"Are you going to keep recording our 'shagging'? I'll try to be less receptive than the other times."
"Yes, Anna. I'll record them all. Max will enjoy seeing his wife pleasuring herself with another man. But he's fooling himself if he thinks you won't reciprocate. Do you remember the screams and the words you said to me? I bet Max would have been shocked. You're a wild cat, Anna. I have no interest in taming you, because I enjoy it, but don't you dare scratch me, or the consequences will be far worse than your plans for Sarah."
Anna knew it was a threat, and felt tears leaking from her eyes. She felt like telling him that she wouldn't let herself be used with narcotics ever again, but if she did, he would know that someone had told her, and he would punish her one by one from his list of suspects. So she stared at him coldly as tears streamed down her face.
"I'm sorry..." Adam said, sounding genuinely sorry. "I've discovered things about myself because of you that I hate. I'm very jealous, and when I thought of you back in Max's arms, I snapped... That's not at all what I wanted to say to you."
"Adam... There's something you need to know. Anna said, remembering at that moment. "I need to see a doctor. I had some tests done when I was abroad and I have a urinary infection... As well as having to take medication for a few days, during those days we won't be able to have sex."
"I'll go with you, and you won't be alone with the doctor for a second." He said suspiciously. "Why don't you give me the prescription you must have picked up there, and I'll ask someone else to go and buy it?"
"I didn't bring it with me." She said it so sincerely that Adam relaxed.
"Tomorrow, we'll go in the morning, and you can take care of Sarah in the afternoon."
"Speaking of which, I have to go." She said, getting up.
"You can go... But there's something you need to know."
"Make it quick, Adam. I've been here long enough."
"It's not because of Alexander that you're going to lie with me and want to give me another child."
"What do you mean?" Anna asked as she sat down again, worried that all this time he was just enjoying humiliating her, and that he was going to kill the boy anyway.
"I can't kill Alexandre or banish him from my life. You, Alexandre and his wife are very naive. Do you really think the men would be partying in the pool if one of them was about to lose his life? We're a family. You don't hurt family, Anna."
"So... You're just punishing him...Adam! You should have warned Lory. She's pregnant and very tense."
"I'm not going to warn her, and I forbid her to try to do so. Alexander will suffer until the last moment. I don't know how he can believe that I would punish him like that."
"It wouldn't be the first time, Adam. Do you remember that your brother, your mother and your nephews are under threat of being blown up? They're your family, too." Anna said, feeling vindicated. She knew there was no threat, but Adam didn't.
Adam stared at her with his amused look disappearing from his face, his eyes sparkling in a way that Anna knew only too well.
"So, you already know that I'm not going to demand that you lie down with me, for something I wasn't going to do anyway." He said, sidestepping the subject.
"You're being very decent, telling me."
"Now go, Anna. Before I rip off those rags you're wearing and shove my penis up your ass here in the living room. I'm really looking forward to it."
Anna stood up and kissed him quickly on the lips. And at that moment, she thought that in exchange for his sincerity, she would give him an unforgettable night, but only when she cured his infection. She ran outside, so happy that she didn't even remember to ask who was going to take her and Sarah to her final home. She had already gone into the kitchen, and was turning back, when Judith called out to her.
"There's a man waiting for you outside on the balcony to take you to your destination." She said nonchalantly, while peeling potatoes, sitting at the kitchen table.
"What man?"
"One of the boss's men. I don't know everyone's name. There are a lot of them, and this one doesn't like to come to the house. He only comes in once in a while."
"Did you bring Sarah lunch?"
"I didn't."
"Good." Anna said and was about to leave, when Judith said with a smile.
"But Leon did."
"Who's Leon?"
"Apparently, it's her ex-boyfriend."
Anna froze in place.
"Why do you say that?"
"Because he came here, saying that he didn't know what he was thinking, and that he regretted having dated Sarah, and leaving his girlfriend, who has a son of her own, to get involved with an older woman, who wasn't even that pretty, and that he was at a loss, but he had to talk to her about not seeing her anymore, and he asked me to let him bring lunch, so that he would have an excuse to go there. He also said that he wouldn't hurt her, because it wasn't her fault that he had gotten so involved with her.
"That must be the boy I saw with her today, when I went to take the coffee... If the boy comes back and asks for her, tell him that she decided to go on a trip and that she didn't know if she'd come back one day."
"I will, yes."
"Thank you."
"Anna... Ryan is free on the estate. Watch out for him. He's dangerous."
Anna poked her head in, stepped outside and saw the huge, handsome man waiting for her. He must have been about eighteen, despite his large physique, typical of werewolves. She stared at him in amazement. He had very dark skin and brown eyes. Anna imagined that he must make any woman fall in love with him on the first date. He exuded virility. And contrary to what she thought, that he would be someone as or more grumpy as Caricature, he was kind and playful. His name was Adonis, and the two hit it off immediately at first glance. And he would become Anna's friend. And he was her support the whole time she was searching for the truth about her mother.