Page 59 of Corrupting Lily

That’s what Johnathan used to threaten me with before physicallyassaulting me. I was a coward. I remained with him rather than be sent to ‘the pharmacy,’ where he kept all the women. I saw what had been done to them and was so afraid that I chose the easy way out. I stayed with him instead. I cry as I think about how weak I am.

“Little flower, what is wrong?” Dominico asks as he pulls the cover from the bed and drapes it over me before cradling me in his lap while I cry.

“I-I left them there—all those girls. I was scared,” I whisper, unable to meet Dominico’s gaze.

“What girls? What are you talking about?” Dominico asks, gently guiding my chin up with his fist.

“The girls. The ones that are part of that. I’ve seen them. Johnathan showed me and threatened to send me there if I didn’t behave. So I stayed with him. I stayed with him like a coward while all those girls suffered.” I break down as the guilt I've been carrying finally crushes me. I have admitted it. I’ve told part of my secret. I just need to spill the rest. I have a way to stop all of it.

“When I left Johnathan, I took everything. All the evidence. Everyone involved. It’s all on a USB stick. That’s why he wants me back. But,” I shake my head, the tears running down my face, “But I don’t have it. I hid it in the apartment in the vase in the corridor. On that last day, when I left him, he suspected what I had done and attacked me. I fought back for the first time in our relationship when I saw the look in his eye. He was going to kill me. I fled before retrieving it. I’m so sorry, Dominico. All those girls. It’s my fault they are still there.”

“If what you say is true, this is big, Lily. And it is not something you could have solved on your own. You didn’t do anything wrong. Okay?” I sniffle and nod my head. He wasn’t wrong. This was a scandal of massive proportions.

Senator Johnathan Edward Williams, along with a handful of otherhigh-ranking officials, were part of the biggest sex trafficking syndicate in the Northern Hemisphere.

And I had the evidence to prove it.

Chapter 36

Dominico

I’m on the phone with my accountant, who is droning on about the shipment we received last night. Usually, hearing about how much money we are projected to make with the quantities being shifted to our other suppliers and direct customers is the highlight of my day. But that has been replaced by the five-foot-two, brown-haired woman I proudly call my wife, dancing in the kitchen to a song from the early eighties. The backtrack to a movie playing on the iPad I gave her while she smears a thick layer of Nutella on a piece of toast.

This is the real Lily—the side of her she reveals only to those she trusts and only when unburdened, which she was, since telling me about Johnathan and the sex syndicate. The guilt she carried for leaving without the USB stick is finally waning. With its absence, Lily flourished. This is yet another thing to add to the ever-growing list of items for which I would seek revenge. This was Johnathan's doing. He used Lily's innocence against her, making her feel bad for wanting to survive and controlling her with fear. I knew he was doing this, butthe extent of it was worse than I could imagine.

We spent the night talking, and once she started, she didn’t stop, sharing everything with me. All the details in the file I had on her and all the aspects the file could never encompass—the way she felt, the thoughts she had, the emotions that filled every sentence those typed words lacked. It wasn’t pleasant, and her life had been difficult. While she sometimes discussed these matters in a detached manner, like many who have experienced trauma often do, they did not carry the same remoteness for me. I nodded and said all the right things, the burden shifting from her to me, to be placed in the space reserved for my revenge. Just when I thought it was full, it needed more space. More room for the fuel.

But I could handle those dark feelings, as I am a bad man who did bad things. My Lily was made from the light, made to dance in denim shorts and a floral cotton top while singing out of tune in a kitchen on a private island—pure innocence. I would protect that. I would avenge its corruption, no matter the cost. I watch as she takes a bite of her treat, her eyes closing briefly as she savors the moment. To live like that. I envy it, but in this way, having her so close, I can live vicariously through her. A gift.

“Dominico?” My accountant, an old Italian named Davide, draws my attention back to the conversation at hand.

“That’s fine for now. I’ll be back next week, and we can discuss it further.” He wishes my new wife and me a happy honeymoon and ends the call, as eager to be free of it as I was.

It was already late morning. After my little flower had unburdened herself, she fell peacefully asleep in my arms on the bed on the beach. She barely stirred when I carried her inside to the bed we would share for the next week—one I had never shared with anyone here. Hell, before Lily, I hadn't shared a bed with a woman inyears. Yet next to her, it felt natural, and the nightmares that usually accompanied my sleep were nowhere to be seen.

She jumps, nearly dropping her toast, as my arm circles her waist, pulling her against me.

"Oh my god, I got a fright," she laughs, her hand patting her chest as she spins in my arms.

I take a bite of her toast, her gaze following every movement and lingering on my lips.

"There is no one here but you and me. I don't want you to be afraid." She nods and smiles brightly.

"Are we going to explore?" Her excitement is contagious, and even though I have seen every part of this island a thousand times, experiencing it with her will be different. Sharing it with her will feel like coming here for the first time. She will paint every section of it with her presence, forever making it ours instead of mine. Transforming it in only the best possible way.

"Ready when you are." I spin her around, her little giggle like music to my ears. I usually came here to enjoy the silence. This was a million times better.

Ten minutes later, we are walking along a trail in the forest that will lead us to the top of a cliff, overlooking the ocean. My little flower hums, that sound intermittently interrupted by her pointing out something she finds interesting, which is often. I should have known from the plants in her small apartment that she loves nature. Every blooming flower is examined and admired, and I find myself hunching down next to her, memorizing her expressions. In a world where I destroyed to create, being with Lily was like seeing things in color for the first time.

"Oh my god, Dominico, hold this," she shrieks, thrusting her bouquet of wildflowers into my hand as she ventures into a slightlyovergrown section of the forest, eager to reach a piece of wood to accompany the ten others already in the backpack I am carrying. To be made into wind chimes, I am told. I smile, wondering what Dante and Nero would say if they saw me now, flowers in hand, goofy grin on my face, staring at an angel traipsing through my forest.

She retrieves the piece of wood, holding it triumphantly in the air as she heads back toward me.

"It's so pretty! Look how smooth the edge is." She holds it up to my face, and I smirk.

"I have a smooth piece of wood you could play with."

She grins, her eyebrow raised playfully as she steps away from me, perhaps anticipating my reaction to her next statement.

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