Chapter 26 - Twenty-Six

The book and the characters progress in their own. I request you to be patient and I assure you that Alexis is no damsel in distress. 

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"I uh, I had gone down to clear my head a bit." She replied.

"Hmmm," she felt vibration of his humming coming from his chest. The sensation went straight to her core. "Tomorrow morning when we wake up Alexis, I want us to start a fresh. What do you think of that?" He murmured in her ear.

"I would like to try." She honestly spoke what she thought she could do. She liked having power over people like today, but the killing disturbed her. Closing her eyes, she felt her eyes dropping. Unknown to her behind her back, he smiled, for once a genuine smile after so long.

*****

"Good morning to my lovely madam!" Agatha chirped out loud as she slided the curtains to have the sunlight come in. Alexis groaned, she never wanted to strangle someone as much as she did now.

"Come on now Madam, the sun's up in the middle of the sky!" Agatha hinted that she had slept in late and it was the afternoon.

"I assure you Agatha, I do not need sunlight to function anf I am certain that it is not helping me sleep!" She grumbled.

"Come on, Madam. The ladies are coming today. We've got to make you look more presentable than them." But this time she was fully wake to question her about the ladies.

"What ladies?" She asked, slipping onto her shoes and walking into the bathroom followed by Agatha.

"The second and third in hand' ranked men's women; Nikita and Isobel. Do not worry, I think you'll get along just fine." She assured her with a pat on the shoulder and helped her getting ready.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she checked for any mistakes like she did every morning. She was wearing dark blue dress that came to her knees and nude heels, a thin line of eyeliner and a pair of earrings with her hair straightened behind her back.

She looked back when she heard the door opening and two women stepped in.

"Hi I'm Nikita and this is Isobel." The first one said and then to look at Agatha, "leave." She ordered. Agatha waited and she looked at Alexis for confirmation when she nodded, Agatha left.

"Were forced into this too?" Isobel softly asked as she sat down on the couch.

Alexis sighed. She had nothing to hide anyway so she shrugged her shoulders and sat down next to her. "I am. Hasn't really been that long."

"Oh," she looked away. "I- we were too." She breathed in for what looked like courage to Alexis. "I was waitressing at an event and Vincenzo, the third in command saw me. Let's just say, I never went home after that." Then she looked at Nikita, "she on the other hand is the daughter of a capo. She has it a bit easy since- "

"Since I know how to work it out." Nikita finsihed. She then added while looking outside from the window, "I was the only daughter of a capo and betrothed to him since I was thirteen. Let's just say I'm a permanent possession of him that no one has an access to. Did you have any slip ups again Bell?" Nikita glanced her away when Bell lowered her head. 

"I did. I forgot that he had asked me to come to his office with lunch. I did prepare it but i feel asleep. I - he he didn't even listen to me before dragging me to that horrendous room." She couldn't help the tears that flew from her eyes. Alexis placed a hand on hers for comfort which Isobel was thankful for.

"Piece of advice for you, Alexis," Nikita walked to them and sat down infront of them on the bed. "Do as they say, then think of what they would like. They know that they have the power and they use it to bend things to their will." 

"You were born in this life Nikita, should not you have it easy? You must know things better than us." Alexis let her curiosity flow through.

"I did or so I thought. It's just the higher the rank of the person the higher is his ego. They know to keep their woman grounded but they are high up in the sky. My Father never really thought of restricting us to something. Of course there were limits and we had the shame to even think before doing a few things we never thought of anything that could bring him shame. I did the same with Silvano, turned out his opinions were way different and at the first mistake, he whipped with his belt in his office. It wasn't sound proof."

Isobel had calmed down enough to be angry now. "I hate them. Hitting us until we submit? Do you know Alexis that your punishments are going to gruesome as compared to us all? Why? Because you're the king's Queen, that makes you a person who represents every woman, that is, if you rebel, all of us are thinking of doing it. Anything out of line you do will have us all in trouble whether you meant or not."

Alexis got up and drank a glass of water. That was what it meant? She was so important that she had to be in line for other people? Now she definitely didn't want all of this.

'This, all of this is way too much. I can't do this, Nikita was whipped with people present, they knew what happened, they heard it. How pained would she be?' Alexis had a troubled past that she had no choice in but future was full of choices and she wasn't going to suffer again if she had the chance to prevent it.

"Madam?"

She looked to the source of voice and saw Agatha at the door. "The men are here. Please come down for lunch."

Isobel gasped. She had cried and the tears were a proof of it. She ran into the washroom to wash her face. Nikita looked at her with a warning clear in her eyes.. "Whatever you do, don't be an idiot down there and get us killed."