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Buckle up people, this is going to be a long ass read but I guess we've seen this coming.

LILIANA

Melanie?

I look at Damian for help, wondering why in the hell she is standing on the property of his private island. Wait–how does she know where we are? Damian looks as shocked as I am as well. 

So we’re going to say he’s not aware of her arrival? I don’t believe whatever facade he’s wearing on his face now. It’s hard to believe he doesn’t know about this and something within me breaks. I’m not sure what that is.

“Well, well, well,” she starts in a demeaning tone reeking of spite, “if it’s not the captive and her captor enjoying a week out of town so they can spend time alone. How romantic!”

Damian looks like he’s fed up of her nonsense. “What are you doing here, Mel?”

“That’s not such a nice thing to say to someone who you once called better suited for your cock. Now that’s not very nice, is it? I should be the one asking the questions here, not you baby boy. What are you doing here?” She steps further into the living room.

I turn to Damian whose face has masked the man I got to know during our short stay together. “What is she doing here? How does she know this place?”

Melanie’s vicious eyes come to rest on me as if noticing me for the first time. “Spare me the crap. Don’t sit there feeling all special and asking questions like you have the right to. In fact, now that you ask, I think I should give you the laydown.”

“Melanie…” Damian warns but she pays him no mind.

She takes few steps close to me, eyeing the dish on the table with green envy. “Wait…he called you his? Or he made you feel you’re better suited for his cock? Every woman is better suited for any size of a penis. It’s how they are built.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Damian snaps, rising to his feet.

I put out a hand before he can do anything. “Let her, please.”

Melanie looks between us with a frown before rolling her eyes and ignoring that. “You’re not special, honey. You’re just like the rest of us; dirty cock-sucking little whores like the rest of us. And this Island is where he brings all of us to fuck our brains out and brand us as his.” Then she pauses with mocking sympathy. “Oh wait…that is what he did to you too.”

Instead of listening to her folly, I turn to the man who has his jaw ticking with every second as he glares at his mistress. “Is this true?”

“No, baby—”

“Oh he calls you baby too?” she collapses in a fit of laughter that brings tears to my eyes. Tears I try to blink away from view. “My dear, you’re nothing but a captive who has successfully gotten fucked more than twice with that humongous appetite of his. You thought you could handle him? I couldn’t even go more than eight.” She brushes her hand over his. “Right, baby?”

It feels like I’m stuck in a nightmare. Shame like I’ve never felt before courses through me as his words resound in my head all over again: ‘You’re fucking mine, Liliana.’ ‘You’re my little whore.’ ‘I’ll never get enough of you.’ 

I thought…that I was special. He made me feel…special. And now—

“Oh, she even has that after-sex glow. You really outdid yourself. You’ve been cheating on me with this slut? Because I told you I had to leave for a few days? You didn’t even find anyone more worthy, your captive?”

“That’s enough!” He bellows, seemingly fed up of the whole debacle. “I won’t ask you this question one more time, what are you doing here and how did you find this place?”

She exposes a devilish smirk. “Don’t act like you don’t remember bringing me here. Plus, I have my sources.”

That smirk quickly morphs into something dangerous than anger and before I can register her movement, she lunges at me, pulling my hair. 

The pain bites hard. “You should let go of me if you don’t want to regret it.” I try as calmly as I can. “Leave me—”

Damian tries to pull her off but she has her hands stubbornly rooted in my hair and if he applies more force, my scalp would come off without so much efforts. Her fingers only dig further into my scalp as she calls me more unprintable names. 

“Slut! You think he loves you? You’re nothing!”

But I’m not helpless. I’ve never been. 

The way anger surges fast within me as my instincts kick in. I grab her wrists and twist, then grab a handful of her hair. Yanking her off balance, I unleash a barrage of slaps, wiping off her make up with my palm. The sound echoes louder than her scream.

She staggers back with a hand on her cheek, crashing into a chair with her hair dishevelled and mouth agape with blood dribbling from the corner.

“Touch me again and I’ll break your face.”

“You stupid bitch!” she spits. “Do you think because he brought you here, you’re special? Get off your high fucking horse, you fucking whore! He does this with all of them. Brings them to fancy places, feeds them, fucks them. You’re just another hole to him, don’t fool yourself.” 

Then with poison and malice glimmering in her eyes, she reaches into her bag. “You think because he brought you here he has feelings for you?” Her voice lowers. “You’re not an exemption. He just knows how how to fuck you good, that’s all. Damian doesn’t love. He’s lost the ability to.”

I glance at Damian but his face is twisted in something that looks like regret and fury. Still, I can’t read him. I don’t trust him right now. 

Melanie keeps ranting with her hand in her bag. Dread fills me at what it might be. “He likes to play savior while his cock is inside you. Bet he told you all the pretty things, too.” she laughs. “If you held his attention for this long, you’re probably built for his cock than me.”

“Shut up,” Damian snaps.

I don’t hear him because my ears are ringing. My heart is pounding so loud in my chest it drowns everything out and that’s because I’ve heard this kind of cruelty before. Only this time, it’s worse. 

Because I dared to care.

At last, Melanie pulls out a folded sheet from her purse and tosses it at me like it’s trash. “Still think he’s different?”

It floats down and I catch it before it hits the ground. As I unfold, I realize the heading is familiar. I have seen this before. That night of Irina’s burial in Damian’s office.

His face goes pale. “Where did you get that?”

Scanning down the rest of the content, it’s a contract with Genovese’s name stamped on top and his signature. I was bought. I was fucking bought like a pet from the flea market.

AGREEMENT OF TRANSFER: GENOVESE TO KASTOROV.

RECIPIENT: LILIANA HOXHA. PURPOSE: SEXUAL COMPENSATION.

The words don’t even make sense although they’re in english. I understand them, but my brain refuses to register. The paper has a brown stain on the corner just underneath a signature. I know deep down that this signature isn’t forget. It’s Damian’s.

I can’t breathe. God! My stomach churns like I’m about to be sick. 

“Where did you get that?” He shouts.

Melanie glares at him with swollen eyes. “You left your files unlocked. So careless. Typical.” 

Through my blurry vision, I storm past them, past her mocking laughter and up the stairs. My chest caves in and it feels like that day when Damian showed me Kyle’s debt payment to Genovese. 

But this time it’s worse because I actually let myself feel. My heart shatters into something unrecognizable. 

Just as I get to my room, I throw my clothes into the bag one after the other, fighting not to break before that bastard and his mistress. 

Fuck me! How did I not see this coming? How have I been so foolish when he started to offer me certain degrees of freedom?

I rip his stupid shirt off my body and don a dress of mine when he comes bounding through the door. The shirt goes flying straight to his face the moment he appears by my side. 

“Liliana—”

“I dare you to say my name one more time,” I hiss. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

“It’s not what you think.”

“Of course, it’s not what I think?” I zip my bag, forcing back the burn in my throat. “How do you explain what I saw with your signature on top? Because from where I’m standing, you bought me to fuck me. Just like she said. So I’m just another name on your fucking list?”

“I didn’t bring you here for that. In fact, I didn’t have that paper in mind when I suggested the trip.”

I ignore the look of desperation in his eyes. I don’t know what to believe anymore. “Bullshit!” 

He flinches.

“You fucked me. Told me things and looked at me like I meant something. Then I see that paper and know it’s all been a lie. You bought me, Damian. Just like Kyle sold me off.”

His jaw steels like he’s angry. What rights does he have when they’re both exactly the same, signing me off like some cheap article. “This is different, Milaya. It was an agreement–”

“An agreement? You make agreements to own women?”

“It was complicated at the time. I was desperate to get you away from Genovese and the only way I could get him to let go was to use his terms. I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me? Oh God, I feel disgusting.”

“You’re not.”

I laugh. “You know what’s funny? I actually thought you were different, or you could be. That maybe…just maybe you saw me.”

“I do.”

“Then why?” My voice cracks. “Why did you let me fall for you if you were just going to humiliate me in front of your whore?”

“I didn’t know she’d come. I swear.”

“I don’t care.”

He steps closer. “You don’t understand what I feel.”

“Then tell me,” I demand, eyes locked on his. “What do you feel for me?”

He freezes instantly. Not a word. Just…silence.

Then he looks away, not even managing the decency to defend his words. And that’s when I know. My heart actually breaks this time. Not the sharp snap of betrayal. No. 

This is a slow dragging tear. 

“You really don’t know, do you?” I whisper. “You brought me here just to fuck, and you made me think I meant something. Did you really mean those words you said or was that just lust overriding your common sense? Was that how good my pussy felt?”

“Don’t talk like that. I care about you,” he says quietly. “More than I should. More than I understand.”

“Not enough.”

He reaches for my arm and when I try to pull away, he pins me to the wall and wraps his hand around my wrist. 

“Stop it,” I hiss. “Let me go.”

He doesn’t. He leans in and kisses me.

I try to fight it, right before my body betrays me. My lips part to kiss him back. It’s desperate, angry and messy rolled into one. His hands hold my face as my fingers curl into his shirt. Tears drip down my cheek but he catches them with his kisses.

“I have never shown anyone the things I did you. I have never crossed the line with anyone as many times as I have with you.”

“But you can’t define what this is between us. All the more reason to believe the paper you stamped. You claim to love me when you don’t even respect me. At least, Kyle did a more honorable job at it.” 

I pull back and shove hard at his chest. He doesn’t fight it. 

When I open the door, Melanie is waiting with swollen cheeks and a smug smile. Instead of giving her the satisfaction, I move around her like she doesn’t exist anymore. Getting to the area where his cars are parked, I find his driver. 

“Damian said to take me back.”

He eyes me with suspicion. “I’ll call him—”

“Elias.”

We both turn to look at the deck where Damian stands now. He doesn’t even spare a single glance at me as he says, “Do what she says.”

Without a word, I climb into the back seat, trying as hard as I can to not look in his direction but at the last minute, I fail and what do I see? Melanie with her arms wrapped around him.

I catch the shove he gives her as he storms back into the house but that doesn’t matter anymore. He could be doing all that for show. 

I’m led into his private jet. The moment I get the privacy that I need, I curl into the seat and hug my knees. 

When the wheels lift off the island, my chest opens wide and without restraint, I bury my face in my arms and sob because this time, the heartbreak is real and it has a name.

Damian Kastorov.