Captive.

Claire

“It seems coming here was useless,” I said softly, my voice breaking as I lowered my head, my face twisting with pain. My heart felt like it was being squeezed. Coming here… was for nothing.

Tears burned at the corners of my eyes. How dare you, Ian. After everything we shared, after all the years, how dare you betray me like this.

My hand clenched tightly around my bag, the only thing keeping me from falling apart in front of this man. “Thank you for your time,” I muttered, turning to leave. But before I could take a single step, his hand gripped my arm. I gasped, startled, turning sharply to face him.

His gaze was fixed on the me—cold, heavy, and unrelenting. “If you’re that mad that your husband is screwing someone younger,” he said slowly, his tone almost taunting, “then why don’t you pay him back?”

I frowned, my chest tightening. What is he talking about? What kind of sick joke is this?

“Let go of my hand,” I said through clenched teeth, my voice trembling with anger. When he didn’t, I pulled, twisted, struggled, but his grip only tightened painfully. I turned fully to him and hit his chest with my free hand. “I said let go of me!” I screamed, the mix of rage, humiliation, and fear bubbling to the surface.

But instead of letting me go, he caught my other wrist, holding me completely. My breath came out in sharp, shaky gasps, my body trembling. And before I realized it, tears were spilling freely down my cheeks. Ian, look what you’ve done to me. You’ve turned me into a woman I can’t even recognize.

“It’s okay for weak women like you to cry,” Liam said coldly. My head shot up, my tear-filled eyes meeting his. He was smiling—a cruel, mocking smile, like he was watching a pathetic scene in a play he was enjoying too much.

“Imagine this,” he continued, his voice dripping with venom. “My girlfriend is having a good time with your husband. Don't you think you should be doing the same with me?” His dark eyes glinted, his smile stretching into something sinister.

I froze. My stomach twisted. This man is insane. I should have listened to the investigator. I should never have come here.

“Please,” I said weakly, barely above a whisper, “just leave me alone, I want to get out of here.”

For a second, I thought he would listen. His smile faded, and he released my hands—but before I could even breathe in relief, his arm wrapped around my waist, yanking me against him. I gasped, stumbling onto his chest. My heart pounded wildly, my breath catching in my throat as his face moved closer, so close I could feel his breath against my skin.

“Are you jealous of Pattie?” he murmured, voice low and cruel. “Because she’s everything you’re not, young and attractive?”

The words hit me harder than any slap could. My tears fell faster, the image of my husband with that beautiful young model flashing behind my eyes, the way he smiled at her, touched her, like I never existed. I could never compete with her. Not even when I was younger.

“Please,” I whispered, my voice cracking, “stop it.”

But he wasn’t done. His words came like daggers. “You see yourself as old now, don’t you? Unwanted, undesired. That’s why you didn’t go to your husband and confront him. Because you knew if you did, he might leave you and you couldn’t bear that.”

I shook my head violently, covering my ears with both hands. “Stop it, please,” I begged, but he just kept talking, “so you're mad that you can't do anything about it, because you're too weak to the man who you gave your youth to", his words digging into every wound I had left.

“Stop it!!” I screamed, the sound breaking from me in pure anguish. My body trembled as the sobs tore through me. “Just… just stop it!”

I cried uncontrollably then, all the pain and humiliation pouring out at once. The tears wouldn’t stop, they came like a flood I couldn’t control. I cried like a child, broken, lost, and stripped of everything that was once my own.

Before I could calm myself, he yanked my face closer and crushed his mouth against mine. My eyes went wide as I tried to fight him off, my tears freezing mid-fall, replaced with fear and panic as his tongue forced its way into my mouth. “Mph—” I tried to pull back, to push him off, but his hand held my head still, the other gripping my waist, keeping me trapped while his tongue explored my mouth like he owned it.

I bit him—hard, the first chance I got. I bit until I tasted blood, until he finally pulled away. I saw it there, the dark smear of red on his lips. Anyone else would’ve cursed, maybe slapped me, shouted something—but he didn’t.

He smiled.

He actually smiled, like he was pleased. And while I stood there trembling, still feeling his breath on my skin, he said softly, “Sorry about that,” his voice low, almost breathless, “but I’m weak when it comes to crying women. It turns me on.”

My lips parted in shock, my whole body tense. Who the hell was this man? Because right now, with the way his eyes looked at me—was so scary and not just that, there was lust too.

It was getting late; I should’ve been heading home before anyone noticed I was gone longer than usual. But I couldn’t move—not when he was holding me like this, trapping me in his arms as if I was his captive.

“Please… just let me go. My kids—” I tried to reason with him, but he only scoffed.

“Well, I can’t,” he said calmly, almost too calmly. My heart thudded hard, my eyes shaking as he went on, his tone turning dark, almost sensual. “You know, I think I’m angry now. Your husband… screwing my Pattie. You know she’s the best one, right?”

His lips were so close to mine, any slight movement it would touch mine, and the thought of it made my breathing grow uneven.

“So,” he whispered, “for your husband going under the skirt of my woman…”

He brought his wet tongue to my face trailing along the line of my jaw, and I flinched, closing my eyes as it slid up to my cheek, licking away my tears.

“…I’ll go under the skirt of his wife—the one he doesn’t even find attractive anymore.”

My heart froze, fear rising so high I could barely breathe. But not because of him, but because whatever is he doing to me now, my damn body was reacting to it.