Chapter 3

Emma felt something niggling in her stomach when she woke up from her drug-induced sleep. She automatically tried to move to relieve the pressure, but for some reason that is still a mystery, her limbs did not comply with the commands from her confused brain. She fought feebly for a while, but after her mind had cleared, she finally realized the full horror of her situation.

Her limbs were unable to respond, so they did not. She was made aware that she was a captive when a rough rope bit into the tender flesh of her wrists.

The cell she'd been thrown into was as cold as the interrogation room and nowhere near as comfortable. She was left with nothing but a bare floor, cold walls, a wooden chair, and her crazed mind. There would have been no sound if it hadn't been for the water dripping somewhere nearby, a silence so deep as to drive one insane.

She didn’t know Lord Aris. She never met him. She heard that he was a cruel Mafia Lord. He was phenomenally rich, extremely powerful and reputed to be quite ruthless.

Unfounded rumors claimed that he had a ravenous appetite and spent a lot of money on prostitutes and unfortunate women who were in debt. Some even claimed that in exchange for paying off what they owed, he made women sign a document promising to give him b***h services for a predetermined amount of time. Defending him against accusations of rape or assault.

Was this the man into whose clutches she had fallen?

Could it possibly be that he was her captor?

That he had acted on her and bought her?

Heavy footsteps approached her and she squealed in anguished misery. There was the sound of shoes striding across the concrete floor, the turn of the key, the clang of the door. She looked up to see a striking female figure in a blue gown. She was a middle-aged woman whose entire body was covered by a gown, only her face was visible, with a stony expression on it. The woman stood over her for a long while, gazing down expressionless.

“Stand up.” When she kicked her with the toe of her shoe, she screamed.

Her shrill screams were brutally cut short as she grabbed her arm and forced her to stand up.

“Move.” She blindfolded her with a black strap and ordered her to move forward. She didn’t try to resist and started walking ahead. After two minutes, they stopped. Emma guessed that it was another cold room. The woman left her and forced her to sit down, putting pressure on her shoulder.

After that, there was silence.

Emma’s heart was beating fast when an unfamiliar noise suddenly jerked her body awake.

A strong hand yanked her blindfold off, but she kept her eyes tightly shut, not wanting to see the faces of her kidnappers or, worse, the helplessness of her own bound body.

“Look upon your Lord, slave.” A harsh voice ordered and a cold chill raced up her spine. Slowly she raised her eyes, her trembles shaking her body.

A low, soft scream was torn from her throat as her eyes fixed on the face of the man who called himself her Lord.

Her mouth fell open in shock. She thought it was her illusion, it couldn’t be him.

He was Aris Johnson, her ex-boyfriend whom she had betrayed. He was not a teenage boy but an extremely handsome man. He was dressed in a blue suit, with a thickly trimmed moustache, a long shave, beautiful brown eyes with red rims, and a meteoric face with a deadly look.

He had changed, of course, but she recognized him.

“You…y.. you” Her tongue faltered. Lord Aris towered over her, his cold eyes glittering and she shuddered massively. As she shook and quivered, he smiled broadly.

 "So. Emma," he hissed, "We meet once again.” his smile grew even broader, "But not this time, in your mansion. And most definitely, not as equals.” She wept in agony as she read her fate in his hard, black eyes and lowered her head.

She gasped in pain as his hand fastened on her long, dark hair and jerked her head back until she once again stared up at him.

"You were not given permission to lower your head," he said calmly. “You know very well how slaves are treated. Aren’t you?” He asked in a heavy voice and she looked at him in shock. She wanted to beg him, but her tongue stuck to her palate, the words got stuck in her throat. She did not get over the shock that this was the same Aris who was a despised slave of her father.

“You must know the reason for your imprisonment here, but still let me explain. Your so-called lover has sold you to save his company for no fixed term. I can keep you as long as I want or sell you, as your father used to do, but since I am a fair man, I will only receive what is reckoned for you. You will be my slave for one hundred and twenty days, during which I can do whatever I want. Got it?” He asked and she just stared at him idly, hearing the details of her slavery.

If she had been kidnapped by, or by, him, she would have been in the worst trouble of her whole life. There would be no mercy from such an implacable enemy and Emma gasped in growing terror as she imagined her awful fate. He yanked her hair hard at her silence and she moaned in pain. He squeezed her neck into his claw and put pressure on it.

"Make no mistake, slave," he said harshly, "you, who thought you were the equal of men, will become my slave, and there will be none more obedient, none hotter, none more responsive than you." He nodded slowly, his cold eyes burning into hers with a frightening intensity. Emma's stomach churned violently as she imagined the arrogant Peer, his thin lips and hard eyes, and his unshakeable belief in male dominance over female dominance. She had never imagined herself in this situation.

He chuckled, enjoying the look of terror and disbelief on his captive's face, and continued mockingly.

"And so, you had best prepare yourself as best you can. We will meet again tomorrow, as tomorrow is your first day as my slave. From now on, your body, your very life is devoted to only one thing, the service and pleasure of me.” He released her hair and turned away, ignoring the horror and despair on her face.

She could not utter a single word in front of him. It was like she lost her voice. She was still in shock.

“Take her to the slave quarters,” he ordered.

The woman standing beside her bowed as he ordered, without even a backward glance at Emma, he rode away, leaving her shuddering in her ropes, her brain devastated by the catalogue of horrors awaiting her.

Horrors which came closer with every reluctant, hobbled step, she was dragged towards the slave quarters beneath Lord Aris’s magnificent country mansion.

She was again taken to the same dark room where she had been bought earlier. She burst into tears as soon as she found solitude. She wanted to cry in front of him, she wanted to scream, but her voice was lost as soon as Aris was in front of her.

She was shocked. She couldn’t even think that he will come in front of her in that way. This was a biggest shock of her life.

 Emma, ​​who used to make others cry, fate had left her in such a bad place that she could not even protest to herself.

Tired of crying, she lay down on the cold floor and stared at the ceiling. Remembering Robin’s betrayal, tears slipped down again. “How can he do this to me?” She panted badly.

“Maybe he will regret it and come to get me, I must not give up. No, I will not give up so easily. I will fight till the end.” she sobbed. She still had a hope that he will come.

She consoled herself that she could not give up like that. She had to fight.

Fight with every ounce of her strength.

She had to fight desperately to escape her foe from her awful fate.

She was not ready to accept this slavery.