AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Why come here now? It’s been five years. You had forgotten about me.” I tremble all over, avoiding Hugh’s eyes. He stares me down, taking in every detail about my body that’s changed. I’d tried hard to become a new person on Katantia. I changed my name, my hair, my clothes…
I used to dye it blond to fit in with the other rich daughters until I realized that my hair wasn’t the ticket to their paradise. It was my soul.
“I never forget about my investments, baby girl,” he states. “I raised you, and under unfortunate circumstances, we fell in love. I was your first, and I’ll be your last. It’s time to make the latter legitimate.”
“What does that mean? I don’t… I’m fine where I am. I want you to leave my office. It’s been five years. I don’t feel comfortable speaking to you. Please, leave,” I blurt out. I can’t even look at him. He stands in the middle of my office, looking like half the man Jordan is. The suit, the leather shoes. It’s all a façade to hide his little dick.
All the money in the world doesn’t make this man a decent human being.
He turned me into the monster he wanted me to be. And I gave in.Not anymore.
“I’m not going to leave Katantia unless you come with me to California, where we’ll marry and live the life we carved out for ourselves,” he says.
Clearing my throat, I reply, “Well, I’m not coming with you. I don’t want to marry you. That’s why I left.”
“Very convenient to leave after ten years of endless sex. You cashed in for as long as you could, finished your degree, and then left me high and dry. I didn’t teach you to behave this way.” Quite frankly, he didn’t teach me anything.
The pain in my body gives me the strength I need to stand up to this man. I’m not Hugh’s little bitch anymore. I have a new life, a job, friends, and a possible partner. “I don’t remember needing your permission to leave.”
“Oh, but you did. Every move of yours was approved by me,” Hugh comments. The bergamot scent he carries around disgusts me, and I want to open the windows to let it all out.
“So, you admit that you encouraged me to drug mom?” I blurt out, going red all over. My temperature rises, and I clench my fists.
“She’s not your mom. She’s my ex,” Hugh insists, and I want to spit at him. “And she’s in rehab where she deserves to be. She’s been an addict all her life. Now, she’s getting the care she needs. I pay all of her bills.”
“I hate myself for drugging her! You gave me the sleeping pills. I was barely seventeen years old. You manipulated me!” I say. The words leave my mouth in a fury, and the next thing I know, I feel empty.
“Why did you do all of that?” he dares to ask, centered in my office. He doesn’t fold, and he doesn’t bow.
“To please you!” Admitting it hurts less than I expected.
“No, you did it because you wanted to take her place.”
I breathe hard at his ridiculous statement. Straightening up my posture, I glare at him directly. “That’s not what I remember. I haven’t thought about it in years… You groomed me from the moment I turned sixteen. Before that, you never even said hi to me. I was Mom’s project, her responsibility. When I turned sixteen, you started giving me lavish gifts. Cars. Purses. Trips to Santorini! You love-bombed me to a point where all I craved was your attention and your love. I applied to the schools you told me to apply to, and I did splendidly on my A-levels. After I’d achieved your academic dreams for me, your wishes became more sinister.”
“Katantia has messed with your head, hasn’t it?” Hugh grins.
“No, it hasn’t. Katantia has made me see it clearly. I… I was hurt.” Deep breaths. “You hurt me. First, it was school, then it was cutting girls out of my circle because their families weren’t on your level, and then you asked me to help you out with mom. You made me think she was in pain. You staged the scene brilliantly. She was throwing a fit, and you didn’t fight for her when the authorities came to take her away. You made her look like an addict, and I didn’t realize it until it was too late. I was too stupid. It’s my fault, really.”
“I received everything I ever thought I wanted from you,” I blurt out. “And you played me. You molded me into your personal fuck toy, and I obeyed because I didn’t know any better.”
“You wanted it. Don’t fool yourself,” he hisses.
“I really didn’t.” I shake in my seat, trying hard to appear strong.
Jordan’s right. I’d been the victim.
My degree hadn’t been my first choice, but the more I studied, the more I became infatuated with the idea of being a psychiatrist. Studying gave me a purpose. I recognized that I had more potential than I was forced to believe I did.
I grew out of the shell Hugh Abbott had cultivated around me.
Our wedding was never supposed to happen while his mother was alive. She would’ve blocked it with all her might. To her, I was scum. She didn’t even recognize me as her grandchild. She patronized her son for not having a biological child. My adoption thirty-something years ago had caused a massive scandal in her circle of friends.
When his mother died, Hugh Abbott sped up the wedding. From one day to the other, I was to finish my degree and move to the US with him, where I could be married to my adopted father, an educated trophy wife kneeling at his feet.
At the time, Kamila, the king’s daughter, had fled Katantia, and the tiny peninsula in the eastern hemisphere was on the news everywhere. Girls on social media were becoming more and more intrigued about the sex island that caused headlines worldwide. Professors studied the enigma of Katantia and how so many women gravitated toward the country when it was clearly sexist and misogynistic—their words, not mine.
I was almost done with my degree.
