Killian made love to me without giving me a moment to catch my breath. When I cried out in pleasure as I reached my first climax, I tried to kiss him, but he just kept repeating, "Carmilla, I love you," as he rolled me over on the bed. I felt his strength and his tenderness all at once. I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out again. He stroked my neck with one hand, but with every thrust, he went deeper, stronger. I'm in trouble again. I can tell by his breathing that he's close to finishing, and he's still deep inside me, but the thought of stopping doesn't even cross my mind; I wouldn't dream of asking him to stop, not even for a second. Luckily, he takes a moment to pull a condom from his pocket, slip it on, and come back to me—and I'm there waiting for him, aching for it. He lifts me up and lies back on the bed, and I climb on top of him. He sets the pace he wants, gripping my hips. He keeps saying my name, keeps swearing he loves me, getting louder and faster with every breath.
We made a total scene. We were so sure someone would come to see what the hell was going on in my room that Killian gave me one last kiss and, laughing, slipped out like Spider-Man, using his raw strength to climb back up toward the roof.
I went to the tub and fell asleep there in the warm water, hopelessly in love, thinking of nothing but him.
In the morning, I woke up freezing, jolting upright and crying. The water had gone cold and I was still there, submerged and terrified because I'd dreamed of Clara, the psychic. She was in a cemetery, pointing at a recent headstone—isolated and lonely. Like a witch out of a storybook, she was raising the coffin; yes, pulling it out of the ground with the power of her mind. The lid creaked and splintered. Terrified and confused, I caught a trace of that perfume. I ran over and peered through the crack in the wood, and I saw the body: it was Lucius. His mouth was sewn shut, and his eyes were half-open—cloudy, dull, and sad. I fell to the ground and scrambled back. Clara, her eyes pitch black and her teeth sharpened to points, screamed at me, "Are you happy now?! Congratulations, you chose Killian!"
I lunged out of the tub in a single motion, shivering, freezing, water spilling everywhere.
As I dried off and got dressed, I told myself a thousand times, "The future isn't written, the future isn't written." But deep down, I knew… the nightmare had felt so real that I wasn't going to take the risk. I was deciding right then and there, and I hated myself for it.
I had breakfast with Manuel, but Ursula pulled me away with urgent gestures from across the room. I went to her and she said, "Annia and Evangelina are about to arrive. Mr. Longfield isn't going to make this easy. Let's hope you're right about her. If she's really as smart as you say and we can rule out a plot, we've won; otherwise, it's going to turn into a full-blown spy war. Either way, Mr. Longfield has already praised me; he's excited about my idea—it'll bring some clarity to all this. Well, your idea, but you know what I mean. Allies, remember."
"Allies," I replied, and went to get ready to welcome the girls.
I have to tell you, my friend, I've realized that words filled with negative thoughts don't affect me at first, but something lingers in my subconscious, like an echo constantly asking, "What if it's true?" I'm telling you this because of that accusation that Evangelina might be a spy following a script written by Vandereck. I don't believe it, but I'm not sharp enough to spot a corporate conspiracy. Everything I knew about billionaires before coming here came from books, and in those novels, they weren't even half as rich as these people. And wait, there's more: I realized what I just told you because of what Lucius said, remember? That the exact same thing would happen to Killian—he'd end up believing his love for me wasn't real because it started as a competition between brothers, and little by little he'd convince himself until it all ended with him leaving or ruining us.
Well, I don't know if I started paying attention then and discovered I have a bit of that same tendency, or if I'm actually looking for an excuse not to choose Killian out of fear that his brother might die, or if Lucius's words simply have such an impact on me that I end up repeating what he wants just to prove him right.
And while I was there, my head spinning with uncontrollable thoughts, I walked through the gardens, dazed by these negative ideas knotted so tightly they wouldn't let go. I decided to use the old remedy Carol taught me: "When your mind tries to break you, admire beauty." And that's what I did. I admired the flowers, and finally, I decided to look at them. I took out my phone and looked at the photo of Killian— that incredible one of him fixing his bike—and then the one of Lucius: tough, serious, unreachable. I have a message from him that says, "Little girl, come here." I smile, and just then, I hear Annia's shout.
"Carmilla! Sweetheart!"
She came running up and hugged me, breathless. "Did you miss me all these hours? Because we haven't stopped thinking about you." She gave me ten kisses on my forehead and one on my cheek, warning me that she really wanted to kiss me on the mouth but was afraid someone might be watching from the mansion windows.
I laughed, thanked her, and joked, "The Princess of Longfield Manor has arrived! The King's future daughter! Where is your lady-in-waiting, Evangelina?"
Annia pointed toward the helipad and told me she'd stayed behind because she was on the phone with her cousin. Hugging me again, she whispered, "And since you like handsome men, you have no idea how incredible Bruce is—Evangelina's cousin! Anyway, I'll wait for you in my room or yours; I want to change and then give you a real kiss."
She hurried off toward the mansion. The trick of looking at beautiful things had worked, at least partially; it helped numb the negative thoughts a bit, but they were so deeply rooted after the nightmare that I felt them flooding back into my mind until… I saw her.
Walking with a dazzling smile, Evangelina arrived. Her hips swayed, pushing the air around her as if the wind itself understood it had to move aside to carry her red hair to one side. Everything else vanished. Not a single one of those dark thoughts remained after her triumphant entrance.
She gives me a hug, looks me straight in the eye, takes my hand without a word, and leads me toward the mansion as if she owns the place. She slips into the first empty lounge she finds, and only then does she speak. "Tell me, come on, why are you so sad? What happened? Did Killian do something? Was it Lucius? Just say the word and they'll answer to me."
I couldn't believe how perceptive she was. Annia hadn't even noticed, but Evangelina read me from that first hug. I told her everything—how I'd decided to commit to Killian and try to push Lucius away in Paris, the whole nightmare, and my negative thoughts.
She said, "Really? Are you seriously going to let a psychic who warned us ten times that the future wasn't written—and who prophesied I'd be Queen of the World if I followed the light in your eyes or something like that—get in your head like this? But wait, what else are you hiding?"
"It's not that I'm hiding anything," I replied. "I couldn't tell you over the phone because I was afraid they might be listening. You've been brought here for another reason: Mr. Longfield is going to test you. I don't know how or with what, but he needs to see how smart you are to rule out the idea that the cross-adoption is a Vandereck trick. Paranoid billionaire stuff."
I thought she'd be angry with me, but she just smiled, shook her head, and said, "Men and their insecurities. How clumsy they are… Don't worry, honey, I'm going to have some fun."
I hugged her, just trying to absorb a bit of her perfection through proximity, and she took me by the neck and gave me a kiss on the mouth that I allowed without protest. Then we went to the room to find Annia, and Killian arrived minutes later.
He looked so handsome and was smiling so much after our night together that I keep falling deeper in love every time I see him. His father called him, and after speaking on the phone, he told us, "He wants to see us in half an hour. It'll just be us. It's important that this goes well because he's not in the best headspace right now. It's not easy to realize you've built a network of the best lawyers in the world to give you solutions, only for Evangelina to show up and tear them to shreds."
Annia cheered for her girlfriend, laughing, "The Queen!" And Evangelina struck beautiful model poses. I watched her, entranced. How was it possible that she didn't show a single sign of nerves? Nothing.
I didn't tell Killian or Annia about my nightmare with Clara. I needed to push that image out of my mind.
I asked Evangelina when I got her alone, "Is it true you have a cousin as handsome as Killian or Lucius?"
She pretended to be offended, even making a face like she smelled something bad, and replied, "My cousin, compared to those two Longfields? Please! Don't insult me. Bruce is the most wonderful man in the universe. We grew up together; he was my first love. We write to each other all the time, but I haven't seen him in three years. Since he lives in Paris, we've been making plans. So as soon as we get to France, I'm finally going to see him."
The time had come. For the first time, I was going to cross the doors into Mr. Longfield's private residence. Tomas, the guard, opens the impenetrable doors to that wing on the fourth floor, and Killian, Ursula, Annia, Evangelina, and I step inside… You would never imagine, my friend, what I saw in there. You would never believe me, but I saw with my own eyes the true face of these billionaires.