Todos os capítulos de Stolen By My Stepbrother, the Underworld King: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

(Lorei's POV)The food's been sitting outside my door for two days. I can see it through the gap when the maid changes the tray, untouched toast going stale, soup gone cold and filmy on top, a fresh tray replacing the last one twice a day like clockwork. And I'm not even doing it to prove anything. I just can't make myself want anything in this house, including staying alive in it.I'm lying on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling, when the door opens without a knock, Elias. First time I've seen him since that night, and my whole body goes rigid before he's even said a word. "You haven't eaten." He crosses the room, picks up the untouched tray from beside my bed, sets it back down like the observation alone should embarrass me into compliance."I'm not hungry." I say, my voice flat."You've said that for two days." He snaps.“That’s because I’m not hungry," I snap back at him and immediately, he leans down, his hand gripping my jaw, forcing me to look at him. "You will eat," he

(Lorei's POV)The water's gone lukewarm by the time I make myself get out, steam still clinging to the mirror, and my whole body feels wrung out from replaying the same thought on a loop for twenty straight minutes.If I'm playing his game, I have to actually play it. I have to actually make it look so real that he believes it.The maid knocked twenty minutes ago, said breakfast in half an hour, and I let the water run hot over my shoulders the entire time trying to talk myself into the next part of this. I’ve been rejecting everything he or his maids bring so far like shit, rejecting everything. I guess it’s time to start accepting them.I wrap myself in a towel and cross to the closet he showed me my first week here, the one I refused to even open until today. It's enormous, obviously, everything in this house. Racks of dresses, countless shoes that are mostly still tagged, a jewelry box built into the wall like a vault. Everything looks so fucking expensive. He must have spent a fo

(Diane's POV)The phone is still in my hand when the screen goes dark and I can’t even make myself put it down. I sink into the edge of the bed with both hands wrapped around it, and every sentence Lorei said keeps replaying in my head. Months. Since before the wedding."Oh my God," I whisper. "Oh my God, oh my God."My daughter has been hiding this from me for months. So every time we sat to eat together, those times she held my hand, told me she was just tired, she was going through this? And for god’s sake, she let me put on a wedding dress at that altar and cry like an idiot about how happy I was, when she was being terrorized by the son of the man I married.I press the heel of my hand against my mouth so nobody in the hallway hears me. It doesn't work. The sob comes out anyway, ugly and loud, and I fold over my knees and let it. What kind of mother am I? My daughter was suffering, and I was right beside her, blind to it, enjoying my own life.She was so calm on the phone. That's

(Lorei's POV)The shower water's too hot, but I don't turn it down. I've been standing under it for ten minutes trying to scrub the day off. The conference room, Elias's eyes on me during my presentation, the door clicking shut in my face when I tried to apologize, the anonymous file still sitting unread-but-not-unseen in my head, my father's name typed out on the screen.The hot water cascades down my body, steam filling the room as I stand under the spray. I don't even decide to think about Elias. My mind just can’t seem to shut him out, he just keeps popping up. I keep thinking of how his hand was at the small of my back walking me through the lobby of Walker holdings, that half-second of something almost soft on his face before he shut it down in the conference room, his voice low in my ear months ago telling me I was his. I can't seem to cleanse him from my mind.My hands roam over my body, soaping up my skin, but it's not long before they drift lower, between my legs. I tell mys

(Lorei's POV)I wake up to an empty bed and the sheets cold on the other side, Elias’s side, and it’s like he's been gone a while. I lie there a minute, piecing last night back together in my mind. His words echo in my ears. "Get in the bed!" He looked so angry as he was uncuffing his shirt. The next thing I know is that he gets into bed next to me, fully dressed, and just lay there. I remember trying to have a decent conversation three separate times, “can we talk?”“is Fisher really okay?” “why aren't you angrier?”And every time he just answers weirdly calmly, " Lorei, I don't want to hear it tonight."He'd gave me my phone before that, unlocked, the restrictions gone. "Call your mother whenever you want," he'd said, not looking at me. "Use the internet freely." Then, flatter, "Fisher's fine. I didn't touch him beyond what you saw. I just need to sleep."I'd cried myself to sleep anyway, facing away from him, and at some point his breathing had gone slow and even beside me, lik