M I K H A I LI let go of Uncle Amos, only letting the tips of my sharp teeth graze his neck and not letting things get too far.I realize that I may have proven him right by doing that. He called me a coward, and perhaps I really was, because I have the chance to kill him right now and I'm still struggling with the morality of it all even though he never stopped to consider that for me or my family.What am I doing? How can I do this? How do I finish this fight?I hate this. I hate this so much. I hate that I have to do it, I hate that it is the only thing that would keep Uncle Amos from causing more harm. I hate that I’m the one who has to stop him . . . permanently.And most especially, I hate that after everything he’s done to me and everyone I care about and love, I still have some amount of respect and love left for him.Needless to say, I should be as cold as him now. I should be able to take him out without feeling an ounce of remorse. I know everything he did now. He basicall
M I K H A I LThe aftermath of what I can confidently call a war was almost . . . calm. There were no notable ups and downs, but I couldn’t really say there were no hard emotions involved. I guess what I could say about it is that it is subdued. Quiet. Defeated.We are the winners, my family and I. And yet victory is not something that we feel.Because today is the burial of Uncle Amos, and we have to remind ourselves once again that someone we considered our family has betrayed us and died in the process.But of course, we all know that the pain and fresh betrayal and perhaps even guilt that my parents and I are all feeling right now is nothing compared to what Evan is feeling.After Yana and I kissed in the hallway a week ago, I went to see Evan. He was in the morgue, crying over his dead father’s body, which was in the other side of the place being embalmed. We couldn’t see the process, only some views of it through the little window on the door.He turned to me abruptly when I wen
Y A N A“I’m so sorry, Miss Allard, but I’m afraid there’s nothing much I can do,” Deborah says, glancing at her papers with a fake regretful face. “You’ve been asking for rent extensions for . . . three months?”“Well, two months and twenty days, but of course,” I correct her. “Is there really nothing you can do? I mean, give me two weeks and I will--”“Yana.” She stares at me sternly with her beady eyes. “That’s what you said two weeks ago.”I open my mouth to tell her that no, that’s not actually the case, but even I can’t fool myself anymore. The truth is, my jewelry business Catori, is not taking off, and it’s been a year since I established it. I can’t afford the rent in downtown LA anymore, even if the store is right below the living space of the building.Deborah Phipps, the owner of the establishment, is done with me. Hell, she could have thrown me out three months ago, but she didn’t. Or at least not yet.I’m on my ninth life right here, and I don’t think anything will save
M I K H A I L"Well, I'm just glad that was over," I say with a sharp exhale as I climb into the backseat of the SUV. "Now we can go back to normal.""Or new normal, considering Olivia's fans are still coming after you," my cousin and my executive assistant Evan says dryly. He points at the other side of the street to show me a group of adolescent girls trying to take a picture of the car. "I bet it's going to be worse online.""Please," I mumble. "What's the worse they can do?"I roll the window up and signal the driver to go, and soon we're cruising down the streets toward my office downtown.Am I excited to get back to work considering that I have that public conference tomorrow? Well, no. Because that was just a PR stunt that Evan suggested I should do.The truth is, I did give Olivia Lacroix the impression that she and I had something special going on. I wanted her to be at the front and center of the ad campaign we're launching for a perfume line of Belladona, one of the fashion
Y A N AUsually, I didn't mind living in the upstairs space of the store with Lily and Jason, but this time, I found it quite bothersome.After registering for the open conference yesterday, I tried to tell them about my meeting with Deborah and how we could possibly find ourselves out in the streets after the month of May unless I landed a deal with a douchebag bachelor. However, my cowardice was much too strong and I ended up just telling them that I would be meeting a client for brunch.That's why right now, I'm standing in front of the mirror wondering if any of them would find my pencil skirt suspicious."Are you sure we can't come?" Lily asks as she watches me put on some sneakers (because my high heels are already in my bag). "I really want to go on that brunch too.""Don't worry, we will stuff our faces as long as I get this deal," I lied, shrinking inside. "Wait for me here, okay? We need people for customers.""Oh, yeah. For sure."She sounds bummed and unsure about the cust
Y A N A No. This can’t be happening to me. My mouth goes dry at the sight of Mikhail Sartori standing in front of the double doors. The logical part of me wants to look at his face to see if he’s angry or not, but the cowardly side of me just wants to look away and ignore him until he goes away. Unfortunately, the cowardly part wins. I lower my head and pick up the broken necklace, taking my sweet-ass time as the whole hall gets brought into a standstill. I shove Gwen’s leg just to be mean, and of course she makes a whole show of flinching to bring even more attention to us. “What’s happening?” I hear Mikhail asking in a low voice, amplified by the silent hall. “What commotion is going on?” The woman at the desk whispers something incomprehensible to him, and I don’t dare get up until he’s gone. I’m silently praying to all the gods in every religion that ever existed to take me out of this awkward and possibly life-ending situation, stuffing the necklace back into its bag. I hold
Y A N AI feel numb. I can’t believe I just did that. I can’t believe I just lost all the chances I have to make things better for Catori and my friends.I slapped Mikhail Sartori, a billionaire.Why the hell I’m not being escorted out of the building right now, I have no idea, but I have to assume that it’s a good thing because prison is the last place I wanna be right now.As I go out of the conference room, my knees start to shake so badly that I have to prop my hand against the wall to stop myself from falling over. Some of the hopefuls see me walking out in this condition, and I vaguely register their faces going pale. Do they think that the single-man panel in there roasted the shit out of me? Because if they’re not stupid enough to slap the CEO, they would not be in my place.In the distance, I can see Gwen getting to her feet and looking at me. I don’t dare meet her eyes. I know that if I do, I might just commit murder.“Is everything okay, miss?” the desk lady asks me, but I
Y A N AI don’t say anything. My body is numb and all I can do is sit there and shrink more and more. My luck is rotten to the core. First I blew my chances of making it, and now I got chased into an alley by a strange man whose advances I rejected.I might just die tonight too.He knocks on my window and laughs as I flinch. “You were so brave telling me to fuck off, and now you’re cowering in your car? Open the door so we can talk.”“NO!” I yell at him. “I’ll call the police!”“Do it,” he urges, and to my utter horror, he raises his hands, showing me that he’s holding a crowbar. “I’ll count to three.”A scream escapes my mouth. I fumble for my phone but it falls under the seat. Tyler is swinging the crowbar in his hands, mimicking using it to break my window.And the bad thing is, I know that he’ll do it, so I just crumple into a tight ball, closing my eyes and waiting for the worst.But it doesn’t come.The only thing I hear is the clang of the crowbar falling on the ground, and a l