Page 14 of Stolen Vows

"How did you know?”

She smiles slightly.

"I’ve seen people look like that before," she admits. "And it usually means my father has had something to say to them."

Her words hang there for a moment. I see the chance to interrogate her a little further on this, and it’s one that I am going to jump on.

"You work with your father a lot?" I ask her, trying to keep my voice as casual as I can. She shakes her head.

"No, no, he runs the family business himself," she replies quickly. "I just... I mean, I’ve lived with him my whole life. I get to know how people look at him, you know?"

I nod slowly. So, she doesn’t work directly with him. Or, if she does, she’s smart enough not to admit to it. She knows how it will look. She knows that she has to get me on her side.

She stares back at me, waiting for me to say something. I don’t know exactly what to come out with. I feel as though I will expose myself if I tell her something that she doesn’t want to hear, and if I do, I might make this harder on myself than I have to.

Because... it’s going to be easier for me to convince her to stay, if she actually likes me. If she actually thinks she can put her trust in me. She hasn’t exactly been speaking highly of her father inthe time that she’s been here with me, and it’s obvious she holds some dark emotions towards him. Anger? Guilt? I wish I could see into her head somehow, expose her for the person she really is, no matter what it takes.

"Are you close with your father?” she asks me softly. I nod.

"Very. And my sister."

Her face brightens at once.

"You have a sister?”

"Yes. Two, actually, but..."

I trail off. I don’t want to get into the saga that surrounds my sister Melinda right now. There are far more important things for us to focus on.

"You’re so lucky," she sighs. "I always wanted siblings. Sisters, especially. But my mother died not long after I was born, and I never had... I mean, it was just my father and me from there on out. And I’m very grateful for everything that he’s done for me, but sometimes, I wonder if I would have been better off with someone else to help me through it..."

She trails off, stopping herself, as though she never intended to say so much.

She places the plate to the side, crossing her hands in her lap. All at once, she looks distinctly vulnerable, as though she might vanish in on herself at any moment.

"Sorry, you don’t need to hear all that," she tells me. She’s not looking at me any longer, and, without thinking, I reach out to cup her chin in mine. I tilt her gaze back up to meet my eyes, andI notice that her lips are slightly parted, a sharp breath passing through her.

"You don’t have to apologize," I murmur.

My words are softer than I intended, something in me wanting to protect her from what’s coming. Not just because we can’t let her fall into the hands of her father before we get a chance to carry out this plan, but because I don’t want her to go back to a man who makes her feel the way that he clearly does.

My thumb skims up towards her lips, and they open a little wider, almost as though she is waiting for more...

And then, I snap out of it. I draw my hand back, letting it fall to my side again. She lowers her gaze, reaching for the food and planting it back on her lap, like it’s a safety blanket.

"Thank you for the food," she replies, and I grunt in reply before I make my way to the door.

I don’t want to be alone with her in here for another moment. I can tell my certainty is starting to waver, and I am not going to let this happen. I need to remember what her family has done, what they are capable of. Acting out this damsel-in-distress bit wouldn’t be past her skills, no doubt. Perhaps this is the role her father told her to play in a situation such as this one, lull her captor into a false sense of security only to hit me with reality as soon as the time comes...

I need to make a coffee—something to keep me awake as I face off against whatever her father has planned for me. I know he’s not going to make this easy for me. He’s not going to play a predictable game. He is going to make sure that I get hit when I least expect it, and I can only imagine how badly that’s going to go for me.

I stride to the kitchen, ignoring the food I know I should be eating, and go to put on a pot of coffee. I can hear her moving around in the room next door. I wonder if she is scared about her father coming to get her, or scared about the fact he might not. The fact that she might be trapped with me.

My teeth set on edge as the thought crosses my mind. How is what I am doing so different from him? I might not be selling her body, but I am still using her. Still making it so that the most important thing about her is her relationship to her father, and how we can exploit it. She didn’t ask for this. Fuck, she was walking down the aisle when we came to take her away. Starting a whole new life...

And I’ve pulled her away from that. Pulled her into this mess that my family and I have made, a mess that will end with either her family or mine being ripped to pieces. I’m not sure I can stand the thought of it right now, of losing my family, or...

I push the thoughts aside. Whatever comes next, I will deal with it when I have to. For now, I know the only thing that matters is keeping her under lock and key, where she belongs, and making certain that I don’t let this threat from her father throw me off.

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