Page 168 of Heir

I was at Uncle Frank’s house.

I was in his dining room. The same one I had been in when we came here for dinner.

Only… the place looked different.

It wasn’t clean or organized, and the furniture was scattered about. The curtains were ripped, and one of the chairs was flipped and lying on the floor across from me.

What happened here?

I flinched when the door opened, and Uncle Frank walked in, glaring at me.

Almost as if—

As if he hated me.

He really hated me.

I felt the air whoosh out of me as I tracked his movements, coming closer and closer to me. I tilted my head back when he loomed over me.

He didn’t say anything to me for a moment, and I was too scared to say anything that might provoke him. I moved my wrists, testing the binding behind my back, but whoever tied me up took no care. It was tight enough that the ropes were biting into my skin.

Then he slapped me.

I blinked, dazed, trying to stay firmly in reality.

“You stupid bitch. Do you have any idea what you’ve cost me?”

I didn’t answer him. He was talking to me as if I owed him something.

If Mom and Kenton had put my virginity up in an auction for Grigoriy Savkin to win, then Uncle Frank was the middleman who made it happen. I was sure of it now.

That was why Grigoriy Savkin was at the dinner that night. He was checking out the merchandise.

Mom would benefit from the money, but what did Uncle Frank have to benefit from putting me up for sale, as if I was merely a possession of his?

“No? You got nothing to say?” he said, a drop of spittle flying from his lips.

I flinched when it landed on my face.

The longer I stayed silent, the angrier he seemed to get, and I was so fucking scared of him.

“What do you want me to say?” I finally asked, my voice thick. “Sorry? I don’t owe you anything—”

He slapped me again. My head snapped back from the impact, and black dots danced across my eyes.

More tears fell, and I didn’t know if they were from my fear or the slap. Probably both. More from the slap, though.

“Your little act of defiance will come back and bite you in the ass, girl. You pissed off a lot of bad people by getting involved with the King’s Men. Getting involved with the fucking spawn of Dominic Madden. Now look at what is happening? Your mom has to go into hiding, and Grigoriy Savkin is demanding fucking payments for a defective product.”

Adefective product.

I shook my head, and he laughed, mean and scary.

I tried to move back into my chair. There was nowhere to go.

“Luckily, we worked out a plan. The old man doesn’t get to claim your virginity anymore, but he’s willing to overlook that if I hand you over to him to work at one of his whorehouses.”

He laughed again.

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