"You think you can fool me?"
Alina jerked her arm, trying to pull free, but his grip only tightened.
"Let me go."
"You think I don't know every way out of this castle?" He said. "I know every door, every gate, and every corridor. I know when a latch is lifted and when a door is opened." He leaned slightly closer.
"I know when the woman in my bed is pretending to sleep and what she is planning."
She stopped struggling. There was no point. He had found her, and she knew he wouldn't let her go.
"I just wanted to see him," she said in her broken voice. "I just wanted to say goodbye. I know he sold me…but he is still my father." She sobbed.
"He wasn't always like this. There was a time when he loved me. And how he's dying, and I just wanted…"
She could not finish. The tears came all at once. She sobbed so hard that it shook her whole body. She covered her face with her hands and just cried without restraint.
