Chapter 5

June’s POV

“Running away now?” I shot back at him, my voice shaking with anger and confusion. “Running away from you? I don’t even want to be with you. I don’t know who you are. This is all fucked up!”

I started pacing back and forth in that small hospital room, my bare feet slapping against the cold floor. My head was spinning. Everything was wrong. My body wasn’t mine. These people weren’t my family. And this man, this stranger who shot me, is to be my husband?

“Baby, you have to calm down,” Mrs. Alice said, reaching for me. Her voice was soft and worried. “You know, this is stress. You’re stressed.”

I whipped around to face her. “I’m not stressed! Please just let me be. I’m not stressed at all!”

The doctor, my so-called father, stepped forward and put a hand on Nikolai’s shoulder. “Nikolai, you should take her. We’ll prepare her discharge papers and get everything ready.”

Nikolai.

So his name was Nikolai.

I looked at him and saw that he was staring at me like I was some kind of crazy person. Like I was an animal in a cage doing something unexpected.

“You are very crazy,” he said slowly, his voice flat and cold. “I mean, you were crazy before, but now you are much more crazy.” He turned to the doctor. “I think she needs more time here.”

“Oh no, no, no, no, no,” Mrs. Alice said quickly, waving her hands. “She doesn’t need more time. She’s fine. She just needs rest at home.”

She came to me then, grabbing both my hands and squeezing them tight. Her eyes were pleading. “Now, my daughter, you are going to be a good girl. You are going to go back with your husband. This is what we’ve always wanted. Remember?”

“I am not Chloe!” I screamed, trying to pull my hands away. “Please, can nobody hear me? I’m not Chloe!”

Nikolai’s jaw clenched. “You know what? Wrap it up. We are leaving.”

Before I could say anything else, the doctor started moving around the room, gathering things. “I’m going to send all your belongings and everything. Let me pull out your IV.”

He reached for the tube in my arm and I flinched back. “You’re going to kill me,” I whispered.

But Mrs. Alice was already there, grabbing my arm and holding it still while the doctor removed the needle. I was too weak to fight them. Too confused. Too tired.

Nikolai had already left the room. Like this was all stupid. Like I was stupid. Like this whole situation was beneath him.

Mrs. Alice practically dragged me out of that hospital room. I stumbled after her, my legs weak and shaky. My head felt fuzzy from whatever drugs they’d given me earlier.

She shoved me into the back of a car. A really nice car. Expensive. Black leather seats that were softer than anything I’d ever touched.

Nikolai was already in the passenger sit beside the driver, staring straight ahead.

Mrs. Alice leaned into the car and looked at me one more time. “Behave yourself,” she said quietly. Then she closed the door.

I sat there in the back seat, feeling very weak. My whole body ached. My mind was spinning with everything that had just happened. The shooting. Waking up in someone else’s body. Being told I was married to the man who killed me.

None of it made sense.

The car started moving. Nikolai didn’t say anything. The atmosphere in the car was really, really, really bad. Heavy. Tense. Like the air itself was pressing down on my chest.

Nobody talked.

I stared out the window as we drove, watching the city pass by. Everything looked expensive and Nothing like the neighborhoods I used to drive through.

We drove for what felt like forever until we reached a grand gate. Like, an actual gate. Tall. Black iron. With security guards and everything.

The gate opened and we drove through.

And then I saw the house.

No. Not a house. A mansion.

It was marvelously beautiful. When I say beautiful, I mean so beautiful that I couldn’t stop staring. Three stories tall. White stone. Huge windows. Gardens that looked like something from a magazine. Fountains.

I pressed my face closer to the window, my mouth hanging open.

“Why are you acting like you’ve not seen this place before?” Nikolai’s voice cut through the silence.

I turned to look at him. “You weren’t talking to me back then. Why are you asking me this now?”

His eyes narrowed.

“I have eyes. And I can do whatever I want to do,” I added.

Nikolai’s hand shot out so fast I didn’t have time to react. He grabbed my cheeks, squeezing them hard. His fingers dug into my skin.

“You do not talk to me in that manner,” he said, his voice low and dangerous.

I tried to pull back but his grip was too strong. My heart was pounding. I was scared. Really scared. This man had already killed me once. What would stop him from doing it again?

He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes cold and empty. Then he let go, almost throwing my face away from him.

I turned away quickly, my cheeks burning where his fingers had been.

The car stopped in front of the mansion. Nikolai got out without a word and started walking toward the entrance. He didn’t wait for me. Didn’t look back.

The driver came around and opened my door. I stepped out on shaky legs and followed Nikolai at a distance, walking behind him like a dog that had been kicked.

As we entered the house, I tried not to stare at everything. The marble floors. The high ceilings. The chandelier that looked like it cost more than my old house.

Then I heard a voice.

“Oh, my sweetheart! Nikolai!”

A woman came running from somewhere inside the house. She was beautiful. Perfect hair. Perfect makeup. Perfect everything.

And I recognized her immediately.

My blood turned to ice.

It was her. The same woman who had been in my bed with Frederick just a few days ago. The same woman whose legs had been spread wide while my husband’s fingers were inside her. The same woman who had smiled at me while Julian sucked Frederick’s dick.

Betty.

She walked forward and threw her arms around Nikolai. Not a normal hug. Not a sister hug. She pressed her whole body against him, her hands sliding up his chest, her face buried in his neck.

“Welcome back,” she said, her voice all soft and sweet.

Nikolai’s expression didn’t change. “When did you get here?”

“Just a few days ago,” Betty said, still clinging to him. “I wanted to come and see my brother. I’ve missed you so much.”

Her hands were all over him. Touching his shoulders. His arms. His chest. It was weird. Wrong. Not how sisters were supposed to touch their brothers.

And then finally, finally, she turned and looked at me.

Her eyes met mine and for just a second, just one tiny second. Does she recognize me??

“Oh!” she said brightly, like she’d just noticed me. “Welcome, sister-in-law! It’s so good to have you here.”

I just nodded. My throat felt tight. “It’s good to be here too.”

The words tasted like lies.

Betty walked toward me, still smiling that fake smile. “I want to show you your room. We’re going to be the best of friends, sister-in-law. You understand?”

The facade was so obvious it made me sick. Everything about her was fake. The smile. The voice. The friendliness.

“I will show you to your room, sister,” Betty said, grabbing my arm. “Come with me.”

She practically dragged me away. I turned to look back at Nikolai, but he had already turned and was walking toward the other side of the house. Like I didn’t exist. Like I was nothing.

Betty pulled me up a grand staircase, down a hallway, and stopped in front of a door. She opened it and shoved me inside.

The room was nice. Big. But cold. Impersonal. Like a hotel room.

Betty closed the door behind us with a loud bang that made me jump.

“Well, well, well,” she said, her voice completely different now. Cold. Mean. “You’ve made it into this house just like you wanted.”

I backed up. “What?”

Betty walked toward me slowly. “But know one thing, Chloe.” She said the name like it was poison. “My brother belongs to me.”

She reached out and touched my cheek. Her fingers were cold. She traced her hand down slowly, over my jaw, down my neck, until her hand was on my breast.

I grabbed her wrist and shoved her hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

Betty laughed. “Oh, I see you’re not in the mood today, love.” She leaned in close, her breath hot on my ear. “You can hit me up anytime. I’ll be here to attend to your pussy. But not my brother.”

She gave a wicked laugh that made my skin crawl.

Then she walked to the door and opened it. But before she left, she turned back to look at me one more time.

Her smile was gone. Her face was hard and cold.

“Stay away from him, Chloe.”

Then she walked out and closed the door behind her.

I stood there alone in that cold, empty room, my heart pounding, my mind racing.

What the fuck had I gotten into?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​