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My ears rang. “I-I—” I swallowed hard. “What do you mean...get her pregnant again?”
He patted my cheek, chuckling. “Smile, Aslan. You’re going to get what you miss most of all. I’m giving you what you need. And I’m not even going to strap you into the chair again, even though I suspect you greatly need another session. I won’t hurt you again because I see now that Neri is the key to your obedience above everything else. Pity I realised that too late. But at least your little stunt tonight proved that once she is here, you will behave yourself. I know you will. Because you value her life over yours.”
I couldn’t keep up. I felt electrocuted by his words, just as excruciating as the machine. “I-It wasn’t a stunt. I truly can’t fuck anyone—”
“Only Neri.”
“Even her. I never touched her. I can’t—”
“Are you not listening, Aslan? You can’t lie your way out of this. You can’t try to convince me that you’re a sad little virgin who’s always had a cock that doesn’t work. You can’t hide the truth.”
“What truth?”
“The truth that you and Neri had sex.”
“You can’t possibly know that unless you had cameras in our fucking bedroom—”
“I have evidence.” He grinned. “Want to see?” Putting his empty glass down, he went to the bookcase, tilted a particular leather-bound volume, and revealed a safe tucked in the shelves. Inputting the code, he opened it, yanked out a photo, and marched back toward me.
I stood by the cold fireplace.
I couldn’t fucking move.
He grabbed my hand that wasn’t wrapped around my cane and shoved the photo into it.
“Here.”
I raised the picture.
And every smothering imprisonment, every painful shock, every slice, dice, cut, and flay disintegrated.
The conditioning he’d wrapped me in.
The reprogramming he’d forced into my brain.
It broke, smoked, burned to the ground, and I remembered.
Everything.
I felt.
Everything.
I choked.
On everything.
Tears shot to my eyes as I drank in a picture of Neri. She stood on The Fluke. Her face was drawn, her eyes full of sorrow. In her arms, she held a heavy wreath made of pretty flowers. They were moored off Low Isles. The island where we’d married beneath the moon and consummated our vows beneath the stars.
He’s been spying on her.
All this time.
“Do you see the similarities, Aslan?” Cem said softly. “My men zoomed in as much as they could, but it’s enough to see the truth.”
My wet gaze tore from the love of my life and locked on the little girl tucked in Jack’s arms beside Neri. A little girl with chocolate hair, blended skin, and such a serious little mouth.
Mine.
The truth slammed into my chest, making me woozy.
Mine.
I knew that in every cell, every atom, every nucleus, and breath.
I couldn’t look away from her.
My heart wouldn’t stop pounding.
“You have a daughter, Aslan,” Cem whispered, slotting into my side. “I joked to Neri on the phone recently that perhaps I would make your daughter my heir, seeing as Neri still believes you’re dead.” He tapped the photo. “In fact, this was taken a couple of years ago. They held a funeral out to sea for you. The flowers floated long after they’d gone, all while fish nibbled at them from below. But your daughter never threw her wreath. She gripped it tightly and took it home with her.”
He pried the photo out of my seized hand. “You’ll get to meet her soon enough. I’ll ensure my men bring both girls to you. Won’t that be nice? Your girlfriend and your daughter. We’ll have a family reunion, just the four of us.” His voice filled with undiluted joy. “I will finally get the chance to have a child running around.”
He’s a psychopath.
He truly believed we could be happy after all of this.
That I would let him trap them just like he’d trapped me.
I’ll kill him.
Tonight.
Before he kidnapped Neri and my...my daughter.
Fuck.
My chest spasmed, and my hand slipped on my cane. “W-What’s her name?”
Cem finished locking the photo away before turning to me and grinning. “Nerida named her Ayla. I must admit, I like that she chose a Turkish name. She will make a good partner for you. I see that now.”
I blocked him out.
My ears buzzed. My head swam.
Ayla.
Neri called her after the moon. The moonlight and moon halo that’d guided us together. The one thing that was so sacred to us.
Fuck.
I couldn’t love her any more if I tried.
I missed her so fucking much.
She had a child without me.
She had to raise our daughter alone, all while she thought I was dead.
The guilt.
The regret.
The failing.
I couldn’t.
I can’t—
Pain roared through me.
Loss.
Grief.
Misery.
Sorrow.
It all centred in my chest.
It crushed my damaged heart.
And for the first time since the chair, the scattered beats that’d never truly healed from the thousand electric shocks forgot how to keep me alive.
A wrenching agony.
A terrifying nothingness.
I clutched my chest.
