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The video starts with story after story of people and animals being connected, saving each other. Animals that were meant for slaughter. Dogs and cats to be euthanized because no one wanted them. Even reptiles, like lizards and snakes, were saved, all given to people who needed help. Some had mental health disorders, and others had physical diseases. Some were vets in need of animal support; others were just troubled youth, needing to find a purpose in their life again.
But, by the time the video ends, there isn’t a dry eye in the house. Even I have a few tears in my eyes, even though I watched Skye most of the video.
Then, dinner is served. I bide my time before I go see her. I allow her to make her rounds and talk to everyone that she is supposed to at the event. I let her worry and wonder if I’m really here or not. And only then, when she’s standing by herself, do I make my move.
She starts walking toward the restroom, and I follow her, needing a moment alone with her and knowing that this might be the only place that I can get just that. She walks into the restroom, and I step in right behind her.
A woman at the sink gives me a dirty look. “This is the woman’s restroom.”
“I know. I just need a moment with Skye here. It’s an emergency.”
Skye pauses when she hears me speak and glances over at the woman. “Could you give us a minute?”
The woman scoffs and walks out the restroom, leaving us alone. I turn behind me and lock the door, so I can have a few minutes alone with her.
She turns around and looks at me. She doesn’t seem surprised at all to see me standing there. “If you think you’re gonna fuck me in the restroom, then you’re crazy.”
I chuckle. “Never even crossed my mind.” I wink.
She smiles a genuine smile, and my heart sinks.
“You’re not with him because you love him, are you?”
She shakes her head.
I put my hands in my pockets to keep my hands off of her. I want to comfort her. Or fuck her in the restroom or do something to get rid of the pain hiding beneath her fake smile.
“I think I know why. It’s this foundation right? He has promised to stop funding it if you don’t marry him.”
She looks at me without blinking. Her eyes grow dark with a fire I haven’t seen sparking out of them before. “Are. You. Serious?”
I clench my teeth, trying to understand. “Yes.”
She shakes her head. “You men are all the same. No, I’m not marrying him so that he’ll keep funding my foundation. I don’t give a crap about his money, although it’s one item on the long list of things he’s tried to threaten me with.”
I take a step forward, unable to resist from at least holding her in my arms.
She puts a hand up, and I stop.
“I don’t need you to try to fix this. I’m not even sure that it’s something that can be fixed and definitely not easily.”
“Then, explain to me what’s happening. Because I’ve tried to come up with a legitimate reason you would marry that man or even go back to him after last night, and I can’t come up with any. He was the reason you were in pain in the Bahamas. He was the reason you were in pain when I saw you in Albuquerque. He’s the reason your hair is tamer, your piercings are gone, and that you would even consider living in a home as fancy as his, which doesn’t have an animal in sight. He’s the reason for everything bad in your life, so why stay with him?”
She runs her hand through her hair. “Because he owns me.”
My mouth drops. “Like, you’re his slave? Like, he paid money, and you’re now his property?”
She shakes her head. “No, but he might as well have. Gabe Cole is a powerful man who is used to getting whatever he wants in life. He’s threatened everyone I love in my life. My best friend, the princess—he threatened her in the back of her SUV. He infiltrated her entire security team. My friend, Alicia—he kidnapped her and then filled her so full of drugs that she couldn’t even remember what happened the next day. My grandmother is in a nursing home, and he stopped her oxygen twice. She barely survived. He wants complete control, and he gets that. I’ve tried to leave him several times before, but every time I do, he threatens someone that I love, and I just can’t. Because I think he might actually kill them. Or me. And, now that you’re in my life, he’ll threaten to kill you. That arrangement game he was playing with you at dinner was just a test to see how much you cared about me. He was just playing with you in order to determine if he could use you as leverage against me. He would never share me.”
“Have you gone to the police?”
“Of course. But he is the police. Everyone that I talked to believes his story over mine. I have no options left but to give him what he wants and figure out how to fight to get out of it later.”
I can’t stand it a second longer. I have to have her in my arms. And, this time, when I move to wrap my arms around her, she doesn’t stop me. And I’m thankful that she lets me hold her.
“You need to leave. Go far, far away from here. He knows what happened last night, and he’s not happy.”
I pull back just enough to look her directly in the eyes. “I’m not leaving you. I’m not going to let him hurt you.”
