Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
“Free. You feel free on the ice?”
I nod, adjusting so my head is atop my stacked hands.
He waits a beat or two before asking,“Does it keep you in good spirits? Is it a place for you to blow off… steam?”
“Yes. I grew up with an abusive father and a mother who called me fat every chance she got. I held a lot of resentment for those people,” I admit.
“When did he start hitting you?”
I watch a shift in his eyes. They don’t sparkle like they did from the city lights. It’s as if they darkened, and he’s suddenly no longer human.
“Um, sorry. Uh….” His demeanor has thrown me off. I can feel the tension and anger radiating off him.
“When did the abuse start, Emelia?” His repeated question is far more intense this time.
“I was eight when he first slapped me. I was playing with the neighborhood kids, and when the streetlights came on, I didn’t come home right away. This earned me my first-ever punishment.” I gulp, and I swear it echoes around entire room.
“How often did they abuse you? Mentally, emotionally, physically, all of it."
“Daily. If it wasn’t a slap, it was an insult. If it wasn't an insult, it was the silent treatment. Everything always accompanied by ignorance.”
“Ignorance?” he questions, and this time, I turn to lay flat on my back and peer up at the ceiling.
“My brothers are just as bad as my parents. They failed to protect me, acted as if the abuse was no big deal. In fact, they acted like it never happened at all. They were ignorant.” Every bit of my hatred is evident in each strewn together word.
“Cowards. Men and women who abuse their family, they are cowards,” Nico says, and I look at him.
“Does that mean you really don’t plan to ever hit me or verbally abuse me?” I question—a small amount of vulnerability peeking through.
“No, even though you are the most difficult, complicated pain in my ass. And it hasn’t even been a week.”
I try to hide my smile. This man sees criminals, perpetrators, enemies, and more every day, and I won the title as his biggest complication. Good. Victory is slowly becoming mine.
“Maybe one day you’ll figure out how to deserve my less hostile side,” I add.
“Most women submit. You’re not like most women.”
“That’s an insult. All women are powerful and strong. We just get bulldozed by men with too much power, who think we are too much or too little. So when you think about it, men are the root of all things wrong with the world.”
This leaves the room eerily silent, but my mind is filled with pride. This got me in trouble a lot, but it never completely stifled the woman who knew and wanted to roar.
“You’re going to make me go mad one day. Sleep now. Tomorrow is a big day.”
I remember him telling me about the dress fitting, and I think, That? That’s not much of a big day. But I stay silent.
We left off on a high note.
So maybe he will slowly learn after all.
“That son of a bitch!”
He didn’t learn a damn thing. I slap away the doctor’s arm, and I go to stand.
“Farren,” I call one of the men hired to watch over me.
“Yes, ma’am?” he answers, stepping up to my fuming form.
“Get that bastard on the phone.” He doesn’t need me to elaborate.
“Yes, ma’am.” And within thirty seconds, I’m yelling into the cell.
“You’re a piece of work. I am not…I repeat, and hear me loud and clear, Nico Dante—I am not getting a goddamn tracker implanted in my arm so you can keep tabs on me!”
Yes, he had the nerve to send a doctor over after the fitting to casually slip in and tell me he was inserting a tracker into my arm. My arm. Through my actual goddamn skin!
“Emelia. This is not up for debate. Sit the hell down and let the man put in your tracker,” he barks back, but I jut out my chest more, ready to fight this one until one of us folds.And when I say one of us, I mean him.
“No.” It's slow, low, and drawn out. I want Nico to feel how mad I am. How annoyed and disgusted he has made me.
“You are a weapon now. A pawn in my world. And as much as you and I don’t see eye-to-eye, I need to make sure you are safe. Everyone and anyone can be after you at any given time, Emelia, and God forbid the day it happens and you don’t have me!” He matches my tone from earlier. Shouting into the phone, he makes me jump a bit. Bastard.
All eyes are on me in the room, and I’ve never felt more embarrassed than I do right now. He humiliated me, springing this on me and allowing others to do his dirty work. And I vow to make sure the payback is just as good.