“I won’t force you, but you look so beautiful today, and I thought the sunshine would make you look even better.”
“I…” She purses her lips and studies her perfectly manicured nails that she does herself, as she told me. “Okay, I guess. Just fifteen minutes, though!”
For a sheltered princess, she really is adorable. And Kirill is right, she’s neither violent nor messy. She’s just scared of the world and prefers her little cocoon.
I pull back the curtains before she changes her mind, and she physically winces at the light. I clean the chairs and the outside table and then place the tray on top of it.
Karina remains in the shadows of her room until I gently pull her out. She holds on to my hand with her sweaty ones and watches her surroundings like a trapped animal.
“The food is so good. Anna is definitely talented.” I bite with passion into the toast, trying to make her forget about where we are.
Her leg bounces on the floor, but when I offer her a cup of coffee with cream and sugar like she prefers it, Karina accepts it, her stance relaxing.
“Are the fifteen minutes over?”
“It’s only been three minutes, Miss…I mean, Karina.”
Her expression lights up, and she smiles. “You should totally become my guard, but that stingy Kirill was like,no,” she mimics his dispassionate tone.
“You asked him to make me your guard?”
“He didn’t even let me finish asking and flat out refused.”
I didn’t know that.
“But you don’t need a bodyguard, since, well, you’re always in your room.”
She purses her lips. “Of course I do. I can, like, try on clothes I order online, and you tell me what you think. I can do your nails and we’ll have meals together like this.”
That’s not really a bodyguard’s job, but I don’t tell her that.
Karina traces the rim of her cup and sighs. “We never had meals as a family, you know.”
“Why not?”
“Mama and Papa didn’t like each other, and they made it their mission that the three of us would be filled with hate, too.” She gulps a mouthful of coffee. “They made us compete against each other all the time.”
I lean over in my seat. “Compete how?”
“Kirill and Konstantin were at it way before I came along. At first, it was childish things like racing and grades, but then it was martial arts, shooting lessons, and how to perform under pressure.”
“Perform under pressure?”
The coffee cup shakes in her hand, some droplets falling all over the table. “Stupid psychological tests about mental endurance.”
“You…did that?”
“I had no choice! It was mandatory because Papa was an asshole.” Her eyes shine with tears. “I was thirteen, Konstantin was nineteen, and Kirill was twenty-one. We were dropped off on an isolated island and had to survive using whatever means necessary. I was glued to Kirill’s side, but I was taken by some scary masked men. Kirill came to save me, but there were too many of them. He was pushed down, beaten, burned, electrocuted, and I had to watch all the torture in real time. I was crying and screaming so loud, I fainted. Konstantin was the only one who passed that test since he found a boat and escaped. Kirill and I failed because we were supposed to be detached and act like Konstantin did. I never left my room after that. Whenever Mama or Papa forced me out, I would vomit, have a seizure, or faint, so they gave up and thought it was better to hide me from the world. A few years later, Kirill left me, too, and went to Russia.”
How…monstrous can a person be to do this to his own children? Karina isn’t this way because she’s mentally unwell. It was caused by trauma. That’s why she’s scared of being outside and is physically unable to handle the exterior world.
If that’s the most traumatic thing that happened to Karina, I wonder how many times Kirill was tested by his father to turn out the way he is.
If he was beaten, burned, and electrocuted at twenty-one, what else did his father do to him prior to that?
“I’m so sorry, Karina.”
She shakes her head and wipes the tears that have escaped from her eyes. “I already lost my parents a long time ago, but I thought I at least had Kirill. But he also left.”