CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Claire had been scarred before.

By her father's absence

By her mother's shitty parenting

By her mother's boyfriend’s abuse

And things never really worked in her favour

But at a point, her life wasn't so bad. She had a job, well sorta

She had her own apartment, but most importantly

She had a good friend—

Sharon

Donald made her believe in a fantasy, he used her as he wanted, and he broke her

She felt like she had given her fragile, already messed up heart to him. And he pinched it to death and gave it back to her

Fresh tears slid down her cheeks

Donald had no respect for her. To him she was usable and expendable.

And now, she was in the palm of his hands.

Because he was blackmailing her.

Claire wanted nothing more but to leave his suite, go back to her old life and recover in silence

She could not bear to stay in the same place he was. It made her sick to her stomach

But Donald would not let her leave—

It was torture, but she somehow felt that she deserved it all

Claire was brought back to reality by the sound of f Donald's voice

He was on the phone with someone, but when he got to where she was, he had ended the call

Claire looked at him with teary eyes while he looked at his reflection in the mirror.

“When can I go home?”

She asked, sounding depressed

Donald stared at her from the mirror

“You can't go home, I still need you to do some things for me”

“Haven't you hurt me enough?”

Claire sobbed

Donald turned to her and grabbed her face

“Unless you want me to still your secrets, you'll do whatever the fuck I say!

His fingers pressed into her cheeks, and she squirmed

“Do you understand bitch?”

Claire nodded reluctantly, then he let her go

“Now, you'll keep up the act with Mrs Gray, so she doesn't suspect anything.

You'll give her flowers and be nice

You won't even attempt to fuck this up because if you do”

He turned to her again

“If you do Claire, you will be met with an unexplained stroke of bad luck—”

*******************

Sharon sat on a wooden chair in the garden of Luca's mansion.

There was the sound of birds chirping, and it gave her a sort of peaceful feeling

But in reality, she just wanted to wrap her head around everything that was going on, but she couldn't.

It was far too nuanced and complex for her to come up with a logical answer

She heard someone clear his throat in the background

He had probably been watching her for a while.

Then she turned, it was

Arman

Her heart skipped a beat as she remembered what happened that morning

“I see you enjoy the bird's Young mistress”

“Yes” she replied, a little too quickly

Her palms were sweaty, and she was nervous as hell

But slightly relieved

Because if he had told Luca, things would have been a lot worse

But how would she be able to look him in

the face now?

Sharon sighed

“You saw me, didn't you”

Her face was down, her eyes were fixed to the grass

“I didn't see anything Young mistress”

Sharon looked at him

And he winked at her

“I don't understand” Sharon said, a puzzled look on her face

Arman leaned on the chair she was sitting

“If you were going to kill Luca, you would've done it already

Plus—

I think there's a silver lining to all of this”

“So—you’re not gonna tell?”

Her eyes glowed in anticipation

“Nope. I didn't see anything”

“Thank you Arman”

“You're welcome”

“Does this mean we're friends now?”

Arman thought for a moment

“I guess it does”

He stood up straight

“I have to go Young mistress”

“Sharon!, my name is Sharon”

“I can't call you that!”

He said as he walked a few steps away from her, waving a goodbye.

Sharon smiled. He had said it before, Luca would have his head

Luca was possessive

Even though he didn't like her, he never let anyone disrespect her

And for some reason, he stopped calling her a whore

For some other reason, he no longer welcomed his blonde mistress in into the house

For another completely different reason, he didn't disclose her identity when he had the chance

Was he perhaps— becoming softer towards her?

Nahhh, that's bullshit

That evening, Sharon was about to have dinner in the main dining. It was thirty minutes past six

She wore a sleeveless, thin blue silk gown. It had a little jacket, but she would be dammed.

No one was really in he house, Arman had left a while ago, most of the servants were women, and Luca always came back drunk at odd hours

But for some reason, Luca's car pulled up in the driveway.

She went to the window to confirm if it was really him

And there he was

His driver opened the door, he came down from his car and walked to the entrance of the house

It was either Sharon's eyes were playing tricks on her, or there was something different about him

No jittery movements, and he completely ignored the first vase he saw

Was he perhaps—

Sober?

Sharon ran through the stairs as fast as her legs could take her

Of course someone had already opened the door, but her suspicions were true

Luca wasn't drunk

They locked eyes

And Sharon felt a heat surge within her

His suit was in his hand, and his first three shirt buttons had been undone, revealing a chest that adorned a perfectly sculpted torso

She didn't know why, but her legs moved to him. She wasn't thinking straight, she wasn't in her right senses

Because to the first thing she did

Was hug him