September 12, 1491
"...I promise, I will ruin you."
Katerina's words sliced through me like a knife.
"I... I..." I stammered.
She raised a single eyebrow, a look on her face that I knew well, the look that told me she had won.
"I have to go." I muttered, raising from my seat. Katerina grabbed my wrist with a surprising strength that I had not known she possessed.
"You will not tell anyone." Katerina said, a warning edge to her tone.
"Alright!" I said, struggling against her grip.
"Promise me, Ana. Promise me you will not tell anyone."
"I promise!"
With those words, she released my wrist and stood up, flouncing past me with a smug look on her face.
My chest heaved as I willed the tears that were threatening to spill past my eyes not to come.
My sister had always been like this. Why was I surprised she was like this now?
When night fell, I was unable to fall asleep. I tossed and turned, closing and shutting my eyes, but to no avail. Eventually, I just lay still, listening to the sound of the wind outside my window.
At one point, as my eyelids were finally growing heavy, I heard my door creak. I froze. We had had people break in the house before, searching for gold we did not have. I tried to steady my breathing, make it seem like I was asleep. As footsteps entered the room, I painted a mental picture of what the room looked like, where I could run, and what I could grab as defense.
But before I could react, a hand was pushed over my mouth. I screamed, but it was muffled by the hand.
"Calm down, Ana, it's just me." A voice said in the darkness.
My rapidly beating heart slowed as I recognized the voice that was so similar to mine.
"Katerina..." I started, but she quickly shushed me.
"No one can know I am here." she whispered.
I frowned.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
She gestured to a bag at her side.
"I'm leaving, Ana. I'm going to start showing soon, and then Father is sure to kill me. I'm going elsewhere to have the child. I was going to ask you if you would go with me."
"Go with you? After the way you treated me?" I was suddenly angered at her.
Sadness flashed across her face.
"Fine. You can come with me or you can go."
She left the room, leaving me sitting on the bed in shock.
She couldn't leave! Her life was here, her family...
I was here.
"No." I said aloud.
I rushed outside, ignoring the winter chill that was to arrive soon. Katerina was already on her way.
I called out her name and she spun on her heels.
I ran to her.
"Katerina..." I panted, out of breath.
"You can't leave."
She shook her head.
"I have no other options."
"Then I'll go with you."
The words didn't only shock Katerina, they shocked me.
Even after the way Katerina had always treated me, I still could not live without her. And there seemed to be no changing her stubborn mind to change its path.
I nodded, confirming what I had just said.
"I'll go with you, Katerina. I will follow you wherever you choose. Just please. Don't leave me again."
A small smile spread over Katerina's face.
"Then we will leave. We will find somewhere for the child and I. And Mother and Father will never have to know."