CHAPTER 26
Amara’s POV
“You know, I always imagined this moment would feel… sweeter,” a voice sneered, dripping with venom.
My head throbbed, and it felt like someone had stuffed cotton in my ears. And my limbs felt heavy, my wrists chafed and raw. I blinked, trying to focus, but the light above was blinding with a sickly yellow that made my already pounding headache worse. Then it hit me.
I was tied to a chair.
“Ah, the Donna is finally awake,” the voice continued, mocking, grating.
“Welcome back to the world, Amara Saints.”
I forced my head up, blinking against the light until her face came into view. Casey Tartt. I was not surprised that it was her. It was more shocking that she was able to
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pull this off.
She looked… unhinged. Her usually flawless makeup was smeared, and her eyes were rimmed with smudged black eyeliner that made her look more like a ghost than the poised woman I remembered. She was pacing in front of me with a thin smirk curling on her lips, though her eyes burned with something much darker.
“What… what the hell is this?” I croaked. My throat burned with the aftertaste of whatever chemical they had used to knock
me out.
“This?” Casey gestured around the dingy, claustrophobic room. The walls were peeling, the air was thick with the stench of mildew and something metallic blood.
“This is where your little fairy tale ends, Amara. This is where you pay for everything you have taken from me.”
Taken from her? What the hell was she
talking about? She was the one who took
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everything from me!
I straightened as much as the restraints allowed, and retorted. “If this is about Luca, you should take it up with him. Not me. He’s already all yours anyway.
But then, her expression twisted, and in two steps, she was in front of me. The slap came hard and fast, snapping my head to the side, and in a millisecond, pain flared in my cheek with the metallic tang of blood filling my mouth.
“Don’t you dare say his name,” she hissed, her voice cracking under the storm of her rage. “You don‘ t get to talk about Luca. You don’t get to breathe his name.”
I spat blood onto the floor, glaring at her despite the sting in my face. “What the hell is your problem, Casey? You got what you wanted. Luca chose you, didn’t he? You won!”
“Won?” She let out a sharp, bitter laugh
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that echoed off the walls. “You think I won?” Her voice rose, shrill and unstable. “He doesn’t want me anymore, Amara. He doesn’t want anything to do with me, and it’s all because of you!”
What? Luca and Casey had fallen apart?
It can’t be. She must be bluffing.
My eyes landed at her belly and I could see the slight bump in her lower abdomen. She was still pregnant, how could it be
possible? Luca had always wanted an heir. to the point that he was willing to kill me just for it.
“Luca hates me because I dared to stand up to him,” she spat, circling me like a predator. “Because I told him the truth. And do you know what he told me, Amara?”
I did not answer, but the fear creeping up my spine made my skin prickle. She looked like she had gone mad, and I could see it in her eyes the raging hatred that was
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swirling in them, driving her to do this. I did not know what happened between them but I should have been out of the picture already because every time Luca had tried to approach me, I had always pushed him away, and yet, I still got caught in the mess Luca had created.
“He told me I was disposable,” she continued, her voice trembling with fury.
“He said he should‘ ve gotten rid of me the moment I betrayed him. And do your know why? Because of you. You‘ re the ghost he can’t get rid of. The one who still owns him, even when he swears he‘ s done with you.”
“So what’s your plan, Casey?” I bit out, not really caring about whatever had happened between them. It was their problem, not mine. “Torture me? Kill me? You think that’s going to fix whatever mess you have made for yourself?”
