"It doesn't matter anymore, Adam. But you know what puzzles me? You never asked me what I wanted to do. You never asked me to marry you. You never offered me any decent options. You didn't give me any freedom, not even to talk to you about my feelings and the thoughts that plague me. I'm not important to you, Adam. How you feel about me is offensive. Everyone can, at some point, talk to you honestly, except me. What could I expect from a relationship like that? Neither of us is happy."
"I've always tried to find out about your preferences, yes. But I didn't ask you. I didn't want you to think I was too interested in your life, and what you did, and you might interpret my interest as stalking and... Are you trying to tell me something?"
"Nothing other than what I said. We're opposite souls, Adam. And if we stay together, we're going to get hurt."
"You don't have a choice, Anna." Adam said and smiled. "How can you think of hurting me?"
"I can deny what you deny me, Adam."
"I... Are you going to deny me my freedom? Are you going to order my werewolves to follow in my footsteps?" Adam asked sarcastically.
"No, Adam. I wasn't talking about freedom. I wouldn't need it if you didn't deny me something much simpler, love."
Adam felt his heart break inside his chest. He wanted her to feel loved, but if he allowed her to know... She was a very transparent girl, and her enemies would use her. Anna was his weakness. How could he explain that to her?
"Are you enjoying studying to be a lawyer?"
"Yes. I like memorizing law numbers." She replied wryly.
Adam smiled and felt that they were becoming relaxed again.
"Why did you choose this profession if you don't like memorizing numbers?"
"The salary, among all the other professions, seemed attractive to me."
"Doctors can earn more than a lawyer, if they're good."
"I have problems with blood and needles."
Adam turned to her and noticed that the passionate gleam had returned to her eyes.
"So, everything okay with you about Kate?"
"Yes... It's Sarah who worries me." Anna said and regretted it immediately afterwards. He couldn't have known that she knew the truth. However, his curiosity was growing. Why didn't Adam want her to know? Why was he keeping it from her that Sarah had destroyed his family? It wouldn't affect him at all, after all...
"Why? Sarah is obnoxious, but she's also harmless. I... She has knowledge of witchcraft, and that helps the werewolves. We need to keep a witch around."
"You keep her around because you like having sex with her and Kate. You've already told me that I'm not enough to satisfy your sexual appetite. But I don't care about that. I already feel like crap, infected with intimate contact with an animal. It's not just who you take to bed, Adam. Sarah is an enemy and I consider her dangerous. She's still going to prove to you that I'm right, and I won't need to worry about doing anything to destroy her, rotten fruit falls by itself."
"Sarah came to me many years ago, Anna. She's like one of my family. I wanted you to consider her your family, too. Part of our families." Anna didn't reply and hugged Adam. She wouldn't tell him, but he and the child he was expecting were the only family she needed.
...
The next day, Anna thanked God that Adam was a wise man and had made her aware of the deal he had made with Kate, because she had started her attacks early on, while they were having breakfast, and Sarah was helping her. Anna, who knew everything beforehand, received the insults with a debauched and ironic smile. She knew that her belly was growing, and if she didn't manage to escape, Andrey would finally know that he was going to be a father. That would change everything. She had no reason to believe that he would hesitate to kill her and the child, or at best, lock her up somewhere damp and closed, from which she would never come out to see sunlight again. And if that was her fate, perhaps she would need the charity of those women if her child was to be spared. She couldn't ask Adam's men and werewolves for help, because Adam had won the unconditional affection of all of them, after she herself had brought them together. They now considered themselves part of the family, and although they liked her, Adam was the boss and everything she did was provided by his money.
Anna was feeling more alone than ever. Before, she wouldn't have cared about the future, but now she had to worry about the life that was the most important of all. Her son's life. Anna looked forward to the day when she would meet the child and hold him in her arms. She made a point of filming his first moments in the world. She still hoped that he wouldn't be an active werewolf. She'd asked Jenna, and she'd told her that werewolf children don't always manifest their animal side. She wanted her son never to know what he really was and to do that she needed to keep him away from that life.
After breakfast, Anna went to her room and stood in front of the mirror. She looked at her protruding belly with concern. It wouldn't take much longer for someone who wasn't supposed to notice it. At first she was worried that her belly wasn't very big, but the werewolf doctor assured her that there was nothing wrong with the child, and that her belly would grow at the right time.
She took a deep breath, pulled down her shirt and went out into the corridor that would lead to the stairs so that she could help in the kitchen, wishing that Kate and Sarah had already gone somewhere else. She didn't want to run into either of them. What she didn't expect was to see Sarah waiting for her at the top of the stairs with a furious, demonic look on her face.
Anna thought about going down the steps pretending not to see her, but she boldly grabbed her by the arm, with a strength that Anna had never believed she had until that moment.
"You're pregnant! You cheap little whore!" She charged with enough hatred to set a crowd on fire.