Ilay set down his now empty glass and sighed out loud for everyone to hear it. He looked unbothered by the thick silence infused with anger and disgust which was all directed at him.

"So how many days do you have left, old man? I can start preparing for a wonderful burial in any city of your-"

A glass shuttered from one of them, followed by Faina springing to her feet wearing a murderous scowl. "You're as immature as ever! If you didn't want to come back, you should have just stayed and-"

She was cut short by Ilay's loud and cynical laugh. His shoulders shook to its intensity before, and then, it died out just as fast as it had come out. "This house is mine!" He said coldly, as if reminding them that he could kick them out any second he felt like it. "All these," his right hand moved to gesture at the room and everything in it, "are mine. This is the house of the next Drakon Czar."

Gasps reigned from every direction.
"Father! What does he mean?" Milan asked astonished by Ilay's revelation.

"Has father not informed you all? Oh well, my bad. Guess we could have broken the news to you on a more civilized occasion."
He added a mocking smirk that made him look like the devil's right-hand man.
And here I was, staring openly at Ilay's every expression with my soul feeling attracted to his madness.
This was what he was like. This dark villainous side of him made him hotter than he already was. Which was unfair to so many men.

A wild image crossed my mind of me under the table blowing him while he argued with his family. How tough it would be for him to concentrate. How delightful it would be to see him fight to speak as if I gave him pleasure.

He caught me staring, and just...smiled.
The kind of smile that said to me, 'I-know-what-you're-thinking-about'.
Flushed, I tossed it elsewhere, only to meet Irina's venomous glare fixed on me.

I raised my eyebrow questioningly and with a smug smile rattle her some more. Her own eyebrows scrunched, a pleasing reaction to my poking.
From what I had overheard earlier, she was Ilay's fiancee, but he shunned her for being Faina's sister. While that was true, I felt like there was more to the story than I knew.

With time, I'd unravel everything and learn of the deep bloody secrets this family was hiding. Everyone on this table, including the kids, they all seemed to carry a certain darkness with them. But Ilay's was darker and gloomier, and yet, I was willingly allowing him to draw me in it.
No, I was not planning on being the sun that dispels that darkness. Gawd! That's so cliche.
And no, I wasn't here to save him from his family or his enemies.
I was here...to enjoy the show.

************************************

I volunteered to wash the dishes and they lovingly let me. Well, more like dumping everything so I'd grow frustrated.
Dear heaven, they had no idea just how much life had taught me restraint in a few weeks.
I had been taught some important lessons since that day I walked into Ilay's dungeon; one, family is shit and they will abandon you anytime. Two, think with your head and not your heart. Three, blowjobs can save lives. Fourth, money means power, and power means money. Five, survive even if it means drinking blood to not starve.

'You Should See Me in a Crown' by Billie Eilish was playing in my ears, hyping me while I hand-washed the dishes used at dinner. The music distracted me from any unnecessary thoughts, filling my head with its lyrics.

I was so engrossed in the moment when all of a sudden, something icy cold splashed on my ear, neck, and shoulder from behind. My startled shriek broke the air as I  jumped to the side. 
The bowl in my hand crashed and broke on the plates in the sink, causing quite a mess.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Irina's voice came as I hurried to take off my AirPods to avoid any further damage. They had cost me almost three hundred dollars dammit. While that was a big deal to me, it was probably coin-change to the woman I was glaring at.

"What the fuck was that?" I demanded furiously.

She was grabbing a towel from the middle counter, acting all shaken up, and yet she didn't hide the smile on her lips. "Let me wipe that for yo-"

I smacked her hand away when she tried approaching me. "Don't touch me!"

"But, but... It was an accident," she defended looking at me apologetically.

I frowned even further before observing the amount of water on the floor and my clothes as well. The angle at which I had first felt it hit my body wasn't one that could be termed 'an accident'. She had intentionally splashed me with the ice-cold water.

I plucked the hem of my soaked t-shirt now clinging firmly to my breasts and groaned.

"Here, let me dry that..." She forcefully helped me, patting the towel on the wet patches of my t-shirt and neck while leaning too close to my ear. "I'm warning you, you nobody, you better ask for a divorce or I will make your life-"

"Miserable?" I finished as my hands shoved her away from me. These lines were as cliche as 'I will love you till the day I die' Romeo shit.
"Or that you'll find my family and make them suffer? Actually, you'll be doing me a huge favor." I grinned and Irina backed off giving me a confused death stare. She must have expected me to cower and run off to Ilay screaming, 'Please divorce and set me free'.

The disappointment and confusion painted on her beautiful face were delightful to look at. I would have continued the taunting, but I was beginning to freeze up from how cold the water was. If I stayed in the wet clothes three more minutes, I'd sure as hell catch a nasty cold.

"I see you've come to help me finish up the dishes. Well, I'll leave them to you. I wonder what Ilay will do when he finds out that the sweet-looking Irina has done-"

"Don't tell him!" She suddenly pleaded, her tone genuine to the fear it carried.
Well, this was quite a surprise. So she feared him. Why?
"I...I did it out of jealousy. He doesn't have to know, please."

I smiled plucking my ass from the edge of the sink. "Do a great job love. Clean every last one of them," I teased patting her shoulder as I walked past her.