Madame

Chapter 21

Karina's POV

I can't get what Andrew said out of my head. His voice poisons my thoughts every time my brain has a moment of peace. There is no way he knew too much about my father. Mr. Ali seemed like a rather discreet man, though I doubt he spoke about such a low life to his son. He probably wanted his son to stay as far away as possible from my father. Hell, I don't blame him.

It's been about a week since my uncle called me in a rage while Elizabeth and I were in my room. My uncle yelled at me for the sudden disappearance of Andrew to which I obviously played dumb too. He asked me if he was dead and I answered honestly, telling him I had no clue. He didn't believe a word I said but I didn't care. The only evidence he had was the statement of Andrew's little brother saying he didn't meet him for breakfast the next morning. To which I responded with "I don't know. He tried to make the moves on me and I shut myself in my room and when I woke up he was gone." At Least the first part was true.

I assumed that my uncle or Ismail had demanded the video footage of the apartment's lobby. But since Eizabeth is on her shit, she had Ji-hoon and Cairo on it before they had even gotten there.

Either way though, I need to go back to Marseille. To my uncle. He knows nothing but he's growing suspicious of my whereabouts and if he wanted to really find me he could. His goons are especially good at finding people unfortunately.

I walk out of my room and down the stairs, praying that Elizabeth would be alone. I mean not that she's going to freak out but she doesn't like the idea of me going back to my uncle. She's learned to not trust him as far as she can throw him.

She was alone. She was outside with Lili who was on her scooter, going up and down the long driveway. I walk up behind her and her head turns back to me and she offers me a small smile, "Everything alright?" I know she doesn't really care what happened, she just wanted to know who had been on the other side of the phone last week, she's been asking everyday.

"It was my uncle." I sit beside her on the step, resting my elbows on my knees and resting my face in the palms of my hand. "And? He know anything serious?" She asks and that's when I see a stream of smoke leave her lips.

"Are you smoking?" I ask her, my face contorting in surprise and disgust. "I'm not addicted, I do it when I'm really stressed." She says calmly, taking another drag and puffing it out. I scoff, "Said every addict ever. You really wanna go down because of lung disease?" I ask her, coughing a little as the smoke meets my nose.

She looks over at me, dropping the cig our feet and stomping it out with her shoe, "Answer my question." She says, rolling her head around and gripping the side of her neck. Jesus, how is she so attractive without even trying? The bitch stretched her neck and I'm dripping.

"No, but he's going to find me. I need to go back before he does. It would only cause problems for you." I say softly, watching the young girl come back up the driveway, her puffer making her look like a marshmallow.

I look back to Elizabeth, "What?" Her voice comes angrier than I expected and her eyes waver for a second before looking away, "You're going back? After what you've done? What have we done? He's going to kill you." The worry in her voice makes my cheeks flush and I hide my face behind my hair.

"He won't touch me. But I can't say the same for you. If he finds me here, Elizabeth, he'll-" She shakes her head , "If he finds you here, my people will deal with it. We can move back to America for a while. Lay low while Ismail tries to figure out where his best customer went." She states like this is the most obvious solution.

"Like I'll be any safer in America. Place is so corrupt that I don't even like my own mother going there anymore... Anyways, I'll be going soon.I won't stay as long as I did last time, just long enough to get back on my uncle's good side and possibly Hugo's." I explain my plan to her but her expression doesn't shift. Her eyes trained on her daughter who now is kicking a ball around by herself.