Reign of a Billionaire : A Dark Mafia Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

I pushed my hand through my hair, forcing my feet to keep moving. “I don’t know.” I pretended all this wasn’t cutting through me. “Until last night, I thought Louisa was dead.”

Dr. Freud reached for her glasses, her hand shaking. She must feel out of her element, but to her credit, she hid it well.

“Are you certain she’s the twin you believe her to be?”

“Yes, damn it.”

“How can you be so sure?” My jaw clenched and it took everything in me not to snap. “After all, you believed her to be the other twin until yesterday. It’s easy to confuse identical twins.”

“Because she has the tattoo I gave her.” I held on to my cool. I couldn’t afford to lose the only shred of hope Lou had. “Nobody knew about it. Not even her sister.”

I stopped and took in the shoreline, the crystal blue water shimmering with rays, and fuck if it didn’t give me hope.

“I’m confused why you didn’t recognize her right away, then,” she pointed out.

“I saw her die… I thought

I saw her die in front of me.” The memories of her torture shredded through me, tearing my fucking chest to pieces all over again. “She was beaten and tortured.”

My voice cracked. I’d never gotten over it. Louisa was my soulmate. As children, we started as friends. I was her rock and she was mine. Our friendship grew right along with us.

“It sounds like she’s dissociating, Mr. Ashford.” Somehow, it didn’t surprise me. After all the shit I’d seen and survived, I knew our minds dealt with trauma differently than our bodies. “From what you’re telling me, she endured trauma and abuse. It’s possible she’s blaming herself for her twin’s death.”

“How do I get her back? How do I stop her from believing she’s her sister?”

“You can’t.” She stressed the words, narrowing her gaze on me. “She needs to do that work on her own.”

“That could take years.” My hands curled into fists, and her eyes dropped to them before meeting my gaze in disapproval. I didn’t give a shit what she thought. “We don’t have years. You’ll talk to her and fix this,” I gritted. “The house is that way, just follow the path.”

“Good thing I didn’t wear my heels,” she said with a hint of annoyance.

It wasn’t until she was out of earshot that Alexei said, “Are you okay?”

I nodded, more worried about Louisa than my own state of mind right now. “When you came for me,” I said, meeting his gaze, “I was the only one in the room. Right?”

“You were,” he confirmed. “You kept pointing to a spot, asking me to save her, but there was nobody there.” Fucking Sofia and her sick games. I would have never thought she’d be capable of torturing her daughter to the point of madness. “I have some news you probably won’t like,” Alexei added pensively.

“Oh how I love starting my day with bad news,” I retorted wryly, facing him.

“Well, it seems you haven’t slept much as it is, so consider it yesterday’s news.” Alexei hesitated before he continued in a low voice. “The girl we saved… Louisa. It turns out her name wasn’t Louisa at all. She was beaten until it was the only name she responded to.”

Interesting… Initially, I thought it a strange coincidence, but with everything that’d happened, with how fucked up the past few months had turned, it didn’t feel crazy to believe it played a part in all of this.

“Do we have her real name?”

He shook his head. “No, she refuses to talk to anyone.”

A long sigh left me. I suspected as much. She hadn’t uttered a word on the drive from the warehouse, but she’d clung to Liana—correction, Louisa the whole time. Alexei watched me intently. Waiting, it seemed.

“She’ll talk to Louisa.”

He nodded. “I thought it’d be our best bet.” His gaze darted in the direction of my home. “But how will you handle everything else?”

“I’ll help her remember.”

Because we’d been in love almost as long as we’d been alive.

Chapter 52Liana

“I’m here to talk to you about your twin.”

I stared suspiciously at Dr. Freud, who stood on the terrace outside Kingston’s home.

“What about her?”

“What do you remember about her?”

I narrowed my eyes. Who in the hell was this chick, thinking she could poke and prod about my sister?

“Let’s sit down,” she offered, and frustration flickered inside me. This wasn’t her office nor her home. She didn’t wait for me to take a seat, but she must have read my expression because she added, “Please. I’ve had a rough day, what with being forced out of my bed and dragged here.”

“Oh, you should’ve led with that…” I lowered myself opposite of her. “Who forced you out of bed?”

“This scary dude with blue eyes, covered in tattoos,” she muttered.

The corners of my lips twitched. “Alexei.”

“Yes, him. I want nothing to do with him.”

“Well, here’s to hoping.”

The note of sarcasm in my voice didn’t escape her, and she brought her pen to her lips, watching me closely.

“Are there hopes that were ruined for you?” she inquired. My mind rebelled as I thought back, the mental blocks making my temples throb. The harder I tried, the worse the pain got. “Do you remember?”

I narrowed my eyes on her.