CHAPTER TWO
Seraphina – 4 years later
With my eyes squeezed shut, I struggle to stifle the whimper that threatens to escape as pain courses through my entire body. The disgust I feel washes over me, threatening to break my spirit and resolve. But I was determined not to let it.
I couldn’t let it.
Otherwise, I may as well give up now and just let him kill me. I slowly turn my head, seeing Angelo lying in the bed next to me, finally passed out from the alcohol and the drugs he’s recently consumed.
I’ve decided that today is the day. Today I will escape this hell, and I will run as far away from this life as I can. The threats and violence have escalated to the point I know he was going to kill me someday. Because I wasn’t the meek and mild woman, he remembered as a child.
He repeatedly unleashed his brutality upon me, both physically and mentally, yet I remained steadfast in denying him the gratification of seeing my spirit shatter. Not even when he’d lock me in the cold, dank basement for hours on end, naked and with no food or water. All that because he wanted the money, my mother had left me when she was killed in the car accident that left me alone in a home with two monsters.
I was just thankful that he took his rage out on me, and not the sleeping child just down the hall. But I wasn’t sure how long that would last, so I decided today was the day we would run.
Slowly, I peel back the covers, his loud snoring like music to my ears. The bastard was so deeply asleep that not even an earthquake could wake him.
At least I hoped not.
Padding naked into the bathroom, I try not to wince at the searing pain that fills my body. Turning my back to the mirror hanging on the wall behind me, I swivel my head, staring at the red welts all over my skin.
Using a whip to torture me is a recent development.
The sadistic bastard had taken great enjoyment in whipping me whenever he felt I was misbehaving.
Shaking my head, I turn my eyes away from the horrible sight and force myself to have a hot shower to wash away the feeling of revulsion I held inside me for the man who was the vilest of monsters. It took everything inside me not to scream as the hot spray came into contact with my sensitive skin. But I plowed on, finally jumping out with a towel wrapped around my body.
Opening the cupboard underneath the vanity, I push everything to the side, pulling out a small black bag in which I kept some clothes for myself and my little girl. Carefully putting on the sweats and T-shirt so as not to hurt myself further, I stare at my reflection in the mirror again. My brown hair, still damp, hangs limply around my face, and the clothes I’m wearing sag on me, a reminder of the inordinate amount of weight I’ve lost over the past four years.
Taking a deep breath, I drop the bag on the floor, uncaring if he sees it there. I’ll hopefully be long gone by the time he notices me missing.
I’ve chosen today to do what I’m about to do, because the egomaniac has given all the staff, including his security team, the day off, and they won’t return until tomorrow. So no one will be around to see me make a run for it. Quietly slipping into a pair of sneakers, I knew I’d have to do a lot of walking. They weren’t the height of fashion, but they were practical. Something that was more important.
Making sure Angelo was still fast asleep, I can’t help but smirk in his direction. In sleep, he looks like the boy I had grown up with, but I know he’s the monster in every little girl's nightmare.
He’s going to be pissed when he finds me gone, but that’s no longer my problem, because he’s going to learn soon enough that he hasn’t broken me or my spirit. He’s going to rue the day he ever touched me.
I make my way to Willow’s nursery, hating that I had to wake her up. I get close to her princess bed; I can’t help the smile that transforms my face. Her dark brown curls frame her sweet face, reminding me so much of her father. Pain the likes of nothing I’ve ever felt before, even when Angelo beat me, clenches my heart in my chest, knowing my little girl will never know her father. But I will make sure she never has to live one more day in fear of her uncle ever again.
“Willow, baby. Wake up. We’re going on an adventure,” I whisper to her as she opens her beautiful, innocent brown eyes and smiles up at me. “There’s my girl.” I coo, making quick work in getting her dressed and ready.
Over the last few weeks I purchased a car, with cash, and stashed it on the property, in an area that was overgrown and not watched by CCTV cameras. I buckle Willow into the car seat and kept a smile pinned to my face so that she would know that everything would finally be okay.
That was just the first day of our long journey from hell and back to civilization. We spent days on the road, circling and doubling back, just in case Angelo was looking for us. I had made sure I had enough cash to get us a hotel room every night, and stuffed my backpack with enough supplies of food and water to at least last us until we reached the next town. Staying a short time in one place before moving to the next. Just so that we wouldn’t be discovered by Angelo.
And it worked for the next six months until I decided—mainly for Willow’s sake—I was finally ready to put down roots. I had successfully evaded Angelo, and felt confident that I could settle down. Texas spoke to me, especially a little town called Briar Creek. I’d never heard of it, but it seemed like the safest place to land, where I literally closed my eyes and just pinned a destination on a map.
So, that’s where we went. Never in a million years did I think I’d see the man I’d believed was dead for the last four years.
Turns out he was very much alive.
When I found out, I was the happiest I’d ever been since our night together. But I couldn’t get past the looks of anger he was sending me. Though I couldn’t really blame him, since he thought I was a married woman when we slept together. And I’m sure he believes I left willingly, leaving my best friend and him to die in the warehouse. A man I had dreamed about every night for the last four years. A man I wished I could see just one more time, but knew I couldn’t because I thought he was dead. A bullet wound in his chest.
Or so I thought.
A whole new slew of problems arose while living in Briar Creek. For one, how was I going to tell Ky about Willow after all these years? Now that I knew he was alive and had a business right next door to my veterinary practice, I felt elated that I hadn’t missed my chance to tell him the truth.
That Willow was his.
My excitement at seeing him again fizzled when I realized he hated me. His indifference toward me hurt deeply, but do I have the right to feel any other way? Since I was partly to blame for his feelings toward me now; even though my actions back then were under duress. And if I told him about Willow, would that even make a difference to him?
Things were made more complicated when Zoe, a girlfriend of Chains, a member of the club, came into my clinic with her cat Mr. Boots to be checked over. Instead of pushing her away, and keeping to myself, like I should have done, I got swept away with being surrounded by other women, where until now, I had been alone. Allowing her into my life and thus becoming firm friends. She even introduced me to the wives and girlfriends of the Devil’s Carnage MC.
After our first meeting on the side of the road when I first arrived into town, when my car broke down, he made a concerted effort to ignore me even more, and I hadn’t been able to speak with him about Willow. But then Angelo set fire to my clinic for whatever reason only he knows about. Burning down Ky’s gym as well.
Which made things doubly more difficult since I was then forced to work with Ky in very close quarters to remodel my clinic and the gym. The guilt of not telling him about Willow just compiled.
The sexual tension between us was undeniable. From my end, anyway. Ky continued to ignore me; I suppose it wasn’t surprising since he believed I was married to Angelo all those years ago. But it broke my heart even further when he began seeing a doctor from Cullville. Forcing those feelings to the back of my mind; I couldn’t afford to get involved with the man again, I had a child to look after. A child that looked uncannily like him if anyone took a good look.
I know I can’t keep putting off telling him. With all the time we’ve been spending at the clubhouse, it won’t take long for someone to connect the dots. Even though he may not want to be involved, he needed to know. I needed to keep them apart, but it was only a matter of time before he found out, and I wanted to be the one to tell him. Not for him to find out from someone else.
Everleigh's presence always made me uneasy, because I could see she was aware of the striking similarities between Ky and Willow. I constantly worried she would question me about it. But to my surprise, she never did.
Despite all of my problems, for the first time, I felt like I belonged. Not only in the town, but as a part of a group of friends. So, I made the best of a bad situation, and finally got to live my life the way I wanted to.
I enrolled Willow in daycare when the ladies weren’t able to look after her and stopped looking over my shoulder, waiting for Angelo to appear, or for the other shoe to drop.
For a while, my daughter and I were safe. I knew that wouldn’t last very long, that Angelo would track us down, but I did my best to use the town and my job as my cover. I was just the ordinary woman working as the town’s veterinarian. No one would look for the sister of Angelo Bianchi, head of the Bianchi family of New York City.
But I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up that ruse forever. That Angelo had dispatched one of his men to find me showed just how determined he was. Which meant he knew exactly where I was, and I had nowhere to hide.