Black Keys (The Colorblind Trilogy #1) - Rose B. Mashal

To Jaana Häkli, maybe it was me who gave birth to this baby, but you did all of the pushing. I love you.

Oh, God! I’d never let that pig touch me!

I shot up into standing position like the couch was on fire and looked around, finally really taking the room in. The sheets on the bed were white with red rosebuds all over them, shaped like a giant heart.

God! Oh, God!

I felt a bit lightheaded as I imagined myself on that bed doing what they expected me to do.

I ran to stand next to the bed where I saw colored lights coming from a window on the wall beside it. I looked closely, searching for a way to escape from that window but found none, since it was blocked by iron bars from the outside.

With hurried steps, I made my way to the door in the corner of the room, which turned out to be a bathroom, just like I had expected–a freakishly huge one, at that. I looked all over the bathroom for any sort of an exit but all of my efforts to find one came out fruitless.

My hands came to my collar and I yanked the button that held my robe together over my body and let it fall to the floor; it was choking me. I gripped the same hair that my brother had just let go of not ten minutes earlier and groaned in frustration, my tears out of my control.

That was it. There was no way out for me. No way at all.

My eyes caught my reflection in the mirror and I didn’t like what I saw. It was a sad girl with black tears running down her cheeks and a broken heart caused by her brother’s unfaithfulness.

In my frustrated state, I didn’t realize I had picked up a bottle of lotion from the counter and smashed the mirror with it until I saw the shattered pieces flying down to the floor.

Once I saw those broken pieces, a thought crept into my mind: I have to hurt the prince. There was no other way. I’d give up my own life before I gave up my body to him.

The whole building was almost empty as I was working late again. I think it was only me and the security guys there–it was past nine PM after all.

The manager in the London branch had been complaining about having to work so far from where his family lives–here in New York–and it seemed like it was affecting so many things in how he was dealing because all of the strategies and marketing he was doing were not as good as I would’ve liked them to be.

I only kept him because I knew he was the best of the best, and my father had trusted him all of his life to manage the main branch when he was away. I also hoped that things would get better soon, maybe one more year would help him get back on his always-has-been-perfect track.

“Look who’s here!”

The voice I’d longed to hear for what seemed like forever called out, forcing me to stop my rapid tapping on the keyboard of my laptop and to look up and away from the screen to where it was coming from.

“Joseph!”

I jumped up from my seat and ran into his arms, hugging him tightly and squealing in delight as he picked me up off the floor, spinning me around. My legs flew up into the air as I lifted them, overcome with excitement to finally see him face-to-face and not through a stupid webcam.

“Little Princess!” He put me down and kissed my hair, hugging me once more before pulling back a few inches to look at me; “I’ve missed you so much,” he smiled.

“Loser!” I said, punching him playfully in the chest, “If that was true you wouldn’t have stayed away this long without seeing your little sister,” I scowled at him, lips in a tight line, hands on my hips and all.

“Ah, I know, I know. And I’m so sorry about it, Sweetie. But you know it was out of my hands,” he sighed.

I did know it was out of his hands. It had been like that since my parents passed away last year when our private jet crashed with them on board, almost crashing Joseph’s and my world along with it.

It wasn’t easy for us to go on. Our parents were unlike any other parents in the world: they were the best mom and dad