I'm not your property

CATHERINE

“No, Andre! I am no longer the puppet you can throw around in the name of a wife!” I screamed into the phone, all my pent-up and hurt emotions bubbling up to the surface.

“I am done with that hellhole you call a marriage! Nothing can bring me back to you after you had the nerve, the audacity and the disrespect to cheat on me with my sister!”

His voice on the other end of the phone oozed anger, the deep baritone almost forcing me to surrender to his will. But he had hurt me too much for that to work now. “It was a contract marriage. I am not obligated to you, Catherine, now fucking listen to me—”

“I am not obligated to you, either! I have always listened to you and where has that gotten me? Hurt and pregnant.” I yelled him down with a cracking voice, making sure he could not get a word in.

“I am not your property, Mr. Gray, and you don’t own me.”

“That’s where you are f*cking wrong.” His reply was venomous. “I own every inch of you, Catherine. From the moment you signed those marriage papers. I own you. And I own the baby inside you. That’s my f*cking child, and you are going nowhere.”

It was the finality in his words that tripled the scorned and hurtful anger inside me. The way he still had the confidence to order me around after he hurt me so bad.

The way he still believed he had power over me. And he never even showed any remorse for cheating on me.

Andre never apologized to me.

Lucy, my freaking damned sister that I trusted, had run off after I discovered what they had done. That was how little they both cared about me.

And that was what hurt the most.

I did not deserve this type of life. And I was going to end it, cut off everything that could lead him to me again. And even with his billions, he would never find me again.

I yelled at the top of my lungs as I spoke up again, “You can not stop me. This entire marriage has been a whole damn waste of my life, my time and my efforts! I do not need anything from you. I am going to keep, cherish and take care of my baby, and you will never see either of us, ever again!”

Andre growled. “Catherine—!”

I hung up on him before he could finish his statement, throwing the phone across the bed and it landed with a dull thud.

I let out a staggering breath and clenched my shaking hands into fists against my thighs.

My eyes stayed on the phone, which was already buzzing again and echoing through the small hotel room I was hiding in.

No doubt, it was him. He was calling again. My heart was slammed inside my chest from the dangerous decision I just took. I had to leave him.

I needed to.

It was for the best.

I repeat those words over again in my head.

He hurt me. So bad. And now, I had a tiny little part of him inside me that depended on me for life.

Getting pregnant for the dark CEO Andre Gray was not a choice I made, but it was my choice now to keep my baby.

And protect it from him.

Slowly, my anger transformed into tears, and a couple of salty drops slid down my eyes to my chin. I placed a hand carefully on my belly, which was still flat, and lowered myself down onto the bed. I felt exposed and vulnerable at this moment, so I curled into a fetal position, unable to hold back the tears and cried into my pillow.