"You were very generous with Bonnie, who dared to threaten her own son. What Alexander did, around her, is not significant."
"Alexander did it for Bonnie, Anna. He defied me out of loyalty to her. And she's going to die. I sentenced her to death years ago, and she doesn't even know it. But for now, she's still useful.
"And Alexander has no use?"
"I'll never trust anyone who betrays me again, Anna."
She understood from his tone of voice that she was included in this list of untrustworthy people.
"I agree to pay your price for Alexander's life."
Adam drank some more of his beer, then looked at her amused.
"Then you should know that I will spare Alexander's life, but he will no longer be one of my men who hangs around my house. He will serve me outside."
Anna stood up and took a deep breath.
"So be it. Now, I'm going to my other appointment." She said and took three steps, before Adam called her back.
"Sit down, Anna. We haven't finished talking yet."
Anna felt her anger tighten in her chest, but she went back and sat impatiently in the armchair, waiting for him to make his demands.
Adam looked at her calmly, in no hurry to speak, and was amused to notice her anxiety. She stared at him with those beautiful, angry green eyes. He looked all over her body, every curve familiar to his touch and tongue. She had manicured nails, a voluptuous body that would make any man who looked at it lust, and he wasn't the only one who saw her beauty. She must have been twenty-one, but she still looked sixteen. The only thing that had changed was the purity and naivety that used to be in her eyes and heart. Now, she had a fierce and merciless look like her father. She wore old shorts and a shirt from the time she lived with him, but they no longer had the same effect. She now possessed the elegance of a well-born woman. He saw her crossed arms move, and decided that he had made her wait long enough.
"What did you think of doing to get out of the agreement we just made?"
"Nothing. Is there any way I can escape?" She asked, replacing the anger in her gaze with an ironic one. With that look, she had definitely thought of a strategy.
Adam stared at her as if he hated her.
"You know, Anna... I'm almost not telling you something important, about Alexandre, just to see what you have planned, in a few minutes in that perverse mind of yours."
Anna moved her body forward.
"What are you talking about?"
"I'll only tell you if you tell me what you have planned." Adam said, and walked over to the minibar, where he took out two beers and handed one to her, then sat down.
Anna thought quickly. Her intuition told her to tell him the truth, but she was afraid even of her own thoughts when it came to Adam.
"You won't keep your word once you know." She said, searching the armchair again, and finding the drink bitter, but good for the heat.
"I keep my promises, Anna."
"Not always. You've deceived me other times."
"I've never deceived you."
"So you did."
"You must have deluded yourself. I always told you the truth about my feelings for you, but I never told you that I wanted a family with you, because I didn't know that at the time. That desire only came to light after you ran away from me. People change Anna. They mature. Do you think your father always looked so calm, even at the worst times? He learned over time. He didn't have much choice. He comes from a very peculiar lineage."
Anna took a deep breath and stared at Adam debauchedly.
"What do you think I was up to in order to get rid of the promise?"
"I didn't speculate on that at any point. Trying to run away would be foolish, when you have an entire family hostage to your actions."
Anna remembered Ryan's words, but decided not to take any notice of them.
"My attitudes?"
"Yes. It's up to you, their well-being." Adam said calmly, but he was worried. His men hadn't shown any signs of life for a long time. Before, they would talk to him in his mind, or text him on his cell phone, every three hours. And since dawn, until that moment, there had been only silence. Anna's father had probably already acted and they should have been at the bottom of the ocean at that moment, but moving them closer to his house was a mistake they should never have made.
"Adam... I promised that I would have your child. I didn't promise that I would give him into your care, or even that you would one day know his face."
"Hmm." Adam looked at her even more amused, and even forgot his worries from seconds ago. "And you'd be alone? Would you run away from me, with my son, again to raise him without a father?"
"Max already fulfilled that role once and it worked out very well."
"As I said, you're deluded. You don't know my brother well enough yet. Do you think he'd take you back with another child in his arms? Do you really think I wouldn't send him the videos of our sex nights? He'd be disgusted by you! Max believes that you are a naïve and sweet woman, and... He would never forgive you for giving yourself to me the way you did. And the way you're still going to. I haven't done half the things I want to with you yet. And I hope to impress you with my creativity."
Anna was livid. Never since he'd found out she was a virgin had Adam spoken to her like that, as if her value didn't exceed that of a whore. Ryan was right. And it hurt her in a way that he couldn't imagine, because he was as cold as ice and had a stone in his heart. He never really loved her. She was just a toy that he saw in his father's hand and wished for him. He never intended to have a family with her, or he wouldn't talk like that to his own wife.