CHAPTER 12
“You taste so good, püppchen. Why don’t you let me lick that sweet spot?”
I wake up sweating and gasping.
I run to the door. It’s locked. Then I go to the bathroom and throw up as soon as I get near the toilet.
And I cry.
Dante used to hug me whenever I woke up from a nightmare like this.
“I’m with you,” he said. “You’re here. You’re safe.”
I hug myself and close my eyes.
This is nothing like how he used to care for me. This is nothing like what we had. Nothing will ever be.
He might try, but he lied. He used me. I saw his messages from his phone. Stefan talked to him. I heard him. It was his voice.
Dante was around and not once tried to reach out. Not once did he try to come back for me.
My father was right. No one could love me.
“I did,” Dante’s voice says.
He didn’t.
I close my eyes and picture him in front of me. My Dante, the one who sneaked up to my window and rescued me. The one who gave me my first proper kiss. The one who did everything for me.
Yes, he did love me. But he doesn’t exist. He’s just someone I made up.
I’ve been repeating those months in my head, but the thing that stands out the most is what he told me on our last night together.
“…You’ll be walking down the aisle with me dripping out of you, and you’ll be thinking about what I’ll do to you tonight… And when you get married, you’ll think about me every day until we meet again, my little whore.”
He knew. He knew he wasn’t going to marry me. Of course, he knew. He planned everything with my father. I bet Stefan and Dante were like my father and his. Perhaps even his father was into those kinds of things.
They are disgusting. They’re all the same. I know their kind, and they’re the worst.
I can’t believe I fell for him. He’s a human trafficker, for God’s sake!
I pull the hair from my nape. I hate this. I hate this so much. I hate him. I want to scream. I want to go to his room and throw a tantrum that will drive him insane. Maybe he will kill me then.
Maybe that’s what I have to do to end this all.
Finn wakes up crying. I sigh and clean my mouth before going back to bed. I put him near my breast and close my eyes.
Hopefully I won’t get any more nightmares today.