“You asshole!” She tries to punch and kick me, but it’s futile. The straps are way too tightly wrapped around her skin. “Let me go!”
Amelia looks at the woman from a safe distance, her whole body shaking.
“What do you want from me?” the woman asks. “Tell me!”
I clutch her chin and force her to look at me. “I don’t want anything from you.” I push her head so she looks at Amelia. “But she does.”
Amelia gasps, her pupils dilating. “I … I …”
“Who are you?” the woman barks.
“My name’s … Amelia,” she mutters, completely shaken.
I block Amelia’s view and lift her chin so her gaze meets mine. “Now is your chance to ask whatever is on your mind. No questions are off-limits.”
“Why? Why did you do this?” she murmurs.
The question catches me off guard. Not because I didn’t expect her to ask it. I did. But because I thought the first thing on her mind would be to find out why the woman would have sex with a married man.
“I did this for you,” I answer, lowering my head. “Because she hurt you. And she deserves this.”
“Did you do the same thing to her as you did to me?” she asks, swallowing as though the question itself pains her.
My eyes narrow. “You mean … sex?” I shake my head. “I don’t want any other woman, Amelia. Only you.”
“What the hell are you two going on about?” the woman asks. “Let me go!”
Amelia looks at her over my shoulder before returning her attention to me. “So what then … torture?”
I raise my brows. “No. She’s an escort. A woman like her requires … a particular kind of punishment.” I sigh. “Sex only works on those who are deprived.”
Amelia’s cheeks flush. Even though I was not talking about her, I guess in a sense I was.
“She was not deprived of that. Nor would pain work on a woman like her who is so eager to please,” I say. “She requires solitude. Complete and utter silence can break even the most spirited souls.”
“So you kept her here tied up all by herself for how long?” she asks. I close my eyes for a second, at which point Amelia already fills it in for me. “Long enough to go insane.”
I won’t deny it. “It’s what she deserves.”
“No one does,” she hisses back.
“The woman fucked your lover,” I retort, pointing at the woman bound to the bed. “Look at her. Ask her if she cares.”
Amelia’s eyes are seething, and she looks fuming, but at the same time, there is also something else looming in the background. Defeat.
Her shoulders rise and fall, and she passes me by, holding up the back of her hand instead of shoving me aside to signify that she’s done talking with me. And I watch her as she approaches the woman, whose eyes are red and filled with madness.
“Do you remember me?” Amelia asks.
“No, I don’t know who—”
“I was the girl who looked down at you through the window. The one who saw you kiss Chris. Do you remember him?”
Her brows furrow, but then her eyes widen, and shock riddles her face. “You—”
“You made my man cheat on me,” Amelia says, tears staining her eyes. “And I … I …”
The woman suddenly says, “Look, I didn’t know he was married.”
“Married?” Amelia murmurs. “No, we weren’t … but you didn’t …”
“No! I didn’t know!” she exclaims. “When we hooked up, he said he was single. Besides, this is my job. This is what I do.”
“I didn’t think he’d ever go look for a hooker,” Amelia says, looking down at her feet. “That I was worth so little to him.”
“He never even mentioned your name,” the woman says.
“What’s yours?” Amelia suddenly asks.
“Tiffany,” she replies.
Amelia snorts, shaking her head. I don’t know if she’s laughing or crying … or both.
“Why?” Tiffany asks.
The look on Amelia’s face twists into something I’ve never seen before. “So I can remember the face and the name of the woman who destroyed my world.”
“What?” Tiffany mutters as Amelia gets up, decidedly not about to free her. “No, wait. Don’t go. Please. Don’t leave me. I’ve been alone for so long. You don’t understand. Please!” She keeps begging, but Amelia keeps walking with her hands clenched into firm fists.
“Please! I beg you. I’m sorry. Please, I’m so sorry,” the woman cries out. “It wasn’t my choice. He made me.”
My heart drops ten feet below the ground.
Amelia’s ears perk up.
Her head tilts back to Tiffany while I clench my fists.
This is it.
This is the moment when everything comes crashing down on me.
When my world comes to an end.
“HE told me to do it.” Amelia looks at Tiffany … whose finger is pointed right at me. “He did this to me.”
“What?” Amelia murmurs to her.
“That devil over there paid me to do it. He paid me to seduce and fuck Chris.”