“Please,” I whispered. “Say something.”
“Say what? Should I congratulate you for successfully being used so that people could attack me?” His voice was sharp enough to flay my skin. “Or maybe I should congratulate you for being an idiot.”
My gaze dropped. The burn in my throat reached my eyes. Tears blurred the table between us.
He came closer. “Or perhaps you think I’m an idiot?”
“I’m not lying,” I said, lifting my eyes again. “I swear—”
He cut me off with a tired sigh, shaking his head. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s say I believe you. What do I get in return?”
My breath caught. I forced the words out like a noose tightening around my neck. “I’ll do anything,” I whispered. “I’ll be your maid forever, if that’s what it takes. Just please … save her. Save my family.”
A smirk pulled at his mouth. It wasn’t that he was amused. The smile was cruel, like someone watching a flame flicker out.
“So now you realize you were the price your boyfriend used to pay his debts.”
The tears came faster. I didn’t fight them. What was the point? I was already ash inside.
Artur tilted his head. “I’ll do you one favor,” he said. “If you take one pill and swallow it.”
My heart stopped. I stared at him, and his eyes didn’t waver. He meant it. The air turned too thin to breathe. My lungs stuttered. My parents and Carina were out there, dangling over a cliff, and I was the only weight keeping them from falling. I stepped forward, shaking. My fingers reached for one pill. Itslipped through my trembling grasp and clattered to the floor.
My sobs echoed in the silent room when I dropped to my knees and crawled under the table. My hands fumbled across the floor, wiping away tears that wouldn’t stop coming.
Let me die, I’m no use. I’m already gone.
I found the pill and clutched it as if it could ward off evil. Rising to my feet, I wiped my face with the back of my hand. “I’ll take it,” I said. “Just save them.”
He scoffed and moved slowly around the table until he stood before me. I backed away until my spine hit the edge of the table. He tilted his head, watching me like I was a puzzle he was tired of trying to solve.
“So, you’re willing to die for them?”
I nodded. “I have nothing to lose.”
He reached out, fingers brushing mine, and took the pill from my hand. Then he leaned closer. “That’s so boring. I still want to play.” He rolled the pill between his fingers like a coin in a twisted game of fate. “Why don’t we find out if your parents would die for you?”
I blinked. “Sir?”
Artur pulled out his phone and made a call while his body pressed me against the table. I could barely breathe under his weight. The phone rang, each chime slicing through the silence like a blade.
He put the phone on speaker and rested it on the table, never breaking eye contact as he leaned in close.
“Speak,” he murmured.
My breath hitched. “What?”
The call connected.
“Hello?” a woman’s voice called out, and I froze. I knew that voice. It was my mother.
A sob clawed its way up my throat, but Artur only smiled. It was a smile that stripped the air from my lungs. He leaned in, hislips grazing the shell of my ear.
“I want you to talk to her,” he ordered. “And say exactly what I say.”
Panic surged in my chest.
“W-what?” I rasped, pleading with him, but his gaze was merciless.