Romances de Fathia Anifowose

I woke up in a hospital bed with fluorescent lights stabbing my eyes and a nurse fussing with an IV line in my arm. Everything hurt. My jaw, my ribs, my pride. But the pain was nothing compared to the memories that came flooding back the second I opened my eyes.Nico on the phone calling me a dog. Toretti leaning over me with whiskey breath. The silk dress that another man picked out for my body. The drugged water. The camera Nico wanted to set up.I sat up so fast the room spun."Ma'am, please, you need to rest." The nurse reached for my shoulder. "Your injuries are—""Where are my clothes?""Ma'am—""I said where are my clothes." My voice came out flat and dead, and the nurse took a step back. She pointed to a bag on the chair beside my bed without saying another word.I pulled the IV out myself, ignoring the sting, and changed in the bathroom with the door locked. The silk dress was in the bag. I left it on the floor like the trash it was and put on the hospital gown over my underw

Nico did not even pause. The second the stranger's shadow filled the doorway, Nico's survival instincts kicked in. He shoved past the man, ducked under his arm, and bolted down the hotel hallway without a single glance back at me.Four years. Four years I gave him, and he ran like I was nothing. Like I was a mess he did not want to clean up.Toretti did not run. He grabbed my hair instead and threw me sideways off the bed, and I hit the floor hard enough to feel it in my teeth. He stood over me, breathing heavy, his nose still bleeding from where I punched him."You just cost me a lot of trouble, sweetheart." He pulled his hand back.The slap never landed.A hand caught Toretti's wrist mid swing, and the grip was so tight I heard something crack. Toretti's face twisted, and he spun around to see the stranger standing right behind him, holding his arm like it was something he might decide to break."I do not remember giving you permission to touch her again." The stranger's voice was s

The darkness was not complete. It kept cracking open, letting in sounds and voices that I could not make sense of at first, like listening to a conversation from underwater.Then the words got clearer, and I wished they had not."She is out cold, Mr. Toretti. I gave her enough to knock down a horse." That was Nico's voice, proud and easy, like he was showing off a car he just waxed. "She will not remember a thing.""Beautiful." A second voice, deeper, older. "You were not lying, Caruso. She really is something.""Told you. And the best part is, she has nobody. No family that gives a damn, no friends, nothing. She could disappear tomorrow and not a single person on this earth would notice."The older man laughed softly. "A man could get addicted to that kind of convenience.""There is more. I am going to set up a camera. Get everything on tape. That way, if she ever gets any ideas about leaving me or opening her mouth, I have the footage to keep her in line forever.""Smart boy. I knew

I climbed the stairs to our apartment with my hand pressed to my bare head, praying none of the neighbors would see me. The hallway light was broken again, which for once felt like a blessing. I pushed open the door and stepped inside, already rehearsing the lie about where my wig went.But Nico was not waiting for me.He was on the phone in the bedroom, and his voice carried through the thin walls like he did not care who heard him."She will do whatever I tell her, Tony. The girl is stupid. She thinks I actually love her." He laughed, and the sound made my stomach flip. "I will get it done next week. She is too obsessed with me to say no to anything."I stood frozen in the hallway with my jacket still on, barely breathing."Yeah, yeah, I know. I told you, she is easy to control. Like a trained dog. I just throw her a bone every now and then and she wags her little tail."My nails dug into my palms so hard I felt the skin break. Trained dog. Wags her tail. Every word landed like a sl

Chapter 1The alley smelled like piss and old garbage, and my shoes kept sticking to something wet on the ground. I did not look down. I never looked down anymore. Looking down meant seeing the bruises on my arms, and I was so tired of counting them.My ribs ached with every breath. Nico had thrown me into the kitchen counter again tonight because I came home five minutes late from the grocery store. Five minutes. That was all it took for the man I gave up everything for to remind me what I was worth to him.Nothing. I was worth nothing.I pulled my jacket tighter around myself and kept walking. The wig on my head shifted a little, and I fixed it with shaking fingers. Wigs had been my life since I was fifteen, since the day my stepmother handed me a bottle of shampoo with a smile and told me it would make my hair shiny. A week later, every strand fell out. Every single one. And instead of crying with me, my sister Gianna laughed so hard she had to hold her stomach."Look at her," Gian