Page 44 of Master A-0011

“If you didn’t on some level, you would have given me more resistance. You didn’t. You want it, even if you won’t admit it to yourself. All I’m doing is erasing the doubt. Answer, Pearl.”

Even as I tried to think, my eyes searched the room for an escape. There was only one door and there was no way I was getting past Elec. I had to buy myself time. I had to…do something. But could I? I knew there was no escape fromthe Gardens. But maybe after? After…. nothing.There was no escape.

“Pearl.”

I jumped at the hard, impatient tone, trying to get my memories to make sense. Was it true? Did I really want this and just not know it? We had been…good together since we decided on this.Ethan worshipped me. That morning as he brought me in…he’d been so upset that we had to be apart. No one had ever wanted me around. Ethan did. We’d spend the last few hours making love. Kissing just to kiss. Staring into each other’s eyes through foreplay. So many declarations. So many plans for our future. Had I really meant those things? Had he? Was that really what I wanted? Maybe it was my true self. The one who I never got to be? I was so confused. Nothing felt right. I was two people, but which one was really me?

“I can go anywhere?”

“Almost. You tell me where you want to go, and I’ll say yes or no.”

“Paris?”

“Done.”

Finality. It gutted me. Gutted me just like I gutted slaves during training to cook for Ethan. That wasn’t something I could justify or ignore.

“Elec.”

“Don’t do it, Pearl. Don’t even think about anything other than your fate. You will be Ethan’s wife and you will love him. You will make him happy, and I give you my word, he will do the same for you. I’ve given you this new life. Don’t try to betray me and make me take it away.”

His arms came up, crossing over his wide chest.

“Next question. Your mother died when you were eight. Before she passed, you had a very close family. Would you say your life was good?”

The question was like whiplash. It was hard and clipped and confused me even more. I hadn’t thought about my family in years. It was too painful. Too raw and devastating. If I had memories, they revolved around the accident. I was stuck there. Trapped in a nightmare. “Yes,” I forced out.

“But when she died things changed?”

“They did.”

His brows drew in as he blinked through thoughts. “Your mother had a sister.”

“My aunt Carmela.”

Elec gave an encouraging nod.

“Yes. Did she ever come to you? Try to take you in after your mom passed?”

Seconds went by as I waded through the sludge in my mind. “She came over a few times. I can barely remember. My father didn’t allow me to see her. He told me she went crazy. That she wasn’t to be trusted, and that I could never see her or my mother’s side of the family again.”

“Of course he’d try to keep you away from them.”

“But…why? My father is with Ethan. He wouldn’t even speak to me before I left.”

“He’s speaking to Ethan just fine. Your father killed her Pearl. He killed your mother because of an affair she was having.”

“W-What?” Silence. I could barely see his face through the welling tears. My heart squeezed, and the ache was unbearable as I tried to search out words.Memories.Nothing. Nothing was there that would have shone guilt on my father’s account. “I don’t understand what’s happening? This isn’t making sense to me. She had an affair with who?”

“My father. But that’s not important. Or maybe it is. That’s what I’m trying to figure out. You had a cousin.”

More tears. They came with shock and pain. I sobbed, trying to hold in the heartbreak for my mother. I couldn’t, but I couldn’t keep crying either. Not at the new fear growing at the Main Master’s intensity.

“Your cousin, Pearl.”

“Vivia.”

“Yes.” He stepped closer. “Tell me what you remember of her death.”