“There was a spice merchant, an old woman near the waterfall. She spoke to him in Turkish. I didn’t understand a word they said.”
“So, we’re finally getting somewhere. I knew that you just needed a little persuasion.”
“You bastard.” I try to say the words with conviction, but I don’t feel it.
“You think Sai is going to sweep in here and save you, but he isn’t that man, sweetheart. He’s ruthless. No different from me.”
“He’s nothing like you.” I counter.
A knock at the door has us both turning toward the sound. His grin tells me he as expecting whoever is on the other side. “Just in time.”
I stand in shock when Ravi appears at the door. He looks from me to his father, then hands his father a laptop.
“Ravi, you’re with him?” I shake my head. I can’t possibly be that bad a judge of character.
“You should take a seat for this.” his father says casually, as if he isn’t trying to destroy me, my best friend, and Sai.
Ravi looks over at Amelia. “Don’t you dare pretend you care, that any of us matter to you.” I hiss. He says nothing, just takes a seat in an armchair opposite me.
His father puts on a video. “Watch, lovely Kennedy. See for yourself what you’re fighting for.”
The video begins with a woman kneeling in the middle of a room. A man walks in, and I don’t have to be told to know that it’s Sai. When he strikes her with a whip, I turn away. The reminder of what he did to me, still raw in my mind. Her hits her once more, and she keels over.
I try to zone out the rest of the video, but then I see Ravi come in. The camera refocuses, and I can see the woman bouncing on top of Sai while Ravi sticks his dick in her mouth. They share women. I look at Ravi, but he refuses to meet my gaze.
I let out a shriek when Sai runs a knife over the woman’s throat. She falls limply to the floor, a pool of blood quickly pooling around her . But it’s the look on Sai’s face that breaks me. He’s smiling, content. Ravi rushes to the women, he calls for help, but Sai just stares down grinning. I place my hand on my mouth.
“This, this is the monster you’re protecting?” Deniz smirks.
The things Sai told me about his upbringing, about the curse, they all run through my head. But the image before me doesn’t change. That is the man I love. I let out a cry and have to wrap my hands around my body to keep myself from breaking. That is the man I would give up my life for. A vicious monster who takes lives, a man who is filled with hate and darkness. I had no clue who he was until this point. Words can feed you fantasies, they can feed you lies. Words.
“Is this true?” I have to force out the words as I face Ravi. I look over at the man I want to tell me the whole video is doctored. He just bows his head, unable to meet my gaze. I feel the tears fall, feel my breathing constrict in my throat.
The truth is that I became drunk on the idea that my love alone could save Sai. But I was wrong. Nothing can. He is vile, evil, and cruel. I was so wrong.
I have felt heartache before. Felt it in my very soul. When my mother first told me my father was dead, the knowledge that I would never see him again hurt like hell. My breakups in the past hurt, but this. This is excruciating. It felt like someone just reached into my chest and squeezed my heart really tightly.
“I don’t know where he is.” I sniff. “Let me and my friend go, I’ll go home. I’ll disappear. I’ll take Henry with me. Just let us go.”
“I wish it were that simple.”
“Dad, you said you’d let her go. You said that if I did this…”
“Stop being such a little bitch, Ravi. I am not done with Kennedy here.”
“Why? she doesn’t know where he is.”
“Oh, but they know where she is.” He looks at me.
“They?”
The door bursts open, and Sai steps in. He goes straight for Deniz, knocking him down with one blow to the temple. He then spots Ravi in the room. “What the hell are you doing here?” he growls.
“Mom?” I am stunned when I look at the woman that walked in behind Sai. I run into her arms, and she holds onto me tightly.
“Oh, baby girl.” She smells of lavender tea and spices. She rubs her hands over my hair, and I can almost imagine that I’m back home and not in the middle of hell.
“What are you doing here?” I say into her hair. “I’m so glad to see you.”
