With trembling knees, I stepped back, saying my last words, “I love you too.Ya vernus.”
I stumbled away from Alex, who leaned against his car with his arms crossed, watching me carefully, and rounded the corner only to have my world crash in half a second.
There he was, and not alone—three security meatheads stood behind him. An upgrade.
You can pick how he dies.
Alex’s words from the morning looped in my mind with every step I took closer to Xavier.
“Mon amour,” Xavier drawled, leering like the scumbag that he was. “I’ve missed you.” He reached for me, but I stepped back, refusing to make any physical contact. With a scoff, he let his arm drop.
Xavier didn’t look the same. His hair was styled back in a relaxed wave—I’d never seen him like that, but it was the look in his eyes that really made me shiver. It wasdark.Angry, impatient, and cruel.
“Did you have a nice vacation?” His smile was a borderline scowl, like he was giddythat he trapped me again.
I’ll carve something on his chest. Whatever you want.
“Where’s Olga?”
His smirk—it was stalling my breath, and I was suddenly plunged back into it all. The way he overpowered me. The way he manipulated, berated, anddisrespectedme. And that same tingle of fear ran through my thighs. I was physically smaller and weaker, and he loved to exploit that.
Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe…maybe I should have changed my mind five minutes ago because seeing him again brought it all back—threw me straight back into that dark, hopeless pit.
But it was too late now.
Xavier pressed a button on his phone and turned it to me, a video call ringing into the unknown.
The screen lit up in a few seconds and showed averypregnant Olga climbing out of a black car, and a man I’d never seen before passing her something. He pointed straight ahead and the camera panned to a parking lot and then back to her. Without missing a beat, Olga walked to a silver Mercedes G Wagon, unlocked it, climbed in, and drove off, the tires squealing on the asphalt.
“Safe and sound,” Xavier assured me before offering me his hand and motioning to his yacht. "Après vous."
I’d bedamnedif I touched him.
As if walking to the guillotine, I ascended the steps, my legs made of lead.
I’m not going to kill him quickly. I’m going to make it painful.
This yacht was where he almost killed me. I walked past the spot, raising my chin and breathing in the sea air.
I took a seat on a banquette in the shade, mentally calculating how this would go. Xavier sat down close by, already with a glassof champagne in his hand. There was a golden ring on his middle finger, and he was wearing white linen. White linen shirtandpants. The epitome of fashion, of course.
I leaned back and pulled my dress down as low as possible, wondering how I ever went for a guy like that.
He was charming at first. He showered me with attention and what I thought was care. He was the opposite of nonchalant, and I ignored the red flags. Or maybe didn’t know what they were at the time. They started early, during our initial dating period.
“You’re late.” Xavier looked up at me, already sitting at the table. There was a smile there, just not as warm as always.
“Sorry. I had a meeting run late, and the—”
“Uh-uh,” he interrupted me, just as I was sitting down, “a woman should never make her man wait.”
I chuckled and so did he.
But there was nothing to laugh about. Xavier tested and pushed my boundaries meticulously. He played games that I didn’t know I was a part of, and finally, he forced me into the same pattern that I had with my father—he coerced and controlled, and I fought back with every chance I had, having no clue how to escape.
The yacht departed from the shore, everything idyllic around us—the sea, the sun, the multi-million-dollar yacht. But just as my heart sank that we were left alone, I heard a shout from below deck. I sat up quickly, noticing that Xavier was on alert too, both of us listening to the sound of heavy footsteps.
And then his face dropped.
