Se connecterI went to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. I turned the shower on hard, too hard, so that the sound of water hitting the tiles was loud enough to swallow the sounds I knew I would make. I stepped inside and let the water fall over my face, mixing with the tears I was no longer even trying to hold back.I thought about Eliot. About his smile, his voice, everything we had planned before my world fell to pieces over the course of a single night. I thought about how, while I stood there under the hot water in someone else’s shower, I had just been forced to betray him in a way he would never be able to understand or forgive me for, even if he knew the truth.I cried for a long time, quietly, with my palms pressed over my mouth to muffle the sound, until the water began to turn cold.When I came out, I wrapped myself in a towel and opened the bathroom door.Luka was standing in the middle of the room, already dressed, clean, as though the previous few hours had left no trace on
TodayI made an offended face and raised my eyebrows in shock. “What’s the problem? I can talk about whatever I want, freedom of speech—”I fell silent because he suddenly stepped toward me, so close that my face almost collided with his. He spoke quietly, dangerously quietly, warning me that this would not end well if I said his name again. I was about to say something clever, some response with which I could return at least a fraction of the contempt I felt for him, when his phone rang.He gave me another angry look, lingering on it as though he regretted having to interrupt it, then pulled his phone from his pocket and read the message that had just arrived. He turned his back to me as he typed a reply.“Your father is fine,” he said without turning around.“And Claire?” I asked, and judging by the way he stiffened, I knew he was surprised that I cared at all.“She’ll be fine, too. She’s in surgery.” He pointed toward the hallway on the left. “The bathroom is at the end of the hall
The floor was cold beneath my knees. Or perhaps it was the wall. I couldn’t tell up from down, the ceiling from the floor, or how much time had passed—a second, an hour, an entire night condensed into one long, stretched-out moment without edges. Voices. Someone’s voices, muffled, as though they were coming through water, through a wall, through something thick that stood between me and the world. I couldn’t make out the words. Only the tone—low, dangerous, or perhaps frightened. Maybe they were the same voice, sounding completely different depending on how close I was to the edge of consciousness. Someone was calling my name. Maybe. My hand was heavy. Metal in my palm—cold at first, then strangely warm, as though it were sticking to my skin, as though it had always been a part of me. My fingers trembled around it, but the sensation felt distant, as though I were watching my own hand through glass, through a haze, through someone else. The sound of breathing. Mine. Someone
His hand shot toward my face, and for a moment I closed my eyes, convinced he was going to slap me. Instead, I felt his hand lower the neckline of my shirt slightly and his fingers gently brush the skin of my chest until he reached the little piece of paper and pulled it from my bra. He held it up in the air, gripping it between his index and middle fingers in front of my face. He read what was written on it, then looked at me with a murderous stare.“What is this?” he asked, his voice so calm that it was worse than shouting.“I found it,” I replied. “That’s all you need to know.”“Wrong answer.” His eyes moved predatorily over my face, my neck, my cleavage, and I felt my skin prickle with every passing second. “Where. Did. You. Find. It?”“It’s none of your business,” I quipped.His hand flashed before I could move, catching my jaw—not roughly, but firmly enough that I couldn’t turn my head. “Everything you do is my business. Remember that.”“Then let me go,” I said through clenched
"That guard you looked at so dreamily already lost his head. And still you haven't learned that you belong to me — only to me." He growled."You're insane, you killed an innocent man, I swear I wasn't looking at him!" I screamed desperately.He pulled my head back by the hair and I felt a sharp pain at the crown of my head. "I'm insane, am I? You think I didn't see the way he looked you over, head to toe? The way you looked back at him?""That didn't happen!" I pulled at my restraints, feeling the shackles cutting into my wrists above my head. He completely ignored my attempts of having a normal conversation for once. "Because you're my wife, I'll give you the privilege of choosing your own punishment." Luka said — though I couldn't see him through the blindfold, I felt his breath against my ear and knew he was standing somewhere behind me."Do you want the whip, or something more creative?" he said, his voice soft, almost mocking. I bit my lip, feeling powerless to say anything, cer
The door opened without warning. I froze, my hand still inside his drawer, and when I looked up, Luka was standing in the doorway, watching me with an expression I couldn't read.I expected rage. I expected him to walk over and grip my arm hard enough to leave bruises, the way he'd done before. Instead, he closed the door behind him, slowly, and laughed — a real, quiet laugh that was a thousand times more chilling than his shouting."How sweet," he said, walking toward me unhurried, hands in his pockets, as if he had all the time in the world. "You think you can snoop around my office and I won't find out.""Luka—""Since you're acting like a spoiled brat," he continued, his voice calm, almost pleasant, "I'm going to treat you like one."Before I could react, he grabbed my upper arm and shoved me face down across the desk, sweeping the laptop and papers aside with one smooth motion, sending them crashing to the floor in a clatter that echoed through the empty office."Luka, let me go—







