Lucius congratulated me, and as soon as we got into that impossible vehicle, he took my chin between two fingers, gave me a soft kiss, and said, "You did it. They said you were incredible. We'll come back once the samples are ready. Now, I'd like to take you somewhere special to me."
I thanked him and kissed him back, but I asked if we could head back to the apartment instead. Evangelina was a wreck, and I wanted to see if I could help her.
He agreed. On the way, I told him what Killian had said about this Bruce Bance and the resemblance to the man from his nightmares. I didn't need to tell him his brother had left for a business emergency; he already knew.
Lucius interrupted me and said, "I'll just say this: that's one of the most notable differences between my brother and me. He believes in all that nonsense—psychics, premonitions, dreams of the future. Life is too short to waste it losing control of your own decisions. I'm sure he told you about Clara, the story with the books, when they tried to kidnap me; it's all nonsense that can be explained by dozens of rational reasons before you even get to anything paranormal. But he chooses to think that way."
I told him that I liked to believe there's something beyond the obvious—at the very least, that Carol and her daughter Mary found each other again and that they're watching over me, that they can see me.
He said it ironically, "I just hope your adoptive mother isn't watching us tonight, little girl, because I'm going to show you a whole new world in bed." He apologized immediately, though, sensing the comment was out of line.
I swatted his shoulder, pretending to be offended, but inside I laughed, just imagining Carol's spirit cheering me on from the bedroom for living out a passionate romance like the novels we loved so much. I'm sure she'd be proud of me; she was the kind of woman you could talk to about anything, and she believed that enjoying life also included desire.
When we parked, Lucius went straight to the penthouse, telling me he'd look into Bruce Bance—just in case, and so I could have some peace of mind.
At the girls' apartment, it was pure chaos. You could tell they'd been fighting. Annia rushed over to me and snapped, "What's the point of being one of the richest women on the planet if I can't even go for a walk through Paris with my girlfriend because she's locked in here, upset over the love of her life—her cousin? A man who calls her once in a blue moon and almost never sees her?"
I tried to calm them down, but it wasn't working.
Evangelina told me, "Annia doesn't understand. Bruce is special to me, and every word he says tears my heart out. Do you know what he told me? That he needed to be closer to me now and that I'd understand why in time, but he couldn't tell me yet. And I'm trying to explain to Annia that it's not like I want to go running into his arms; I just want to close a chapter of my life that I never understood and that he still refuses to explain."
Annia lashed out again, saying her cousin was manipulating her. Evangelina shot back in a back-and-forth that was impossible to stop unless...
Yeah, my friend, I did exactly what you're thinking. I walked into the middle of the room and said quietly, "I slept with Lucius in the elevator."
A dead silence fell over the room. Both of them, as if nothing else on the face of the earth mattered, rushed over to throw me onto the sofa and demanded I tell them everything.
"Now! Spill!" they shouted.
By the time I finished the story—maybe glossing over certain parts that make me a little embarrassed now, like licking my own reflection—I noticed they were back on the same side. Evangelina was all fired up and looking at me with desire, but she stayed focused on her girlfriend. I laughed and told them, "Well, I have an idea. Maybe if Annia meets your cousin and they hit it off, she won't worry so much about you."
They both answered "no" in unison, though for different reasons, but after a little back-and-forth, they agreed the idea was good—but only if I was there.
Evangelina told me her cousin had also asked to meet Annia, so they'd invite him over for dinner at the apartment that same night. Of course, I had no intention of ditching Lucius, but as luck would have it, a message from him arrived right then informing me that his father needed him in Rome for some meetings and that he wouldn't be back until tomorrow night.
While I was taking a bath in my apartment, Annia knocked on the door. I came out in a terrycloth robe and opened it. Her intentions were clear: a new pact between us. She wanted me to help her unmask Bruce Bance's true intentions.
I told her, "Okay, sure, as long as it's to help Evangelina and not just because of your pointless jealousy."
She swore it was. Before leaving, she asked if I'd go to the elevator with her and show her what Lucius had done to me there. I laughed and shook my head. She accepted it but said, "Well, it's just that your story was very, very erotic, and now I want to see you without that towel."
I playfully pushed her to the door. She gave me a quick kiss on the mouth and left laughing, shouting, "We love you, Carmilla!"
Around dinner time, I went up to the girls' place and realized I hadn't paid attention to the dress code. They looked ready for a runway, and I had shown up wearing a white T-shirt and dark jeans. I turned right back around to change. An hour later, I was back at their door.
I was wearing a black dress that hit above the knee, with a modest neckline, a light cut, and smooth fabric. I paired it with some gorgeous ankle boots—no makeup, but I wore the small gold earrings Carol had given me, which I absolutely love.
When Evangelina opened the door, she led me by the hand to the dining room. Annia was facing me and gave me a conspiratorial wink. He was standing with his back to us.
Evangelina looked stunning in a floral designer jumpsuit that revealed almost the entirety of her breasts if you caught her from the side. She said, "Bruce, this is Carmilla, the one I told you so much about. Carmilla, this is my cousin, Bruce Bance."
The man stood up, and when he turned toward me—oof—I felt a physical pressure just looking at him. Of course, I expected him to be handsome, but I wasn't expecting this. Bruce is about twenty-eight, tall—not quite Longfield tall, but close—with broad shoulders and a fit build. His hair is short, military-style, slightly longer in the front, and he's clean-shaven. His face is quite literally a work of art. He has a penetrating gaze, with eyes so dark they seem impossible, thick eyebrows, a small nose, and a sharp jawline. He looks like one of those leading men from the 1950s, back when men were rugged and tough. He was wearing a simple white dress shirt and dark blue tailored trousers. His coat, resting on a chair, looked a bit worn. Yeah, let's be honest: he's incredibly good-looking, even more than I'd imagined. His cousin only resembles him in her long limbs and small ears, and in certain identical gestures, like massaging the neck or tilting the head slightly.
I offered my hand, but he went in for a hug, so we ended up in one of those awkward in-between greetings. I could smell his cologne—earthy and woody—and it suited him perfectly. Before I sat down, I heard him whisper to Evangelina, "You were right, she's beautiful, and her eyes are incredible."
I liked that. It even made me blush a little.
As we grabbed drinks, Annia said ironically, "Okay, 'Evangelina's cousin,' I want to hear everything. Start with the relationship between you and my girlfriend, and then you can move on to your great achievements."
Evangelina hated her for that, but Bruce seemed to take it in stride. He said, "We grew up together; well, our families lived side by side. It wasn't a happy childhood. Luckily, science books were my refuge because the adults—especially our mothers—were far too demanding about us becoming successful models or getting into acting. So on the nights I couldn't sleep, I'd get up, and Evangelina would always be there, sitting and reading. When we got a little older, we both realized we were special, that we could understand things even our teachers didn't. We had our first kiss in secret and were together for... four years?"
"Five," Evangelina said, her voice tight with anguish. "Until you left from one day to the next and only wrote on my birthday—and sometimes not even then. But now I start dating a billionaire and suddenly your messages show up, but not the explanation for why you never came back."
Annia tried to hug her, but Evangelina gave her a look that could kill.
I asked, completely blundering into it, "So why did you leave? What happened?"
Evangelina answered, her voice breaking, "We'll never know, will we?"
He remained calm, smiled, and said, "Okay, I know you've asked me a thousand times and I've always denied you the truth. I don't have a problem saying it now that you're older and can handle it. You have your girlfriend, your friend."
I leaned forward at the table to hear the revelation, convinced he was going to reveal some big secret, a catastrophic event, or something straight out of a movie—you know, my friend, a speech like 'I lost my memory when I saved a child from a car' or 'I was recruited to be a secret agent.' But the truth that came out of his mouth was more devastating than a nuclear bomb.
He looked at Evangelina and said, "I left from one day to the next because I never loved you. I never had a single feeling for you that wasn't pity. I didn't owe you anything; I didn't feel obligated to give you an explanation. You were in love with me, and I only put in the effort all those years so I wouldn't hurt you, so I wouldn't break that bubble of magic and romance you'd put me in, and..."
He didn't get to finish the sentence because, when I saw Evangelina's heart shattering, I stood up from my chair without thinking and slapped him so hard the sound echoed through the whole apartment.
"Shut your mouth!" I screamed. "Why are you hurting her like this?"
Bruce stood up and looked at us like we were cockroaches, then started walking toward the door. Annia watched him, stunned, unable to react to his brutality. Evangelina tried to follow him, sobbing his name, but he didn't even look back. He just looked at me and gestured for me to open the door and get his coat.
I was so furious I could barely breathe. I shoved his things at him and pushed him out, but he stopped as soon as he crossed the threshold. He didn't move until Annia and Evangelina started screaming at each other, their argument moving from the living room into the bedroom. I tried to push him again, but Bruce grabbed my hand, covered my mouth, and dragged me toward the elevator, muffling my screams with sheer force.
When the elevator doors closed behind us, he was pressed right up against me. He held a finger to his lips, signaling for me to stay silent. I nodded, and as we nearly reached the ground floor, he whispered, "If you want to stay alive, you'd better obey. I'm going to take my hand away, and you're going to stay completely quiet so I can talk."
The moment he did, I screamed at the top of my lungs and tried to bite and kick him, but he anticipated every one of my movements, and his black eyes grew even more intense.
I was lost. This man was definitely going to kill me in here.
I was lost. He pressed against me harder, reaching into his coat.
I was lost... He pulled out a gun and, with the cold calm of a hitman who's done this a hundred times, said, "Don't scream, Carmilla... this will all be over very soon."