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Chapter 2
Callie
Flopping on the couch, I hang my head in my hands. There’s a nagging pit in my stomach that's only intensified in the hours since it started. Since Xander left me stranded and I had to find my own way home… to any empty house.
I’m used to disappointment, stress and worry but this dread is a feeling I’ve never experienced before. Tonight, has left me shaken to the core and I don’t know what to do with myself as I wait impatiently for my father to return home. Every sound outside notches my anxiety levels higher. I tried cleaning up, but our small two-bedroom home doesn’t take long to tidy up. We live in a decent neighborhood, in a small suburb in New Jersey but our house is old and shabby. Still, I’ve always done my best to keep it clean and comfortable. It’s all my father and I have ever had and its home. The one place I always felt safe but not tonight. I keep my anxiety at bay a little longer by getting lost in the kitchen. Baking is my therapy. The problem with stress baking is stress eating. I’ve polished off half of the cake I made in less time than it took to make it and I still can’t get Xander’s words out of my head.
Was it a threat or a warning? I don’t know. His moods are like a roller coaster, that makes my heart sit heavy in my stomach. Despite the handsome features that line his face, there’s something sinister underneath it all. Something cold and calculating. I got a glimpse of that tonight when I refused him what he wanted, and it shook me to my core.
Picking me up over an hour late for our date got the evening off to a rocky start and it only got worse from there. Why I sat around and waited on him is beyond me.
All I could think about was the charming and seductive man I met three years ago. The first time I saw him he was meeting with my father. One look at him and my heart skipped a beat. I was only eighteen then. In so many ways I was still a child in his eyes. That all changed a month ago when I accidentally bumped into him outside the restaurant where I work and for the first time, he saw me in a different light. He saw me as a woman.
We’ve been seeing each other on and off since. Every date ends the same, him hoping for more than a kiss goodnight and something holding me back.
I roll his last words around in my head. The venom in them stings like a thousand bees. “You can’t hold out on me forever, Chochete.My little pussy.Someday soon I’ll bend you over and take what’s mine. When daddy’s gone, you're going to be begging me to be your salvation. Just wait and see.”
It’s now past two a.m. Nothing good ever happens after two a.m. I’ve been unable to reach my father for hours. His phone shoots straight to voicemail. That’s not like him.
Leaning my head on the back of the couch, painful memories flood my mind. Fresh tears sting my eyes. It’s been seven years since my mother died in a tragic car accident and our lives spun out of control but sometimes it still feels like yesterday.
When we lost her, my father lost himself. He drank and gambled, and it nearly cost us everything. I was only fourteen then and the weight of her death was heavy enough without his own grief compounding it, but I loved my father. No matter how lost he was, we still had each other. He neverfailed tocall me if he wasn’t going to be coming home.
Normally I wouldn’t get so worked up, but Xander’s words are making my mind work overtime. Twisting every possible scenario into something scary and tragic. Has something bad happened to him? Could Xander be responsible?
I pick up my phone and dial my father’s number for the millionth time only to be greeted by the same message when the front door flies open, making my head jerk up.
“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been worried sick.” I rush from my seat on the couch to my father’s side. Even with the dim lighting in the house, I can see his face is bruised and swollen, his clothing torn and hanging from him like a disheveled hobo.
“What the hell happened to you?” His sharp intake of breath alerts me to the pain he’s trying to hide. “And where the hell are your shoes?”
“I’m fine sweetheart, but we need to talk.”
“Did Xander do this? We need to get you to a doctor. That’s all we need to do right now.” The state of him has me frantic.
“I could ask the same about you.” I shoot my hand up to cover my split lip, but he sees it anyways. “Did Xander do that to you?”
“It was an accident.” I don’t know why I’m defending that despicable man. I may have grown up with little, but my mother taught me to have dignity early in life and that’s something no one can ever take away from me. I won’t let Xander strip me of that.
The side of Xander Iwitnessedtonight, is a side I never want to see again. I don’t know if it was sparked by jealousy or something more sinister, but I blame myself most of all. There were plenty of signs, I ignored, that he was not that man I thought he was. The rage in his eyes, when I hugged an old friend, could've started an inferno. If only I hadn’t ignored it to make an awkward night less uncomfortable, then none of this would have happened.
I cringe at the memory. If my father knew how bad Xander hurt me, I don’t know how he’d react. All I know is I’m too ashamed to tell him, so I continue to deflect.
My father’s hand brushes my arm and I wince at the pain of his tender touch on the bruises left behind by Xander’s rough ones. “He fucking hurt you, Callie. That’s why I must do this.”
“Do what?” The undertone in my father’s voice has me worried.
“Xander is an evil man and when he wants something, he won’t stop until he gets it.”
“Stop worrying dad, I won’t be seeing him anymore.”
“That won’t stop him. I can’t protect you from him like Dominic Delgado can.”
“What are you saying?” I sink onto the couch and my father takes the seat next to me, “What does he have to do with anything?’
He lowers his face into the palms of his hands and silence fills the air around us. When he lifts his head, his expression is stern and unwavering. “He’s a business associate and he’s the only one who can keep you safe. You will marry Dominic Delgado the night after tomorrow. It’s in your best interest.”
Despite his serious tone, I laugh. This must be a joke. One I don’t get. “Marry him? You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t even know him.”
