Page 90 of Ripped Veil (Ripped Bratva)

She’s strong enough to sit there and tell me her story with dry eyes. But I’m not strong enough to hear it without crying. A tear slips down my cheek and she smiles at me. It’s an amused smile, of all things.

“Oh, honey, forgive me. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“No, you didn’t. I’m just… upset for you.”

It’s pathetic. This woman has suffered through hell and more, and yet, she’s the one forced to console me. Sometimes, I hate how damn weak I am.

No—I hate how weak they made me.

“Don’t be upset for me,” she says softly. “I was delivered from that hell. I was freed.”

“How?”

She raises her eyebrows. “Master Phoenix, of course,” she says. “Sometimes, life’s coincidences can be cruel. Mostly, that’s all they are. But sometimes, every so often… they can be miraculous.”

“What do you mean?”

“Master Phoenix had been tracking the man I worked for a while. He descended on the house the same night I decided to kill Mr. Gibraltar.”

She says it without the slightest bit of inflection. I do a double take. “You… you killed him?”

She nods. “After seven years with him, I’d had enough. I was not in my right mind that night. I was traumatized.”

“Of course you were!”

“I did exactly what I’d spent seven years dreaming of doing. And I was standing there with blood on my hands, literally, when Master Phoenix found me.”

“Oh my God…” Chills snake down my spine. But not because of the decision that Anna had made that night.

Rather, because I had made the same exact decision a year ago.

Or at least, the old me did. The Elyssa that’s still trapped somewhere in my traumatized brain. In the memories I can’t access.

All I have is bits and pieces of the night I made the choice to kill Father Josiah. The “why” is a mystery to me.

Then again, I suppose my “why” doesn’t really matter. I have blood on my hands, too.

Same as Anna.

She continues, “Master Phoenix pulled me aside, sat me down, had me explain who I was and what had happened. I told him everything. My story came pouring out of me and he listened to every word. It was unfathomable to me that a man like him could exist. Someone powerful but not evil. So when he asked me how he could help, I told him. I didn’t have any skills to survive in the real world on my own. I asked if he would hire me to take care of his home.”

I wipe away the stray tear, still lost in the few fragments of memory I can recall.

The black swan… the blood…

I’m distantly aware of Anna continuing her story. “… He wasn’t sure at first. I could tell he struggled with the idea of bringing a stranger into his home. But in the end, he agreed.”

I smile, thankful that Anna has found some peace. I’m also amazed and impressed by the man who had delivered her from her waking nightmare. A man I’ve always suspected was more than just his bristly façade.

And here is the proof. Sitting in front of me in living color.

So maybe his brusque, disinterested demeanor has nothing to do with him—and everything to do with me.

“Are you okay now?” I ask tremulously. “I’m sorry if that’s a stupid question to ask.”

She smiles. Her eyes are filled with stories. Most of them too dark to share.

“It’s not a stupid question,” she reassures me, reaching out to run her hand against Theo’s face. “I am okay. I have a purpose now. I know what I have do to. What I’m meant to do.”

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