Page 29 of Stolen Vows
I swallow and pull the towel tighter around me.
“Of course!Why wouldn’t it be?”
I hate my light, playful tone.
“Housekeeping said you were still in bed when they brought breakfast this morning,” he says.
I left my phone on the bedside table.I never turned off my alarm.I didn’t even check my notifications.
My diaphragm seizes as I recall the weird chime, but I push away my instinctive panic and rationalize it away.
I only use my phone for socializing with people my father deems appropriate.One glance at my phone proves how sad and lonely my existence has become.I have nothing to hide.Mario has never attempted to contact me through it.
He hasn’t needed to.Between the gifts to my room and the bodyguards always trailing behind me, Mario has constant access to me.If my father knew he hired people loyal to his ex-best friend, he’d kill them all without blinking.
“Did you not sleep well last night?”my father prompts.
I fiddle with my towel and respond how I know he expects.
“I had a little trouble falling asleep, but I slept well.Waking up was rough, but I’m okay now,” I say.
“That’s good to hear.I’ll have breakfast with you,” he announces.
Dread settles in my chest, but I thank him and hurry through the rest of my morning preparations, wearing my travel clothes over the blue panties and applying the barest of makeup so the professional doesn’t have to remove much later.
The hairdresser requested I leave my hair down, so I spritz it with a bit of water and run my brush through it before letting it fall around my shoulders.I dyed my roots yesterday, so no trace of my natural color shows.
When I step out of the bathroom, the utter silence emanating from my father triples my dread.I meet his eyes and wish the floor would open and carry me into another realm.
“You look so much like your mother,” he breathes.
My insides twist in disgust and shake in terror as he stands and walks toward me.
“I’m sorry.”
The words slip from my lips without my permission.He freezes with his fingers an inch away from my temple.I duck around him and grab a plate from the breakfast cart.
“She left me too, Daddy,” I say as I use the metal pastry tongs to pick up a bagel from the tray.
I don’t know where the courage comes from.Maybe I’m channeling the madwoman Mario brings out in me, but I talk back to my father for the first time since I lost everyone except him.
“I’m sorry I’m not her.I can’t give you what she gave you, even though I look like her.”
He wraps his hand around my upper arm in a bruising grip.I squeak and drop the plate.My bagel bounces on the tray and rolls off the edge.I catch the tongs before they fall, closing my fist around them so hard my knuckles turn white.With the two sides clamped together, they look like a dull knife.
“You don’t have to give me anything.It’ll all be mine anyway,” he hisses in my ear.
Bile climbs up my throat.Worms crawl over and under my skin as he leans closer.His body heat seeps into my back.He digs his fingertips into my muscles until I fear he’ll crush my bones.Agony spears down my arm, and a whimper escapes my throat.
He tucks my hair behind my ear while he stands terribly close.
“If Romeo wasn’t expecting you to be a virgin, I’d make you mine right now,” he mutters.
When he slips his hand around my throat, something deep inside me breaks.
I lift the arm trapped in his brutal grip and jam the tongs between my body and his knuckles, punching the tip into his ribs, and jerk away, but he curses and shoves me to the ground.Pain lances through my body as I land on my hip.I roll onto my hands and knees to scramble away, but he grabs my shoulder, flips me over, and wraps his fist around my throat.
He raises his hand.I flinch.
