Deception by Selena Rico (list of ebook readers .TXT) 📕

to creak open. “Alia.” Mama said. From my hiding place in the shower I could see my mothers eyes. They were red and puffy.
“No.” Alia whispered backing toward me.
“I’m sorry Alia. I’m so sorry.” Mama soothed. Kon came in, with that evil old man. Alia began to shake. Her body shifting the curtain I hid behind so that I had to lean down a bit more.
So much screaming happened then. I do not remember when I joined in with my dear sister. They pulled her from the restroom and out onto the floor. I followed, trying to help my sister, but what could I do? I was only eight.
They pulled and dragged her toward the stairs, all the while alia and I screamed. Some of the children began to cry and yell also, but I paid no attention. I clawed at Alias hand extended toward me. She was calling for me, but Kon had a firm hold on my waist. Some of the other Aunties began helping mother pull Alia down the stairs. My sister all the while, held out her hand to me. “Mika!” she sobbed. “Mika!”
“Let me go!” I cried, trying to claw at kon with one hand and reach for my dear sister with the other. “Alia!” My Sister twisted from their grasp, Making it just a few yards from the stairs when they caught her again. She fell to her belly. Her nails clawed into the stone, pealing it from the ground. Her fingers were bloody and so was her forehead. I struggled harder, praying to any god, any ultimate power, that would hear me, listen to me, help me. I had to save my sister. I broke free of kon, linking my hand with Alia who smiled at me. “Alia!” I Cried. Thank whatever being had heard me!
Alia clutched at my hand and pulled me to her. The world seemed to pause then. My dear sweet sister leaned in to my ear and whispered, “I love you Mika. I Love you. Thank you, but you have to let go now.” Her other bloody hand wrapped around mine and softly yanked it away. “Be safe Dear sister. Be safe.” Her cold damp lips pressed to my fore head. Kon grabbed hold of me then and pulled me up and away from my beloved Alia. They picked her up from her stomach and began to pull her away, from me, forever.
“No!” I sobbed, beginning to struggle again. I clawed at Kons hands hard tearing his flesh off. “Alia! NO! I love you sister! No!”
Alia fought screaming my name. I don’t know when it happened, but I felt a sharp sting in my neck and my eyes began to close, on the face of my beautiful Alia. It would be the last of her I’d ever see.
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I woke up on the floor by the staircase. “Alia…” I whispered under my breath, but for some strange reason I knew she was gone. I looked at the staircase, spotting the claw marks in the stone. My sister, who had told me the beauty of stone was forever, had unintentially revealed to me what destroyed its beauty…man. I picked up a rather large chunk from the pile of shavings. Blood coated it on the left side.
The last of my sister.
Kina sat down next to me. “Are you alright Mika.” I flung my head toward her, using my nails to slash a bloody line across her cheek. She screamed. Kina never hit me after that day. In fact, she never hit anyone. I played along, pretending things had become normal. How stupid.
Mama never used Alias name and all her stuff was thrown out. All of it, except my bloody piece of stone and a way out. I could have run at any time after that day, but the window remained closed. Leaving the geisha house would have meant leaving alia. I couldn’t do that.
The nail marks by the stairs were covered by a rug and every so often, after everyone was long asleep, id pull up the rug and remember my sister, her life carved in stone. “Thank you, but you have to let go now.” The words echoed in my mind. “I can’t sweet Alia.” I whispered aloud. “Let me hold on for just a moment longer.”

CHAPTER 1
“Kina…are you alright?” She was curled up on the floor, her legs tucked beneath her. She shook her head yes. “Do you want to talk?” I asked setting the tray of tea on the floor by her and lowering myself down.
“We have two more days, mika, two more days until our eighteenth birthday. That’s all we’ve got…until…” I shushed her. We weren’t allowed to speak of it. She turned her face to me. “Your hair is a bit long isn’t it mika?”
“I don’t think so.” I replied. Just like Kina, I thought angrily, to hurt others when shes upset. Kinas father was a noble man who even went as far as to write her into his will. Therefore, it was respectable for her to have long hair. My mother had no idea who my father was so it was expected for my words and hair to be kept short. My hair was to be kept above the shoulders, but secretly it ran down my back and to my thighs. I kept this secret by keeping my hair in a tight bun, but Kina knew of this, having been the one who taught it to me.
“Maybe not then.” She answered, shocking me. Something was wrong with her. Kina was never one to give up so early on the beginnings of a fight.
“Kina are you sure you’re alright?” I asked again. She opened her mouth, but then the doors opened and mama ran in.
“Mika, kina, hide! Hurry!” she cried forcing us up and pushing us into the closet.
“Wait mama what’s going on?”I replied.
“He’s here.” Mika said. “This was what I was trying to tell you.”
“Who’s here?” I asked. My mother gave Kina an angry look.
“I’m sorry. You didn’t give me enough time!” she told my mother.
“Enough time for what?” I ordered. Kina looked down.
“Lord Yamatos son has arrived.” Mama said. I froze and let them push me in the closet with Kina. A hundred questions ran thru my mind in the five seconds it took for an unfamiliar man to enter the room. None of them, I knew, would ever be answered.
“Where is she?” He asked mama. She shook her head. “Where is she?” he repeated.
“I do not know who you are looking for. I assure there are no girls here besides the ones you were shown.” Aunt Camilla replied, walking into the room. Kina hugged me and instinctively I wrapped my arms around her.
“The girl my Masters father took from here ten years ago…I was informed she had a sister. The Yamatos family wishes to buy her also.” The man told her.
I shook my head no. they couldn’t take me, not from here to the house of that awful man. I’d rather die. “I’m sorry, but even if such a girl existed she would not be for sale…not even to the Yamatos.” Mama answered with the sternest look I had ever seen on her face.
“Perhaps this is something you should tell the young master yourself.” The man said motioning toward the door. “It is safe to proceed young master Tatsuhiku.” I felt chills dance up my spine, Tatsuhiko, dragon boy. A person walked in dressed in all black, with a veil of coal colored silk covering their face. I was scared. Scared of this person and scared of his father and scared of two days from now, but I pushed Kina and walked out into the room.
“Mika!” my mother cried. “What have you done?” I shook my head.
“I assume you are whom we’ve been looking for?” the unfamiliar man asked. His accent was strange, unlike anything I’d ever heard. “My name is sir brokehurst. I am young master tatsuhiku’s butler and head guard. You are?”
“Mika.” I answered. He placed to fingers beneath my chin and forced my head up.
“What is your last name?” he asked. I shook my head. His gaze frightened me. “You find yourself so superior to me that you refuse to give me your full name?” I remained silent. My mother stepped forward.
“She has no last name! Her name is Mika and that is all!” She cried. I was scared. I should have stayed hidden. Exposing myself was stupid.
“Brokehurst, release her.” A boy said, the one draped in all black fabric. Reluctantly, the man released me. “Speak girl. What is it you wished to tell me?” I looked up from the ground and into what I believed to be the boy’s eyes.
“I am a geisha with no last name, no money, no real home, certainly no education and no power over you whatsoever, but I am not an object and I will not be bought.” I told him as defiantly as I could.
The boy stepped toward me, his shoes clacking against the marble floor. His cloaked face ended up inches from my own. “Object or not, everything and everyone can be bought. Just name your price.” His hand snaked behind me, pulling the pick from my hair and letting it fall down my back in thick black waves. “What is your price Mika?”I bit my lip. He cocked his head toward me, as if I had whispered something he had just barely caught. He began to circle me, trailing his hands across my arms and thru my hair. “No price?” he asked. “Well let me help you then. You have Fair skin, long hair, thin, maybe too thin that’ll reduce your price a bit. A virgin, meek, yes you’re worth quite a bit. I’m estimating about a few million.” My jaw nearly dropped. I was worth that much?
“A few million my lord?” mama gasped. Aunt Camilla elbowed her in the gut.
“I’m sorry, but no amount of money will buy this one. With a face like that she’d earn us more than that in the next year.” Kon told them.
“How much will buy her then?” The boy asked stopping his circle around me. “Any amount, don’t worry, ill pay it.”
“Young master, all this trouble for one fair peasant?”