Page 91 of Unbound

“What’s AEM?” I asked.

“Her former initials. Has she told you?” Gan Chen asked.

I shook my head. “Told me?”

“Her birth name.”

I shook my head. “She never told me, no.”

“I’ve heard you call her Angel. That name is close to her birthname.”

“Is it?” I asked.

I looked at Angel. “Is it?”

She nodded. “Yes, Master.”

“What was your name before?”

“Angelica, Master.”

I shrugged. “Hm. Wow. Coincidence. Funny right? But she’s my perfect Angel, thanks to my partners here. A toast.” I raised my glass. They followed suit.

“To my perfect Angel. And to a hopefully perfect partnership. Salut.”

They all chimed in their cheers, in unison. I patted my lap and Angel, who was standing beside my chair, sat down. I passed her my glass and she finished the bourbon that was in it.

The lights went low and they started playing.

My angel and me? We simply watched for a little while until we could slip away and go to bed. It didn’t affect me this time. These people were scumbags but they were gonna get their due. Soon, if I had my way.

We didn’t make love. We just held one another, nude, the sheets over our heads, as if that thin Egyptian cotton sheet would shield us from the evil around us.

When I’d asked her name and she gave it instantly, I felt a prickle of fear that she’d have a meltdown. But the looks on their faces told me what I needed to know.

They wanted to know she was 100% obedient to me, that yes, their training stuck, but the key part of their training, the part that mattered the most, was that she would obey her master, whoever that master was. That meant that they’d trained her successfully. My asking her name overwrote what they’d taught about keeping the name secret.

This could be good for her road to healing, too.

“But we can’t wait to have your shower. I’ve already bought like six pairs of footie pajamas in all different colors,” Ruby said. We were on the phone.

I giggled. “Don’t they usually have the shower when the mom-to-be is as big as a house?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“So, we’ve got months and months to go. I’m not even showing yet. Well… I had to suck in to button up my jeans this morning.”

The girls had been over-the-moon excited when we’d had our sleepover. Initially they thought we were gonna booze it up, but I’d broken the news and they forgot about cocktails and instead we talked baby names.

I had a platter of baby vegetables. We hadbaby bottle poplollipops. No one got the hints, so I finally put on a maternity top I’d bought that had a graphic of an oven with a little happy face bun in it and they finally “oh’d” in unison and then we did a girlie group hug with laughing and jumping.

Ruby made me call Rose, who was kind of fake-excited. She tried to sound supportive but I’m sure she thought I was too young, that we’d been married too short of a time. She was still being Rose, still being supportive.

The only one who wasn’t 100% supportive was Mia. Little jabs kind of pissed me off and I let her know and she apologized.

Final straw? The selection of pregnancy-themed movies I put out on the coffee table for them to pick from.

“Where’s Rosemary’s Baby?” Mia asked.

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