“How…?” I quietly address the young woman. “You’ve forgotten your name.” When she turns around, she lounges and looks over my bare legs, and as if for comparison, raises her right hand and twists her foot.
“Karina.”
“In my room there’s dust.”
“Do you want me to tell you where to get a rag?”
“No, I need you to go and wipe the dust in my room,” I say, playing innocent.
She doesn’t like it. After tossing her hair over one shoulder, she arrogantly lifts an eyebrow.
“And who are you to make me do it for you?”
“Adam’s wife. The lawful one.”
“And I’m Adam’s girl. The beloved…”
“And also a maid,” I remind her with a smile.
I’ve become a bargaining chip—guaranteeing peaceful coexistence between two families. My father gave me to Litovsky, his enemy and brother’s murderer, and the man moved me into the same house with his mistress. That’s how we live: he is disgusted with me, and I hate him with a vengeance.