Violeta
He’s a flea you can’t get rid of and all I want to do is squash him.
Those words changed everything. After I got over my shock, I tried to get up and walk away, but Lorenzo was faster, lifting me up, bridal style.
“Let me go,” I said in Spanish.
“No, I’ve been looking everywhere for you,” he said, taking me to a car that was waiting for him.
“Let me go, Lorenzo,” I snapped. “I left for a reason, this is not some cat and mouse game.”
He put me in the car, ignoring me as I scooted over to open the other door and leave. My body hurt, but my ankle hurt the most as I tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge.
“Let me go,” I said, unlocking it, but it still wouldn’t open.
Fucking child locks.
“Lorenzo,” I growled.
“You’re very cute when you’re mad like this,” he said as we started moving. “Europe has changed you.”
“I’m not the same girl who was willing to marry you for her parents,” I snapped, trying to open the door again even though we were moving.
He studied me with a smirk and my heart dropped.
He’d caught me and there was nowhere to go.
It had been seven hours since he had picked me up or should I say kidnapped me.
I stayed in his hotel while he brought a doctor to check on me, playing the doting fiancée.
The way he could switch his personality so easily scared me.
He could go from being cruel to sweet in an instant.
It didn’t seem like I had broken anything; the doctor advised me to stay off my feet for a couple of days and ice it. If I still had horrible pain in a few days, I should go get it x-rayed. Lorenzo assured him he would pamper me, that I would want for nothing as he walked him out.
The next few hours were him ignoring me, planning our trip back, and working on a few things he needed to do while I was stuck on the couch.
It wasn’t until I tried to leave did he pay attention to me, laying out his threat and the photos he had of the guys and me.
Someone followed us to the beach several times while we were in Mykonos.
The most damaging photos were of the cabana right before our trip ended.
I was in the middle of them and it looked like all of us were together romantically.
I couldn’t believe he would stoop so low to bring me home.
He didn’t flinch as he threatened me, and after seeing the evidence he had, I couldn’t do this to the guys, most of all, Ru.
The photos he had released were bad, even if you couldn’t tell a hundred percent who the guys were.
I knew it was only a matter of time before someone would figure out who they were.
Someone would put two and two together when they realized Ruwon’s agent had helped Lorenzo’s PI.
If Ru’s agent was controlling the narrative, then who knew what was going to happen. Without my phone, I had no way to tell Ru that his agent was a fucking asshole. It hurt me that he was still going to suffer under his agent's control.
Lorenzo took my passport and my wallet, giving me no choice but to stay. I knew I could work around my passport, but having no money or any identification frightened me. My phone screen was shattered from my fall down the stairs. He held all the cards, leaving me no choice.
Conceding broke my heart. Giving them up was a hard pill to swallow and marrying Lorenzo was the nail in the coffin.
I had wanted one more goodbye and a chance to grab my things.
I begged, pleaded and promised obedience if he allowed me to go back for my things, hoping the guys would be at the house too.
Now I regretted going back as we drove to Lorenzo’s hotel.
It would have been better if I had just left without my things, but leaving without my souvenirs pained me so much.
If I was going to marry Lorenzo, I needed something to get me through the bad days I knew I was going to have to suffer through.
“This is for the best, Violeta. You have whored around enough,” he said, as we entered his hotel room. “Now it’s time to be a woman and act like an actual adult.”
“What do you know about being an adult?” I snapped.
“You’ve always lived off your father’s money, you don’t know what it’s like to work for something.
I've built something by myself with no help from anyone and been living on my own for longer than you have. Don’t fucking tell me I don’t know it’s like to be an adult. ”
“That app you built will be mine in time,” he said, smiling like a Cheshire cat. “No company will succeed with a woman running it.”
“Excuse me?” I rolled my eyes. “Plenty of women run companies just fine and you will not lay a finger on my app. I worked long and hard for it. If we are getting married, I want a prenup.”
Lorenzo laughed. “A prenup? You think you have the power to tell me what you want now?”
“That’s only fair, Lorenzo,” I said, defeat settling in. “If we ever split—”
“You will never leave me, Vi,” he growled, pushing me against the door by the neck. “I own you.”
“Own me?” I laughed, feeling the pressure on my neck. “You will never own me.”
“We will see about that,” he sneered, letting me go. “Those pictures will never lose their value.”
“Unless he quits working, then good luck with keeping me by—”
He shoved me against the door with both his hands, knocking my head against it. My vision blurred as he let me go. I slid down the door, tears threatening to spill over, but I’d be damned if he saw any stain my face.
Lorenzo’s eyes widened as he stared at me on the floor. He clenched his jaw, looking away for a moment before he looked back at me.
“Once we are married, you will have not a cent to your name and without me, you won’t be able to survive,” he said, taking his coat off, his hands shaking slightly. “You will be mine and if you know what’s good for you, you will keep your head down and obey. Don’t fight this.”
The last sentence almost sounded like a plea.
I scoffed, “I don’t get you. Why come all this way for me when you have plenty of women who would die to be married to you?”
“You’re mine, Violeta,” he smirked. “You have always been mine. You just didn’t know it.”
“But why? If you were the man I knew before college, things would have been different, but this person you’ve become is sad,” I said, longing for the boy I once knew.
“I changed because that boy was delusional. I had to change or this world would have—” He looked upset. “I did what I had to do. You think my father would have believed in me if I didn’t man up?”
“Man up? You think this is being a man? I—”
“Stop!” he yelled, as his phone rang.
He was taking deep breaths as he looked at his phone. What the hell had happened?
“Clean yourself up and be ready to leave tomorrow morning. We fly back and are getting married immediately,” he said, leaving me alone in the living room.
His door slammed shut, making me jump. My chest felt tight as I tried to get up.
Every part of my body hurt from the fall, but my heart hurt the most. I was doing this for one reason; the guys didn’t need to pay for my chaotic life.
We were a vacation fling that would be over the moment I went home.
Except why did it hurt so much and why had I been thinking about staying for days or, even longer?
Walking to the room was brutal, every step was a reminder of the worst day of my life. I shut the door, sliding down against it as I tried holding in my tears. It was futile when sobs erupted. I hugged my knees to my chest, crying into my thighs to lessen the noise I was making.
My ass fell asleep as the tears kept coming, my heart fighting against my fate, telling me to do something. I could walk out right now and maybe he would never know. Fuck, but how far would I get before he found me or worse, released those pictures?
Maybe I had to play this from a different angle. He seemed stressed at the end of our conversation; he said he had had to change. Was that all for his father? Was his father pulling all these strings?
Everything felt immediately suspicious. Would blaming his father make things easier for someone to hold accountable for the change in my childhood friend who I had loved dearly.
I got up carefully to take a shower, wishing I had my phone to call Mario or even Paola.
My heart felt heavy, and the feeling of being utterly alone was more than I could handle.
I set the shower as hot as I could handle it and I cried, sitting in the tub, hoping when I woke up tomorrow all of this had been a bad dream.