Chapter One

Five years later. 

Hope. 

I was finally going back home, but not my home. I was taking my place as Damian's wife. Now that I had finished my studies and was of age. 

I stood at the airport looking around wondering, if Damian would pick me up himself or send one of his drivers. I was still in deep thought when I heard my name. 

“Hope.” i heard the familiar voice that I hadn't heard for over five years. It was my sister's Lola's voice. I slowly turned around to face her. She looked different than the last time I had seen her. But again the last time I saw her was five years ago and she was pregnant back then. She was now twenty four years old, but somehow she looked older than that. Her eyes were puffy and she looked like she wasn’t sleeping enough. 

We both stood a few metres apart for a few minutes, taking in the five years. I was no longer the small girl she knew. I was a grown woman now. Abruptly, she then pulled me in for a hug and i could hear her sobbing on my shoulders. 

I allowed myself to let her hold me for as long as she wanted to, and it felt like a while before she whispered. 

"I missed you so much Hope. Am so happy to see you."

Lola and i used to be inseparable, there were only two of us and we did everything together. Whatever Lola did, I too wanted to do it, everything she Said was cool I also thought was cool, which is why when she turned her back on me it felt like being stabbed in the back by my best friend. 

I couldn't really blame her, but I needed to direct my anger somewhere. I knew why Lola did what she did, she had no option she had to look out for her own interests. But I had wished she had taken me with her instead of leaving me to be sold off as a possession to one of the most inhumane families known. 

At the time of my betrothal, Lola was the one who was supposed to be married off to Damian. She was the oldest and she was of age at the time. After she ran away I took her place. The spears family didn't care that I was underage, they said they will send me abroad until I was off age, which they did. 

"Mama! Mama! Look." a small girls voice interrupted me from my thoughts. 

Lola released me from her embrace but squeezed my arms softly. Her eyes were filled with tears as she tried to wipe them off before facing the little girl. 

"Mama!" the little girl repeated impatiently tugging at Lola's dress. She picked her up and I instantly saw the resemblance. She looked just like her mother. They had the same eyes and smile. She was beautiful and had long black hair that was held up in two ponytails.

"Kyla,this is your aunt Hope." Lola said to the little girl in her arms. 

Kyla looked at me intrigued, smiling as if trying to figure me out before she turned back to her mother. 

"She is so pretty."she said. 

" Thank you Kyla, but so are you. Who did your hair? Can they do mine too?" I said cheerfully touching her beautiful hair. 

" Mommy did it. She can do yours too if you ask nicely." Kyla said and we all laughed. 

" Why did you come back Lola?" I asked my voice sounding cold. "Why now, why did you bring her back to this life?" I asked referring to her daughter Kyla. 

Lola just looked at me for a second before she turned to Lola, "do you want some cookies?" Kyla immediately shakes her head. 

She had tried to avoid my question but I wasn't going to let her. 

"Why did you come back Lola? You could have started over given your daughter a new life away from all this madness, but you chose to come back why?" I felt the anger I surpressed for so many years coming back up. They had all abandoned me. They had no idea how lonely it was the past five years having no friends no family to talk to. I had been the sacrificial lamb so I didn't understand why she would bring her daughter back here. 

"Can we do this somewhere else." Lola said almost in a whisper. 

"No, I want to know why you came back after everything."

"I came back because I should never have left in the first place Hope." she glanced up at me, "life is too short Hope."

I knew she did not have a choice. When my father had found out she was pregnant, he had freaked out. Firstborn daughter to the boss of the Michael family pregnant out of wedlock. As modern as my family was, there were some things that did not change. I still wonder if my father regretted his decisions. It had cost him two daughters.

But then again, we seemed to be easy to give away. Maybe if he had a son, perhaps things would have been different.

“I will come see you next week.” Lola said breaking me away from my thoughts again. 

“Why? Why bother now?” I asked wondering what she was thinking. 

She lifted her chin, a stubborn gesture I remembered from when we were little.

The sound of a car backfiring made us all jump. The soldiers circling the square all drew weapons until we all realized there was no threat. Before I turned back to her, though, I noticed Damian , who stood by his car, tuck the shiny metal of a pistol back into its holster beneath his jacket.

These were violent men. Men to whom killing was part of life. Part of business. Even having grown up in their world, it still made me shudder.

Damian shifted his gaze to me. From this distance, I couldn’t see his eyes, but he watched me while standing beside the sedan ready to drive us back home. “I have to go.” i said slowly. 

“Hope,” my sister started, this time taking my hand. Hers felt warm, soft. It made me want to cry for all we had lost. But I had learnt to surpress my emotions. I was good at it too. 

“What?” I snapped. I could not cry. I would not. Not here.

“Be strong. You are not alone, am here now.”

“Really?” I tugged my hand free. “That would be a first.”

Anger flashed through her eyes after my comment. Did she want to slap me, I wondered?

Would she? Would Damian allow it? For a moment, I thought of him coming to my rescue, of him punishing my sister for laying a hand on me. But then, I remembered who I was. Who he was. What I was to him.

“I have to go.” I took a step back. Lola’s eyes filled with tears, sadness replacing the momentary anger, and I turned away.

Show no weakness. Not an ounce of it.

I faced Damian , the man who owned me. Surely the contract we had signed wouldn’t hold up in any court of law. But it wasn’t the contract that dictated my life. I knew what would happen if I didn’t do as I was told. I knew who would pay. It would be them. 

I glanced at Lola and her daughter again.

No, they wouldn’t need a court of law to ensure I cooperated. The contract was simply another means of humiliation reminding me i was their property.

Damian straightened to his full height, standing nearly a foot taller than me at six feet four, and opened the sedan door as i approached him. Even from across the square, I could see he waited patiently, and I thought he might be trying to be civilized, polite.

For the sake of the gathered reporters? Surely not for my benefit. I wondered for a moment if he wanted this. If he wanted me like this, knowing it was not my will.

But then again, owning another person? That had to be the ultimate high.

I glanced back once more at Lola. I couldn’t help it. For the last five years, I had been shut away at school. I had lived in London and received private tutoring to earn my highschool degree before attending the small college there, studying, free to a point. But now, it was time to enter the den of the wolf. My schooling was complete, and it was time for me to assume my place as Damian's wife.  

For one moment, I tried to imagine that it wasn’t true.

That it was all a dream, a nightmare. That I could look at my big sister and know she would make it all okay, like she always did. Just one moment, then I would be able to do this. To go to my enemy, to enter into his house, knowing I would be an outsider forever. Hated. My presence like a living trophy of their victory over my father, my family.

What would Damian expect of me? I wondered. 

“Hope.” Damian said my name, his voice low and dark, making me shudder.

I didn’t know what to say, even though I had practiced this moment in my mind for months. Years. Now, I simply stood like a mute thing.

But then his father, Francis Spears, head of the family and a man I thoroughly despised, approached. He didn’t even try to hide his enjoyment of the situation.

I cleared my throat, finally finding my voice. “Why are you here? You have no right.” I heard my question, knew it was the same one I had asked my sister.

“I came to give you my blessing and welcome you into the family.”

Francis leaned in, looking around as if we were somehow co-conspirators.

“Actually,” he started, his tone lower, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

I didn’t think. I didn’t do anything but feel the anger, the hot rage as it bubbled over inside me. My hands clenched into fists, and I spat at his shoe.

Except he moved at the last moment, and I missed. When I looked up, Damian ’s face showed his shock, and Francis was quickly reddening, showing his fury. Although I stood my ground, my heart jackhammered against my chest. I wasn’t sure he wouldn’t hit me. Hell, between this and my comment to Isabella, maybe that’s what I was going for.

Damian gripped my arm. “Apologize.”

“No,” I replied, my eyes locked on his father’s black gaze.

Tony, Damian’s brother, who had stood watching from a few feet away, approached. He had a smile on his face as he put his arm around his father’s shoulders. Damian tensed beside me.

“We are getting some attention. Come on, Paps. Let’s go.”

I met Tony’s gaze, and I would have sworn he was enjoying the spectacle.

“Apologize.” Damian’s grip tightened around my arm, it was almost painful.

I cocked my head to the side. “I’m sorry I missed,” I said, a grin spreading across my face.

Tony’s eyebrows shot up, and Damian muttered a curse under his breath.

“Let’s go,” Tony said just when I thought his father would explode.

“In.” Damian’s other hand gripped my waist as he pushed me into the sedan.

“Get your hands off me,” I said, trying to force him off.

He climbed in beside me and pulled the car door shut. The driver started the engine. Damian transferred his grip to my knee, his eyes burning a hole through me. “That was a very stupid thing to do.” His fingers bit into my flesh.

I had nothing to say. In fact, all I could do was shake violently. I wrapped my arms around myself.

“Turn down the air conditioning,” he told the driver, his gaze still locked on mine.

I wished it were the cold that had me shivering.

“Yes, sir,” the driver said.

Being so close, seeing him again, it was too much, too intense. It brought too many memories back and foretold a future I did not want.

“You are hurting me.”

Damian blinked, as if processing each word I spoke one at a time. He shifted his gaze to where his hand gripped my knee. I held my breath, feeling powerless, knowing I was entirely at his mercy. 

Knowing this was only the beginning of my hell.