Adam had finished his lunch and picked up the glass, but when he put it back on the table, it didn't look as if its contents had been touched. Anna drank the entire bottle of wine left on the table and got drunk very quickly. It was the first time she had ever drunk, and she liked the feeling. She remembered her father's addiction and understood it. To spend twenty-four hours with that feeling of freedom was magnificent and tempting. It was as if all the world's problems had ceased to exist.
"I called you here to let you know what will happen after Allister's death." He said in a cold tone.
Anna stared at him. Just as beautiful as her father. Perhaps what he wanted would be best for her.
She raised her open hand in the air and smiled when he looked at her surprised and confused.
"When someone reaches out and raises their open hand in the air, it's so that you can authorize them to ask a question." She said debauchedly and saw an amused glint pass through his eyes before he looked away.
"We're not at school."
Anna lowered her hand.
"I think that after All dies, what will happen will be the funeral."
Adam turned his eyes back to her. They were cold again.
"After Allister dies, the lawyer will open the will. I'll contest it, of course, but after that, you'll go to a place we call the green house. You'll receive frequent visits from me and Ryan. At first. Then... You'll meet his brother and my brother."
"Frequent visits?"
"Ryan made a bet, and I want the prize, so you'll let him court you, you might even fall in love, because in three months... Well... I don't care what you do with him, but you'll never say you love him. And the day he asks you to marry him, you'll say you're in love with me. And after that we'll get married, in a ceremony, so that everyone knows I'm no longer single."
"I'm not going to do that. I don't like either of you. I'd rather go out with that man who hit me. He's more of a man than you and your cousin put together."
Anna saw the dangerous glint in Adam's dark eye, but she couldn't bring herself to care.
"It doesn't matter what your preferences are. Luckily for you, your desires aren't considered relevant to the men who come to visit you, but I can tell you that you won't have time to fantasize about sex with Caricature. They'll keep you busy."
"They? But what about you? Isn't your job to torture me?"
"My job is whatever I want to do. You won't need my visits."
"Do you also decide what I need?"
Adam wondered.
"You're drunk, but not drunk enough not to remember everything I've said here, but just in case I'm wrong.... It's all written down in a document, along with a million dollars, in the safe that only you and I will have the password to."
Anna laughed and reached for her glass, but it was empty, as was the bottle, so she leaned back in her chair.
"What is your cousin going to give you? I imagine it's very valuable, for you to make the sacrifice of going up to the altar with me..."
"Yes. It means something. I'll get it anyway, but if I have the chance to take it from him without starting a war..."
"You don't know how to play, little boss. That's what cheating is."
"The name of that is negotiating."
"I don't want to negotiate..."
"I didn't hear you waive the money you're going to get."
Anna laughed.
"Do you think I'm an idiot? You're never going to let me go free, and you're never going to give me any money. You just want to manipulate me into getting your cousin to give you what you want."
"You can do as I say and turn your experience into something... less bad, or I can break your father's every bone in front of you. And after he dies... breaking his bones will be even more fun."
"Do you have fun very often, little boss?"
"You're not safe." Adam said as if to warn her that she was overstepping her bounds.
"Do I look worried about my safety?"
"No. That makes you two things. Naive and stupid."
"Someone told me that my father is safe and..."
"He's not."
"...and that death is better than what awaits me. Why do you think I should watch my words with you? If you kill me, you'll be mistaken for someone pious and God forbid you tarnish your terrible reputation, right?"
"If I allowed you to choose your fate, would you choose death?"
"If you only give me two options, sure."
"If hypothetically I allowed your choice to be free, but final."
Anna thought for a moment.
"I would travel to some country where I didn't have to look at men with black hair and blue eyes." She said and laughed, because she knew it was a silly speculation. "Can you pour me some more wine?"
"Perhaps closing my eyes would be easier and quicker... You don't want to see Allister anymore?"
"I don't want to see you."
"I don't intend to be a presence in your life. Don't worry about that."
"You're my husband and I'm going to have to declare that I love you to your cousin. Is his intelligence so mediocre that he doesn't realize that I've been coerced into doing both things without you being present in my life?"
"Do you think I brought you here to be friends? Is that your fantasy? Or your ambition? Has being my father's bitch made you dependent on a Lens family penis between your legs? Don't be anxious. You'll have plenty of that after my father dies."
"Your father and I don't..."
"Spare me the details, you slut, whore and old man-taker! You're nobody. You're a worm. Poor, frail and useless."