Chapter 211
CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED ELEVEN
NICOLE
“Sorry for disturbing you so late, sir,” a familiar voice said. “Is Nicole home?”
“You’re Yui’s boy, aren’t you?” Dad asked.
Eyes fluttering open, I tilted my head to the side to get a better view of the door, yet I could barely see out into the hallway. What was Akio doing here this late at night? Something must’ve happened.
And something definitely would happen if he didn’t leave soon.
Still, I wanted to get to him. I wanted him to see me, to hold me, to tell me that everything would be okay and that his parents would take care of Dad for me … even though I knew they never would. Not without payment, and I didn’t have a penny to my name.
“Akio!” I screamed.
But my voice was hoarse, and not even a whisper came out.
My body ached all over, and I could barely feel my lower half from how much Dad and his friends had used me in the past few hours. Someone grabbed my waist from behind, moving my body back and forth.
Get up, Nicole!
I pressed my hands into the puddle of blood underneath me and pushed as hard as I could. I pushed. And I pushed. And I pushed. Only to barely get a centimeter off the ground before Pick, one of Dad’s friends, flattened his hand across my lower back and I smacked down with a thud.
“Nicole’s not feeling too well right now,” Dad said to Akio.
“Can I see her?” Akio asked.
“She’s cooped up in her room. Puking.”
“I don’t mind.”
God, I don’t know whether I want him to leave before he gets hurt or to come get me …
If he tried to protest with my father any longer, I could only freaking imagine what would happen to him. Dad would snap at any minute from being pulled away from punishing his own daughter … and I would be left to suffer and watch as Dad killed him.
“She’s not available now,” Dad said. “Give Yui my best wishes.”
And with that, Dad slammed the door in Akio’s face.
A stray tear slid down my cheek, and I bit back a sob as Pick grabbed a fistful of my hair to pull my head back. I stared into the camera that Dad had set up earlier as a sort of blackmail—to make sure that I didn’t step out of line again or else everyone would see the whore that I was.
After listening to loud footsteps, I lifted my gaze higher to see Dad stopping at the door.
He unbuckled his belt and whipped it off himself, then crouched by my side. “Look at you, so fucking sexy that the nerdy kid comes to say hello to you.”
“I … I didn’t know he was coming over,” I tried to say.
“Let me tell you one thing, my girl,” Dad said to me, cupping my face and pulling my head a few more inches off the ground. “If I see you hanging out with that boy ever again, I will kill him in front of you.”
Tears welled in my eyes, and I nodded, knowing that he would kill him.
There was absolutely no question in my mind that Dad would chop him up into small, tiny pieces for me to find weeks after he murdered Akio. I didn’t know what I would even do. I didn’t know how I would think. I didn’t know how I would live after that.
Truthfully, I wouldn’t.
“Do you understand me?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I understand. I understand!”