Page 169 of Heir

“You’re going to be shipped off to him. You already whore yourself out to one man. What’s a hundred more?”

“W-why?” I croaked. Why was he doing this to me? I didn’t understand. We’d barely interacted when I was growing up.

I didn’t know him, and I didn’t do anything to him.

“You fucking benefited from being under William’s protection. You and your mom. Now that the bastard is out of the way, don’t you think it’s time you do something for me? You do this, and I’ll take care of your mom. That bitch can finally get what she wants. To keep the house and to live off the Gallagher money.”

Would it be cruel if I didn’t care if he helped my mom or not?

I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted to get out of here.

“At least William did something right by bringing Aleksei home,” Frank said quietly, almost to himself.

“Aleksei?” I asked in surprised.

What did he have to do with this? I hadn’t thought of that man in two years. I met him when I was working in the office for William and he had been around several times. I didn’t know what his business with William was, and I never got curious enough to ask.

I didn’t know him well, as he was always very cold and distant when he came to the office.

I didn’t even know what his last name was.

And by the time I finally stopped working for William, Aleksei had become nothing more than a distant memory of a past I’d much rather forget.

He always gave me the creeps. He was only a few years younger than me.

Frank grinned at me, as if he knew something I didn’t.

He cupped my cheek gently, the same one he had slapped, and my lips trembled as more tears fell.

“You’re so fucking pretty, Gemma. Just like your mother, and that bitch hated you for it. She didn’t treat you right. I could have treated you right if that bitch didn’t think to auction off your virginity.”

What the hell was he talking about?

“Please.”

He pressed his thumb against my bottom lip, and revulsion seared through me.

He was looking at me the same way Kai looked at me, but… not in the same way.

When Kai looked at me, there was softness… there was love, wasn’t there?

There was nothing soft about the way Frank was looking at me.

He kissed my lips.

Oh, God. I was going to be sick.

I opened my mouth and bit his lip hard.

He yelped and pulled back, anger returning to his eyes. He slapped me again, this one harder than the other ones.

I screamed in pain, turning away from him.

“You’re going to get what you deserve,” he said. “If I can’t teach you to be respectful, a night in that place with twenty or so men will.”

Fuck. I—

I turned my head and puked out all the lunch I’d had with Blue.

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