What sat here now felt like a shell.

“You okay?” It probably wasn’t the right thing to say, but I didn’t know what else to ask.

“I think so.” Her voice barely made it past her lips. She didn’t even look at me, just kept her eyes trained on the glass while hugging her knees to her chest.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She immediately shook her head, and I exhaled, unsure how else to reach her. Comforting people wasn’t something I’d ever learned how to do. I’d never had anyone to teach me.

“Where were you yesterday? Did you get to safety?” I asked softly.

The second the words left my mouth, she jolted up from the bench and backed away like I’d slapped her. I blinked in shock.

“What’s going on? Lisa?” I moved toward her, slowly, trying to touch her arm but she yanked it away before I could.

I froze, giving her space, though the panic was rising in my chest. What had happened to her?

After a few minutes, she stopped trembling, and this time when I reached for her, she let me. I guided her gently to the bed, but she stood stiffly beside it, not sitting.

Then it clicked.

This wasn’t my room. This was Alexander’s. In my room, she would have already flopped down and wrapped herself in a blanket. But this wasn’t mine, and I guess it was time I stopped calling anything mine at all.

Soon enough, none of this would matter. I’d be gone either thrown into the dungeon or killed. I couldn’t even say which one I preferred anymore.

It used to be so easy. Death. It had always been the quieter, simpler ending.

But not anymore. Not now.

Because now, it wasn’t just me. I had a baby to think about. A life I didn’t plan for but one I would give anything to protect. Even if their father was the man who murdered my parents and destroyed any chance I had at a normal life. The very least he could do was keep our child safe after he got rid of me.

That was the most realistic outcome in all of this.

And the worst part wasn’t even the death. It was the failure, knowing I might never get justice for my parents. That I’d come all this way, only to end up in the arms of the man I was supposed to hate. Sleeping in his bed. Carrying his child.

I felt sick.

But none of that mattered right now. I forced myself to refocus.

Lisa needed help. She was falling apart right in front of me and I had to hold it together for her. And for the baby who would need someone when I wasn’t around anymore. Lisa could be that person.

“You can’t tell anyone where I was.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

We were alone, so I didn’t understand the need to whisper, but I nodded all the same. I wasn’t going to tell anyone.

Who would I even tell?

Jane was working with James. She lured me out, almost got me kidnapped. I had no idea where she was now, but I knew she was still with him.

Claude had disappeared again. I barely remembered he existed.

And Alexander, he probably didn’t want to see me ever again.

That thought tightened something in my chest. But I pushed it aside.

“There’s no one to tell.” My voice cracked a little, but Lisa heard me. Her shoulders relaxed at my words, as if they gave her permission to breathe.

I couldn’t understand why she was so terrified, but I didn’t push.

“Didn’t you go to the safe room after your assignment?” I asked.

Her head whipped toward me. “You can’t tell anyone you didn’t see me there.”

Her voice carried this strange desperation that made the hairs on my arms stand.

“I couldn’t tell anyone even if I wanted to,” I said, trying not to snap. “I didn’t go there either.”

The irony in that made me want to laugh. Jane said she would take me there. What a joke.

Lisa looked at me like I’d just confessed to something unforgivable. “What? She promised me she would get you there while I—”

She stopped talking.

She froze, right in the middle of her sentence, and I stared at her, confused and growing more irritated by the second.

“You didn’t know?” She looked at me with this stunned expression like I was supposed to piece it all together on my own.

“No, Lisa, I didn’t know. I don’t even know who Jane really is, aside from the fact that she tried to hand me over to James.”

Her mouth fell open.

So this was news to her? That was strange. She usually knew everything before anyone else. Why was this the first time she was hearing about Jane’s betrayal?

“She told me she’d make sure you got to the safety zone,” Lisa muttered, more to herself than to me. “The housekeeper had told me to come and get you, but I couldn’t—”

“Get me where?” My patience was slipping. “You’re not making any sense. Where did you go?”

She turned away from me, facing the window again. For a few seconds, she said nothing. I figured she was shutting down again.

But then she spoke, her voice barely audible.

“I sneaked into the dungeon. I went to see Isiah.”