Chapter Twenty
Maksim.
Fuck!
Fuck, she looked so beautiful standing there waiting for me. I knew she had to turn away. I knew she had to go, but it didn’t kill me any less.
As soon as we’re lined up again, I count twenty-three of us.
Out of fifty, less than half survived. I keep my head down as we’re shuffled inside but this time, through a different entrance than the one we came out of.
We’re served breakfast but I’m too exhausted to chew, so I eat the oatmeal we’re served, and let it warm me up.
Afterward, we’re shown to different rooms.
I’m given clothes and a towel.
Rooms fit for fucking kings. Ostentatious and comfortable like a hotel suite. The bed is large and lavish with seventy fucking pillows and a fluffy comforter. I go to where the drapes are, but when I shove them to the side, there’s nothing but a brick wall. FUCK!
I shower.
I change.
I get into the large king-size bed and fall asleep so hard and fast that when I’m being tapped on the shoulder, it feels like being pulled out of quicksand.
Until I remember a day just like this… where she tapped on my shoulder, ready for a night out with her parents.
Before this. Before I fell so deeply for a woman who couldn’t stand the mere sight of me. Before she was my wife. Moments.
That’s what I had with my wife.
A series of seconds and blinks full of disdain before I allowed myself to open my eyes completely the second I lifted her veil… and fell for the woman hidden beneath it.
And then it was snippets of moments, seconds, and blinks that enraptured me, that I relive daily, cut together and plastered behind my eyeballs like a montage. And this time, I know when I open my eyes, it won’t be her.
How can a heart be both hopeful and split open all at once?
How can I never have felt such emotions so deeply before I ever laid eyes on her? My wife. My Sabrina. My Duchess.
“Mr. Giordano… please, wake up. I don’t have much time.”
I will my eyes to open and take a deep breath. I peer over to the set of familiar brown eyes and see Alice for the first time without a mask. Wearing a maid’s uniform. There’s a stack of linens on the corner of my bed.
“Did you see her?”
She nods. “She gave me something to give to you. Said it would be important in order for her to get to you anywhere.”
“How did she look?” I croak. She knows I live for news of my wife. “Are they treating her well? Not being… forced to do things? Are they feeding her?”
“Sit up. I brought a few supplies. I need to get this in you before they do their rounds. Please,” she says in a rush, eyes a bit panicked.
I do as I'm told and sit up. A chill goes down my spine when I feel the cold swipe of an isopropyl alcohol pad on my fucked shoulder. I then hiss when it feels like I've been stung by a wasp. She puts something else on me that I think is a band-aid. “The fuck is that?”
“Your wife said it’s a bio chip. She’s fine. She looks sickly, though. I’m not sure if she’s usually that pale or not, but she was in bed when I took her tea so I could tell her you’re here and give her directions on how to find you.”
My heart contracts again, beating erratically. “How many guards are in the halls?”
“Six.”
“And the rest?” I implore, already trying to calculate just how the fuck to get out of here and how many motherfuckers I need to kill on my way out.
“Twenty.”
Fuck. “And the cameras?”
“They’re back up and running, but there’s one in every corner of the corridor. I have to go now. The guards will begin to wonder why I’ve been in here so long. Get some rest. You're going to need it.”