Page 92 of Emerald

“Si, and Carmen has told me she wishes to be his, too,”Pedro explains.

“Carmen?”she questions.

“That is her name. Come, meet my wife,”he says, ushering me over to where they are standing.

“Pleasure to meet you,”I say, holding out my hand to her.

“I don’t shake hands with whores,”she sneers at me.

“She’s not a whore, my love, she’s different,”Pedro tries to explain to her.

“What is she doing in your suite, the one you frequent with your whores, during your parties. And don’t think I don’t know about them. I do,”she says, waving the gun at him.

“I was testing her. To see if she was worthy of Manuel,”Pedro states.

“With your cock,”she says, pointing the gun at his dick.

“Never,”he tries to reassure her,“she will be Manuel’s. She is different to the whores at the parties.”

“You think this is different to the whores out there?”she asks, waving the gun around. Hey, what the fuck, Anna. I’m your friend. You know me.Don’t forget she’s playing the role of a scorned cartel wife.It’s hard hearing her talk about me like this. I’ve missed her so much. This isn’t at all how I thought our first meeting after all these years would go.

“Manuel thinks so,”Pedro adds.

“You truly believe she is going to be his wife.”Anna sneers again at me.

“I promised I would allow him to divorce his wife for her.”

“He’s that serious?” Anna questions.

“Si.”

Anna lets out a huff.“Guess, I should get to know this woman then.”

Pedro looks relieved. “I think the two of you will get on very well.”

“Debatable,”Anna snips.

“Why don’t you take Carmen upstairs to your parlor and have some champagne and chat. I have business to attend to down here,”Pedro tells her.

“Fine. I will leave you to your whores. Come on, Carmen, let me explain to you how it’s going to be when you’re Manuel’s bride. You’re going to have to put up with your husband fucking whores.”

“My love, it’s my job.”Pedro sighs as if this is a common fight the two of them have.

“To fuck whores?”She glares at him.

“Si,”he snips and the look he is giving his wife changes, she has pushed him too far and he has had enough.

“Remember, for every whore you fuck I get to do the same.”She smirks. Pedro mumbles a prayer asking God to help him with his wife before she turns on her heel and storms out of the suite. The door slams shut behind us and we are in the basement of a home.

“Anna …” I gasp as we are alone.

“Not here,” she hisses at me before strutting off up the basement stairs, where we emerge into a luxurious, palatial home. It’s all white, marble and gold, very much what a cartel house would look like in the movies. She heads to a grand staircase, via the living room, which is full of art pieces and leather sofas, we then make our way up the curved white staircase to the second level. We take a right at the top of the stairs and down a corridor all in silence. Thankfully, she has puther gun away in her pocket, but I still feel uneasy about her being armed.

“In here,” she states abruptly, indicating to an open door and I step in and still. It’s as if a ball of pink bubblegum has thrown up everywhere. All I see is pink, pink, pink. There’s a bookcase filled with books, that’s bright pink, the sofas are another shade of pink velvet, the curtains are a softer pink and look out over the ocean. There’s a white and gold desk which breaks up the pink in a corner with a computer, but the chair is pink. There is a champagne bar set up in another corner serving pink champagne. This isn’t Anna at all.

“Elena. Is that really you?” Anna asks in Russian.

I twirl around and rush toward her, tears falling from my eyes as I pull her into my arms. “It’s me. It’s really me. I can’t believe it’s you. I thought you were dead,” I tell her.

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