Chapter 7 #2
But Dad hesitated, casting a nervous look around the room.
“Now.”
For a second, no one moved.
Then my father crossed the room, each footstep slow and reluctant. I heard the familiar mechanical click, and the bookcase shifted open.
My pulse hammered so loudly I was certain they could hear it.
If I had hidden in there, I would have been trapped. Found. Cornered between filing cabinets and safes with nowhere to run.
Luca had saved me.
Again.
“Where is the Vescari contract?” Rafael demanded.
“It’s secure, Rafael. You don’t need to worry about any of this. I—”
“Where?”
Dad sighed heavily. “It’s in the safe.”
“Open it.”
“Rafael—”
“I said open it!”
My father cursed under his breath, but I heard him move deeper into the hidden room.
Silas didn’t follow.
He remained by the bookcase, facing the office.
Facing me.
The silver mask angled down slightly.
My lungs seized.
No. Please no.
There was no expression to read. No eyes I could see clearly through the darkened holes of the mask. No mouth. No face. Just that smooth, merciless silver tilted in my direction like he was listening to my fear.
I closed my eyes, as though by not looking at him I could will him away, only for them to snap open again, a scream almost ripping from my throat as I felt a gloved hand touch my bare leg.
But when I looked back at Silas, he was still in his spot, still staring at me, only this time he was leaning ever so slightly forward, bending the tiniest bit at the waist, his mask lowering and lowering as he bent down to look at me.
I snapped my eyes shut again, but all I could see was that silver mask. My skin prickled, and sobs threatened to implode my chest as I clamped a hand over my mouth to smother them, my tears soaking my cheeks.
Never, never in my entire fucking life had I seen something so sinister as that mask spying on me, lowering towards me as though it had a life of its own.
Never—
“Here,” my father said from inside the hidden room. “Everything is here. The marriage terms, the shipment percentages, the port access, the property transfers.”
I opened my eyes, half expecting Silas to be peeping directly under the sofa and sending me catapulting straight into a fear-induced heart attack.
Instead, he was back upright, watching as our fathers exited the secret room.
Rafael made a disgusted sound as he glanced through the documents in his hands. “You really did sell her.”
Strangely enough, despite the disgusted scoff, there was something disturbingly approving in his tone.
“I secured her future.”
“Let’s be honest. You secured yours.”
My father’s silence was the only answer I needed.
My chest ached so badly I thought something inside me might have cracked.
My whole life, I had loved my father.
Even when he became controlling. Even when Frank started following me everywhere. Even when my choices began disappearing one by one, I had clung to the belief that he loved me. That underneath all of it, he was trying to keep me safe.
But safe girls didn’t have marriage terms.
Safe girls didn’t have shipment percentages attached to their names.
Safe girls didn’t hide beneath couches while their fathers discussed selling them to dangerous men.
The bookcase clicked shut again.
“You sign with Adrien,” Rafael said, “and you make an enemy of me. I hope you know that.”
“I already signed.”
The room went deathly still.
Even Silas changed.
Not much. Barely enough for anyone else to notice, maybe.
But I noticed.
His hand tightened at his side. The leather of his gloves creaked softly.
Rafael’s voice, when it came, was quiet enough to terrify me more than his shouting had. “Then you had better hope your new son-in-law is as powerful as you think he is.”
My dad swallowed. I heard it.
“Adrien can handle himself.”
Rafael laughed under his breath. “Against businessmen, perhaps.”
The two older men left the room, and I waited with bated breath for Silas to follow. But he didn’t.
Instead, he strode forward, his feet barely moving, and yet somehow he crossed the room unnervingly fast.
He crouched down in front of the couch, ducking his head low enough that the silver mask filled my entire world.
I stopped breathing completely.
Rafael continued speaking somewhere above me, but the words faded beneath the roar of blood in my ears. All I could see was the silver. All I could feel was that stare, cold and impossible and knowing.
Silas’s head tilted.
Just a fraction.
The movement was so small it should have meant nothing.
It meant everything.
“Silas,” Rafael barked from the hallway.
Silas brought his finger to his masked mouth, gesturing for me to be quiet, and then straightened and walked away.
I sucked in the smallest breath possible, my entire body shaking with the effort of staying silent.
“We’re done here.”
My dad followed quickly. Too quickly. “Rafael, surely we can discuss this further.”
“There is nothing to discuss. You chose Adrien. Now live with it.”
The door shut, the keypad beeped, and the door locked.
For several seconds, I didn’t move.
Then, my phone buzzed beneath my hand.
Luca: Breathe, Belle.
I dragged in a shaking breath, and it tore through me like broken glass.
Luca: Good girl.
I hated the way those two words settled me.
I hated it almost as much as I needed them.