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"You look beautiful," Gregor told me, leaning towards me to close the distance between us. I could smell the aftershave he was wearing, choking my lungs with the heavy scent of it.
"Thank you," I replied. I couldn’t believe I was here tonight, but it wasn’t as though he had given me much of a choice. Gregor had told me, earlier that afternoon, that I was coming out to dinner with him, at Pote’s, a fancy Italian place that I would never have normally been able to get a table at.
"It’ll be good for you to get out of the house," he told me, as he leaned in the doorway of the guest room I had been sleeping in. "Drink some wine, talk … relax …"
The rest of that sentence hung in the air, threatening, dangerous. I knew what he wanted out of tonight; there were no two ways about it. I wished there was some way I could fight it, some way I could avoid the inevitable, but I had put him off for weeks now, and he was only going to get more and more demanding with every day that passed.
And so, he had sent down this ridiculously short and low-cut dress for me to wear, along with a pair of sky-high heels that had me tottering around dangerously with every step. I hadn’t bothered doing my makeup, not wanting him to think I was dressing up for him, and my hair was loose and unstyled around my shoulders.
I felt as though I was on display in this dress, like he had picked it out especially because he wanted the world to see what he had laid claim to. I had noticed a few people looking in our direction when we had arrived, probably wondering what someone of my age was doing with someone like him. The thought of their judgement made me want to cry—but not as much as the thought of what was to come next.
I knew what people thought of us. Hell, I had seen it written all over Alex’s face when he had seen me the other day. I didn’t know he had taken over his father’s business. He'd dropped out of Leo’s life when our dad had started having real money problems, and I guessed he was just a fair-weather friend who we were better off without, but maybe there was more to it than that. I didn’t know.
But he acted like I should have been trying to find a way out of this, as though I hadn’t already turned around the possibilities a million times in my head already. If there had been a way out of it, I knew I would have found it by now. I had to go through with this, whether I wanted to or not …
Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as I thought. I eyed Gregor from the other side of the table, trying my best to convince myself, even though I was having a hard time trusting that right now. He might not be all that repulsive, right? I mean, maybe once, he had been handsome …
But, as he took a long sip on his wine, I knew my disgust towards him wasn’t exactly to do with the way he looked. No, it was to do with the person he was, the person he had shown himself to be—willing to cause harm and do whatever he could to get what he wanted, willing to twist me around his finger and push me into a corner so he could have me just the way he wanted me. No decent man could ever have done that. No man I could ever have cared for could have treated me that way. He was a monster, and I was just reacting the way anyone else would to a creature like him.
I reached shakily for the glass of red wine sitting next to my untouched entree. I didn’t want to eat tonight. I knew I was losing weight, but I hoped if I wasn’t well, I might not be able to get pregnant. Did it work that way? I had never been with anyone before; I’d never really had a reason to look into all of that.
And perhaps it would have been easier to just get pregnant. Then, there would have been no reason for him to lay a hand on me at all. I could escape his grasp; tell him I was sick and didn’t feel like it … but I would still have to carry his child. Bring into the world an heir to this fortune he had made for himself. How could I do that? I’d thought about having children, of course I had, but with someone I loved and cared for, not a monster who would do anything to squeeze what he wanted out of me.
"You should eat," he ordered me, voice terse. "You’ll need to keep your energy up for tonight."
I shuddered. Did he notice? Did he even care if he did? He had watched me tense every time he had shown interest in me. He couldn’t be that stupid; couldn't really think there was any chance I was actually interested in him. But it was clear some part of him really liked that, liked knowing I was doing this against my will. I had no control here, and he enjoyed it. Enjoyed seeing my shudders and shivers at the thought of his hands on me.
I picked up my fork and stirred the food around my plate a little, making the pretense of eating something in the hopes it would be enough to shut him up. I doubted he gave a shit about whether I was fed and cared for. He just wanted to make it clear that there was no way for me to get out of this, not after I had spent so long trying to escape it.
The waiter came over to top off my wine, and I squeezed my eyes shut and silently said a prayer. I wasn’t even sure who I was throwing it out there to, just someone, anyone who would listen to me right now. I had never believed in all of that spiritual stuff, but I was at my wit’s end at this moment, and I would have taken any kind of help I could get.
When I closed my eyes, there was only one person who sprang into my head: Alex. He was the first person I had seen from my old life in such a long time, it felt as though he had burned himself into my brain—the memory of him, of that crush I’d had on him when I was a teenager, so fresh in my head it was impossible to ignore. He was older now, sure, but there was still that something about him—those dark curls, dark eyes, that olive skin that seemed to glow almost gold in the light spilling into the library. When I looked at him, I felt a flicker of what I knew I was meant to feel for my husband, real desire, real want.
But I was trapped, right now, with the man opposite me. And I was going to have to find a way to get through the night without losing my mind, one way or another.
All too soon, the plates had been whisked away and replaced with dessert. My stomach turned at the thought of taking a bite of the tiramisu in front of me. I sipped on the wine, hoping it would get me drunk, but it just gave me a pounding headache. Gregor, not wanting to make the same mistake he had made on the day of our wedding, took his very slowly, watching me the whole time.
His eyes moved up and down my body, staring at the deep V that showed off my cleavage. I hated being on display like this for him. It was one thing to dress up for someone you actually wanted, but to get all dressed up for someone you despised? It made me feel disgusting, like I could have crawled out of my skin at any moment.
Once dessert was finished, he paid the bill, making sure I saw how much it cost—as though that would have impressed me. I was sure even something like that was pocket change to him. If anything, it just made me even angrier, knowing that he could have, so easily, just brushed off the money that my father had owed him. He could have made life that much easier for my family, but he chose not to, because he clearly got off on the power he had over us.
Got off on knowing that I couldn’t say no.
"The car’s waiting," he told me, offering his arm to me. I pretended not to see it, dropping to the floor to adjust my shoes slightly. I wanted to buy as much time as possible. When I got to my feet again, I found one of the waitresses giving me a sympathetic look, as though she knew what was going to happen. I wanted to call out to her, beg her to get me out of this somehow—plead with her to free me from this fucking nightmare. But there was nothing she could do, nothing anyone could do.
He pushed open the door for me, and I stepped outside, shivering in the cold evening air. I hadn’t thought to bring a jacket. The car was parked just a few feet away, and Gregor led the way, opening the door for me.
I hesitated for a split second, eyes darting up and down the street as I tried to work out how good a chance I had of making it out of here before he caught me. But it wasn’t about how far I could run, no—it was about how easy it would have been for him to catch up with me, no matter how much distance I put between us. I let out a long sigh and stepped forward, resigning myself to the inevitable …
And then, I felt it. A hand on my arm, yanking me back. I cried out in shock, but before I could make another sound, a black bag was pulled tight over my head, covering my mouth. I stamped my leg back towards whoever was behind me weakly, trying to make it look like I was fighting, but, in truth, I wanted to let whoever it was take me.
Because whatever they had in store for me couldn’t have been worse than what my husband did.
Chapter Six – Alex
I slammed my foot down on the accelerator, tearing away from the restaurant in the confusion before Gregor could give chase. With the tinted windows and a balaclava pulled over my face, I doubted he would have been able to see me, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to find out.
Morgan didn’t fight it at all, slumped in the back seat of the car like she couldn’t wrap her head around what was happening. Was she okay? Was she hurt? My eyes darted towards her as the two guards on either side of her penned her in, making sure she couldn’t make a dash for the doors.
