Chapter 91 - 93
Avara POV
"And now you know everything," I conclude.
Kelsey and I are being chauffeured, traveling through Italy in the rear cabin of a luxury car. Our first time in Italia, but our attention is shared between the two of us alone. I told her everything, everything I omitted, everything I know and even everything I’m unsure about.
"Were you seriously planning on staying with him?" she asks first.
I collapse against the Nappa leather, my shoulder resting against the seat with my torso twisted towards Kelsey. She looks back at me expectedly, lifting a quizzical brow like I’m in the wrong for stumbling into silence.
"Really, Kel? I told you that the man I fell stupidly in love with—killed my mother. And if he did not succeed in his attempt. My dad would be dead—and you’re focused about the relocation?"
She flips up an innocent hand like she’s about to make an oath of truth. "Not every day a girl gets gifted a palace—that’s all I’m saying. And honestly, as tragic as it is." She tilts forward to place an affectionate hand on my knee that’s propped up on the seat. "Though it is shocking and I’m so sorry about that. I’m somehow... not surprised. And you shouldn’t be either."
Insult sparks anger and my knee snaps out of her grasp.
Kelsey’s mouth opens as if she’s about to say something as she retracts her hand grudgingly.
"Did you somehow foresee that Botan killed my mother like a decade ago?"
She gives me this barely rueful look, remorseful that I’m upset at her but irritated that it’s over him. Ever since I made his existence known to her, intimately, her language and demeanor chills into something cold but with an apathy dragged by boredom.
"The only thing I foresaw was that he would hurt you. If not physically than emotionally because c’mon, Avie. He’s a criminal and to be one, especially on his level, I mean—what kind of man must he be if he has monsters that fear him?"