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“Relax, Sugar, I’m joking. Rémy and Maxim are in the car. They’re pissed, but they’ve agreed to let me talk to you first.”
“I wasn’t running. Not really, I just needed to…to…”
“Heal.”
“Yeah.” But not from my injuries.
“They were scared something happened to you.”
“You weren’t?”
“I knew you weren’t in danger, especially not when we found out Dorian was dead. I figured you were licking your wounds. Wounds that he created but that I picked at with my callous words. I’m sorry.”
“No, you were right.”
“I was a dick. I know nothing about what happened, but I’d like to know if you’ll tell me.”
I blow out a breath and look over at him. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I thought I was going to lose you and that you wouldn’t know how I feel about you.”
“I know how you feel, angel. I can see it in your eyes. Nobody has ever looked at me like you do.”
“How do I look at you?” I whisper.
“Like I’m your home.” He reaches over and cups my cheek, looking at me with so much love. “Tell me.”
“The marriage contract between Santos and me was made when I was twelve.”
He grunts but doesn’t say anything, taking my hand in his and squeezing.
“I was so mad. I didn’t want to marry Santos. Hell, I didn’t want to marry anyone. I was a fucking kid, but what I wanted didn’t matter. The contract was signed, but Santos wasn’t happy that my father insisted on waiting until my eighteenth birthday before we got married. He should have been more specific.”
“What do you mean?”
“He didn’t say Santos couldn’t touch me, just that he couldn’t marry me.”
Calix wraps his arm around me and pulls me into his body. “How old were you?” His voice is hoarse when he asks.
“The first time he raped me? Thirteen. A year to the day he signed the contract. It was a fuck you to my parents for thinking they had any power. He told me if I breathed a word, he’d go after my sister. She was only eleven”
“Fuck, I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry about. You didn’t do anything to me.”
“Didn’t I? I dragged you out of that fucking house and handed you over to a monster. I knew something wasn’t right about Santos, but I didn’t know how bad it was. I never bothered to look below the surface, too cowardly to rock the boat.”
“And when you did, look at what happened to you. You were the only person who stood up for me, who told Santos what he was doing to me was not okay. That’s why I couldn’t let you die in prison. As mad as I was at you, I never forgot that you were the only person who gave a damn.”
“I would have spent the rest of my life behind bars if it would have spared you.”
I don’t know what to say, so I just snuggle closer. “You know you really are my husband. I was never married to Santos.”
“I know. Makes me the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet.”
His words provide the comfort and acceptance I need to carry on. “I met Dorian when I was sixteen,” I tell him softly. “He was the only person that didn’t treat me like a leper. Nobody would touch me. Most people barely said a word to me. Even my parents turned the other way because, as far as everyone was concerned, I was now the property of Santos Cirillo. Dorian was different, or at least I thought he was. He was soft with me, gentle.” Despite what I taunted the man with, he really was my world. It’s what makes the betrayal cut so much deeper.
“He reeled me in like a white knight with promises of escape. He treated me like I was spun from gold, and I soaked it up like a flower starved of water.”
“You loved him.”
