“All of this. It’s yours, you know.”
I look around. “Why would I want a dump like this?”
“Maybe not the house, but the money, the assets. Your inheritance.”
“I don’t want any of it.”
“Oh, but you will. And there are men that would die to have you along with it.”
So that’s it. He’s selling me off. I thought this day would come when I was trapped here as a kid. I dreamed of being rescued by a prince until I was eight and I bit the ear off the most popular boy at school for trying to kiss me. Princes don’t fucking exist. Lorcan was right. Only the villains win.
“Where is your mother?” Adrien asks. I would die before I ever reveal where she is to this man.
“Dead,” I say, cocking my head.
“Shame. I was looking forward to seeing her again.” When I don’t look like I believe him, he adds, “when you own something, you want to keep it with you always. You want everyone to know it belongs to you.”
“We were never yours,”I say. A futile remark. He’s not even listening.
“When you ran away, I knew where you’d gone. Dante watched over you for me. Kept you from harm. You needed to leave the nest to grow, but now it’s time for you to come back. Take your place with me in our empire.”
“Fuck the empire,” I say with a smile.
“You know what this is?” he asks, pointing to the table with straps all over it and the branding iron in the fucking fire.
My lungs burn as my breathing escalates. Fuck. I nod my head, clenching my fists and my jaws as I turn back to Adrien. I swallow hard and smile. He can burn whatever he likes into my flesh. I’ll never be his fucking daughter.
“Good, then maybe you won’t pass out when it happens.” His gaze flicks to Ethan and Gigi. “Put her on the table. Brand her, and then come and find me. I’ll be in my office.” Adrien leaves and goes up stairs, he doesn’t even look back.
“Fucking coward.” I choke as Gigi’s grip on my shoulder tightens and becomes an upper body hold. Adrien can’t even watch.
Ethan, eyes lit with excitement, takes my legs. I let the monster inside me go. It rips through my body and explodes. It takes Ethan and Gigi and another man of my father’s to subdue me onto the table, strapping me in.
And just like that, I’m caught.
Ethan’s sweaty hands shove up my dress, exposing my thighs. I can’t stop him. I can’t do anything. He dare not grope between my legs, but he grazes his hand way too fucking close. I’m going to chop those off before I skin him alive. He doesn’t deserve those fucking hands.
“I’m going to kill you all,” I promise before Gigi shoves a piece of leather in my mouth.
Dante left me.
He fucking left me here to die.
That’s all I can think as I hear the branding iron hiss as Ethan takes it from the fire. Of course he could want to do it. He did it to my mother. He’s going to do it to me.
There’s barking of dogs, even in the basement I can hear them.
I struggle some more but the straps are so tight, nothing I do will make any difference.
I don’t close my eyes. I don’t want to. I watch to watch my Ethan while he burns me. Because one day, I’m going to take them out and stick them in a fucking jar. Next to his balls.
I let Ethan see how much I want to bleed him with my eyes.
He laughs. “This is for your own good. They need to know who you belong to.”
They?
I suck in air around the leather.