As it opens, the hinges make a small squeaky sound like the ones from horror movies and heart-pounding thrillers.
I don’t know why I think a monster is waiting for me on the other side.
It’s not.
It’s way worse.
Someone lies on a simple bed.
Wires are hooked to the person’s arm. They’re still, unmoving, like they’re dead. But the beeping machine to the right shows a normal beat.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
My sweaty fingers release the doorknob as I approach the bed slowly. My feet are about to fail me, my heart is thudding so loud, it would’ve broken the machine if it were attached to one.
My palms cover my mouth as I stare at the person lying there.
She’s wearing a white nightgown like in the nightmare, her dark hair splaying all over the pillow and her skin is pasty white.
The woolen sheet covers her to the breasts and her hands are crossed on her stomach as if she’s in a casket.
Lia Volkov.
The real Lia Volkov.
I thought she was dead. How could she be…? Why is she…?
My thoughts tumble over each other with no clear direction as a sickening feeling settles over my stomach, demanding I throw up my breakfast.
Her eyes snap open, their blue clashing with mine.
I stumble backward as my mouth opens in a shriek.
29
Winter
This is a nightmare.
This could only be another nightmare. I didn’t really wake up this morning and I’m having another nightmare.
I screw my eyes shut, then open them again.
Lia is still there, staring, but not at me. Her gaze didn’t follow me when I stumbled.
I pinch myself in a desperate attempt to wake up, but only searing pain greets me.
My entire body trembles as I approach her again. She continues to stare, but nothing on her body moves. Not her hands, not her limbs.
It’s like she’s asleep with her eyes open.
“Lia,” I whisper, afraid anything louder will make her leap out of the bed and slice my throat as she did in my most recent nightmare.
She shows no reaction to hearing me. Her eyes still staring up ahead, caught in a foreign land. I run a hand in front of her face, but she doesn’t follow it.
She’s not even blinking, completely in a trance. Now that I’m no longer in shock, I can see that her eyes are blank, lighter than mine, as if the feelings that made them bright have completely disappeared.
I slowly touch her shoulder, even though my body is facing away, ready to bolt out of here any second.
Lia doesn’t move. Not even an inch.
Is she paralyzed? Braindead? What is it exactly that causes a person to stay in this state without making a single movement?
“Lia…” I murmur again.
Nothing.
But that doesn’t give me relief. If anything, the dread and gloom from earlier slash against my ribcage and tighten a noose around my heart.
My leg vibrates and I gasp, thinking Lia’s touched me.
It’s the phone. Just the phone.
I retrieve it with shaky fingers. The text that greets me deepens my trembling state.
Unknown Number: Have you found your mission yet?
My gaze slides from the screen to Lia and then back again, my heart thundering in my throat.
Does he…does the shadow have something to do with this? I type a response.
Lia: Does it have something to do with Lia?
Unknown Number: You became Lia Volkov for a reason. Find it. Do it. I’m losing patience, Duchess.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I mutter under my breath.
Lia’s head rolls to the side in an unnatural angle as if it’s about to snap. Her eyes blink rapidly and her mouth opens as a long moan of pain leaves it. It’s raw, deep, and so damn haunting.
I bolt out of her room, slamming the door behind me. My fingers shake around the phone as I run. I don’t stop running until I’m outside.
My heart hammers in my throat and I’m almost sure the guards notice it, but if they do, they don’t comment on it.
I force myself to walk at a moderate pace until I reach the main house. I sprint up the stairs, barge into the bedroom, and hide under the covers.
My hand is still wrapped tightly around the phone as if it’s a safe line from the ghostly fingers I feel trying to peel the covers off me or the marionette strings attempting to direct me to a dark tunnel.
What if Lia followed me? What if she’ll kill me now?
Sweat covers my brow and my fingers are stiff as I stare at the phone’s light under the darkness of the covers.
The texts from the unknown number glare back at me. He knows something. He said I took her place for a reason. But what? Aside from being coerced by Adrian into this, I had no reason to be Lia. I don’t want to be Lia.
Then the realization of what I saw hits me like a sledgehammer.
She’s alive.
Lia Volkov is alive.
I was barely hanging by a thread before, but now that I know she’s alive, I feel tenfold worse than I did this morning.
Everything Adrian did to me has been fucked-up, but I thought I was up against someone dead, someone who doesn’t exist. But she does exist. She breathes. She’s right there, in the same damn house while a homeless lookalike is fucking her husband day in and day out.
I took her life, her son, her husband. Everything.
I think I’m going to throw up.
No wonder I had nightmares about her killing me or attempting to. I would’ve done the same. If my husband, the man I love, brought another woman to fuck under my roof, I would murder him with my own hands.
I wouldn’t care that he calls her by my name or that he only brought her as a replacement. She’s not me.
It’s cheating.
It’s fucking wrong.
I might have stayed quiet about it before, but now that I know, I can’t go on like this.
I’m not as sick as Adrian. I’m not a homewrecker.
The other woman.
Bringing out my conversation with the shadow, I know that he’s the only one who can allow me an escape.
After all, he kidnapped me from that birthday party, in the midst of all that security, just for a talk. He can do it again if I lie and say I know the mission.
This time, I won’t go back to Adrian’s side and his sick, twisted games.
This time, I’ll need to fucking leave.
30
Adrian
When I step into our bedroom, the first thing I smell is…roses.
There are a few candles lit on the nightstand, their lights flickering in the otherwise dark room.
I pause at the entrance as I shrug off my jacket. Today has been tedious as fuck and the meeting at Sergei’s table was all about throwing jabs. While I don’t usually bat an eye at that, the visible threat Vladimir and Sergei are showing toward me have made me wary.
Thankfully, the cameras in Sergei’s mansion caught nothing about that night’s kidnapping. I watched them myself, pretending I’d lost my card, but that part was completely cut off from the footage. The last thing it showed was Yan ushering Lia inside my car before she grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in with her.
I watched the footage from the opposite cameras, then paused and zoomed in to see the faces of the attackers, but they both wore masks. The driver had a hat on and he never raised his head enough for me to get a glimpse at his face.