“He warned me to see myself as superior. Said I should be a man. He was obsessed with making me into the male heir he never got.”
“And so he gave me a list of rules to follow. According to that list, I couldn’t show too much emotion because men who lead don’t. My life was mapped out to the detail, Bella.” Her voice cracks as she buries her head between her palms. “All my outings, my hairstyle, the things I say, my friends. I had to appear like the perfect heiress when I was dying inside.”
A sudden cold chills my spine.
“I felt like my life wasn’t my own anymore. I was tired of carrying a responsibility I didn’t want. So one day I told Father, and he…” She chokes on a sob. “He slapped me.”
I stay silent. I always knew Dad hated both of us…but I didn’t know she had it this bad. I’d always thought…
“He threatened me to stay away from you, otherwise he’d go physical with you. Said you were a distraction. In his book, hostility is what makes a fearless leader…”
My fingers slide off the bars, and I sink to the ground. So all those years I thought she didn’t do anything. The years I thought that my sister acted like a stranger…this was the reason?
“God, I’m sorry, Bella,” she cries as if reading my mind. “For all those years, it felt like I was distant…”
I stare at her. For a second, I think it’s all a lie. Some desperate tale she’s spinning for the sake of mercy, but the rawness in her voice doesn’t feel like a lie.
And somehow that makes me angrier.
“You’re telling me that all those years of silence were just Father’s orders?”
Her chin jerks in a quick nod, which elicits a bitter laugh from me. I probably should keep quiet, but the little girl in me—the one who yearned for her sister’s comfort while being treated like the family’s disposable mistake—refuses to let go so easily.
“You let me drown so you wouldn’t. You kept quiet all those years because deep down you thought that you were better than me.”
She gasps, but I don’t let her say more.
“You were acknowledged, Elena,” I snap. “You had everything I didn’t, but the one thing I needed…the one fucking thing you could have done, and you chose to follow Father’s orders. Tell me, did Father order your friends to make fun of me, too?”
She winces, and the silence after is thick. Of course, she probably wanted to seem cool to her friends…at the expense of me, her sister.
Only the sound of our ragged breathing fills the air. My chest tightens as her head falls into her palms. She releases strained sobs, and God, I want to reach out, but I quickly catch myself…because as selfish as it sounds, she doesn’t get an easy pass to my mercy. Not when I spent years bleeding alone.
Dizziness washes over me, and my vision blurs momentarily. Instinctively, my hand flies to my belly. It’s still unconfirmed, but if I’m truly carrying, then I hope to get out of here as fast as I can and make sure the baby is okay.
“Save your tears, Elena. We have to get out of here.”
I barely stand when Father appears before the cell, a sinister smile on his face. Anger surges in my chest as his eyes land on me.
“At least you were finally useful for something.” His lips curve in an irritating grin.
“The Saudis will attack anytime soon. Your little husband will take the fall on my behalf…and just as a bonus, maybe I could step in and take over what remains of his mafia.”
“You’re looking at the new king.” He laughs, the sound scratching the base of my spine.
My hands involuntarily clench as I take in his sickly sweet smile. There’s a look in his eyes that tells me he truly believes in his stupid plan. And that makes me livid.
Slowly, I feel all those unsaid words…everything I tried to chew back all those years, rising in my throat.
“No,” I spit, shaking my head. “You’re not a king. You’re a fucking coward. A gambler who bets with other people’s lives when you don’t have the courage to pay your own debts.”
Elena gasps beside me, and I smile when I see Father’s smile fall.
“You stupid bitch. You think you’re something now?” he scoffs, eyeing me with contempt. “You foolishly accepted the bracelet and jeopardized your husband’s critical information. You couldn’t even differentiate an AI-generated clip from the real thing. You are the main reason for your husband’s downfall.”
I wince, but there’s a sudden surge of confidence in my veins. Maybe it’s because, now more than ever, I realize that my strength isn’t just mine anymore. One day, it’ll belong to every girl I’ll help—every woman I’ll pull from the fire I barely escaped.
“You spent your life demanding fear in place of love. You taught us to bow so you could feel tall.” I hold his gaze, reducing my voice to a deadly whisper. “You taught me to shrink so your ego could grow. But guess what? Not anymore.”
