Tracie arrived at the Clark mansion, looking troubled and vexed as she pulled her luggage behind her.
Kael noticed the mood his sister was in and imdiately helped her inside.
"You look like a ticking ti bomb. What happened to you?" He asked. None of their parents were at ho so the house was quieter than usual. "Also, why are you back? I thought you were going to watch Fiona until she finally confessed whatever she knew?" He asked.
"Wait? Well, guess what? I’ve lost my patience!" Tracie’s fists trembled with fury as she recalled her previous encounter with Fiona. She had begged, ti and ti again, for the woman to share any information she had, but Fiona had stubbornly refused to say a word. "Every single day, I pleaded with her to tell sothing, but she wouldn’t budge. Now, I’m starting to believe she doesn’t know anything at all. So, instead of wasting my ti watching her, I ca back ho. Nothing good is going to co out of chasing her for answers."
She stomped into the kitchen and grabbed a glass of water from the refrigerator, gulping it down to cool her temper.
"B-but—"
"Fiona doesn’t know anything," she concluded.
"What if she’s scared to talk?"
"I’ve offered her protection if the threat will co from her family but nothing...nothing at all. Her lips are sealed, and no matter what, she’s not going to say anything."
Kael wanted to convince Tracie but realized she may have a point. If Fiona wanted to speak, she could have spoken a long ti ago.
It has been nearly a year since Anastasia went missing. Everyone thinks she’s dead despite not seeing her dead body.
Xavier was going to trade in disguise, hoping he could find her but there was rarely any sex trafficking trade.
Everyone was overwheld by finding Anastasia and truly hoped they would find her one day.
**
Anastasia arrived at her hotel room. Julian booked two hotel rooms since it would be inappropriate to sleep in one.
She opened the windows and breathed in the fresh air as her gaze landed on the beautiful city. Billboards popped everywhere with advertisents being promoted. The sa as movies and pop artists.
The city felt more alive and vibrant than Xattlewood.
Julian had already inford her that Xander ran the city, making her wonder if he was the president or had soone working for him as the president.
There weren’t many billboards or any beautiful lights.
Due to her lost mories, Anastasia didn’t quite know if she’d been familiar with Xattlewood in the past.
However, according to Julian, the city was a very small one, almost a town and abandoned by the governnt due to its size.
More than a decade ago, Xander had power and started building the city. But of course, no one knew it was Xander because his identity was hidden from the eyes of everyone due to obvious reasons.
He shaped the governnt of Xattlewood the way he desired.
Of course, Julian didn’t ntion the main person that gave Xander such power because he didn’t wake up one morning and riches from heaven fell upon him.
Anastasia had to check online and realized that Xattlewood was one of the cities with little to no cri rates, which was a fabricated lie because Xander didn’t want any external governnt leadership poke nosing into his turf. So he had to make it sparkly clean to not gain any attention.
This also explained why Xavier hadn’t thought of going to Xattlewood. In the eyes of people from other cities, Xattlewood was a peaceful place and its lack of beautiful scenery chased so tourists away.
Anastasia watched the sunset, her scarf still hovering around her face, keeping her identity intact.
Then a knock was heard on the door.
It was Julian.
"Let’s have dinner," he said as he opened the door.
"Okay..."
Anastasia followed him to the hotel restaurant. Julian had always been nice towards her but it made Anastasia uncomfortable sotis because she had that feeling of him betraying her anyti soon. He was still friends with her kidnapper after all.
The restaurant was bustling with people—so were families that fed their little children, so were couples, and lastly, they were people who loved to eat their food alone, in peace.
Anastasia took a seat, and a waiter approached them, handing over the nu.
They made their order and the waiter left to go get them.
"Do you recall anything, in case you’ve been to this hotel before?" Julian tried to break the silence between them.
Anastasia shook her head. "I don’t recall anything. Although, when we were heading over here, the streets felt familiar."
Julian nodded.
"If you don’t mind asking, what if Xander wants to speak with you all of a sudden, are you going to reveal anything about ?" The question caught him off guard, and he nearly choked on his saliva.
"I wouldn’t reveal anything about you. I’ve already told you, your life is yours now and you can do anything with it, and Xander will keep thinking that you’re dead."
"I thought you were his friend." Anastasia didn’t know why but she suddenly felt like asking him all these questions. They’d been at the back of her mind all the ti, struggling with several other questions she wanted to ask, but not to Julian. "Aren’t you betraying him?"
"I’m not. Like I said, what Xander had done to you wasn’t your fault to begin with—"
"So you wouldn’t be bothered if I suddenly wanted to slit his throat?" Anastasia’s voice was calm but laced with sothing Julian couldn’t quite place. He frowned at her question, uneasy about where this was heading.
"Won’t you be bothered if I wake up one day and decide to take revenge on your friends, Julian? What if I want to kill them the way they killed my soul, crushed it under their feet, and tossed it in the gutter like it ant nothing once they were satisfied?" Her eyes burned with a chilling intensity, leaving Julian montarily speechless.
The background noise had suddenly turned faint and all Anastasia could hear was her racing heart.
"What if I want revenge for what they’d done to ?"
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