Page 51 of Save Me
“Well?!” Oliver snaps without any hint of patience.
“All intact, Mr Lawrence,” the doctor says as he smiles at me. “Of course, a woman’s hymen can be broken without sex, so even if-”
Oliver instantly cuts him off by merely giving a wave of his hand. The man is then practically manhandled out of the door, where Oliver slams it shut on his face. As soon as he turns back to face me, I huddle up even smaller. I watch with trepidation as he smiles tightly, falsely, and grabs my arm in a tight grip before throwing me to the floor completely naked. I cry out when my leg hits something sharp, numbing me all the way to my hip for a few moments, just before the burning sensation fully hits me. I soon realize I’ve just landed on top of an upturned plug and both metal pins have pierced right into my soft flesh. Not caring about my injury or the fact that he just let a complete stranger look up my private parts without consent, he stomps over to me and hoists me up from the floor. Our faces are but an inch apart, the whole time he shakes me.
“Who.Is.He?” he growls through clenched teeth. His anger is so palpable the floor beneath seems to tremble along with me.
“He’s just the high school jock,” I lie, praying he doesn’t remember the boy he had threatened back in the hospital. “All the girls like him. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to; I just forgot myself. Please don’t hurt me!”
I surrender by sagging completely inside of his arms and trying my hardest not to cry again. He merely stares at me for a few moments before throwing me onto the bed with a sneer.
“Get dressed!” he barks and sits himself back onto his chair of voyeuristic pleasure, continuing to stare at me as I fumble around with my clothing. It takes me much longer than usual to dress because my hands are too scared to work properly. It is just as humiliating to have him stare at me in this condition as it was when the doctor had been examining me. Especially as he makes no attempts to help me in my struggle.
When I’m finally done, I feel my fear morphing into anger, despising this man and this house more than anything I’ve hated before. Including the moment when I found out my father had played with our futures without any consideration for what it would mean for the rest of us. As it turns out, he was merely a pawn in Oliver’s devious plan. In the absence of being able to do anything about my mounting rage, I lock in my tears and refuse to let him see any more of my weakness.
His fingers lace through mine, affectionately for a fraction of a second before locking my whole hand inside of his firm grip. He looks into my eyes again, but I only show him indifference, acting almost as though nothing has happened. If I’m not mistaken, he looks disappointed. However, he soon shakes it away with a tight smile and begins pulling me along the corridor. He ignores my need to go slow, and instead, seems to take pleasure in my pain by practically leaping down the stairs two steps at a time.
To my surprise, he throws the doors open to reveal Samuel waiting for me beside the ominous black car, my very own hearse waiting to take me away. Thank God, I tell myself, because he’s letting me go home. Samuel eyes me with immediate horror when I limp out the door, still being held stiffly by my elbow. It is obvious he is unable to control his knee-jerk reaction to drop his mouth open wide in shock. I shake my head, urging him to hide it before the man in front of me takes note of what he will consider to be disrespectful. To my relief, he quickly adjusts his expression, and chooses to avoid looking at Oliver altogether.
Oliver pulls me around to face him, so I brace myself for whatever is about to come out of his mouth.
“I think it’s best you go home and have a think about all this, Beth,” he says before kissing me on the cheek. “You will learn to behave for me, darling. We’re to be together a long time and I will not stand for insolence. And know that if you so much as look at another man, he will pay the price!”
I sadly close my eyes and try hard not to grimace when he presses his lips against mine. When I finally open them again, I see Samuel looking back at me, his complexion having turned pale and with a sneer upon his lips.
“I will call you in the week. I expect you to answer me!” Oliver demands as if he is talking to a child.
He finally lets me go and I nod goodbye. It’s all I can do before jumping into the car and letting out my long-held breath. As soon as we’re out of sight, Samuel stops the car at the side of the road, then turns around to look at me with sympathy and concern written all over his usually friendly face. He waits for me to say something, but I can’t bring myself to release any words; to do what I should and say something reassuring. In this moment, I feel so ashamed, so stupid, and so dirty, I would be happy to not have anyone to look at me ever again.
“Miss,” he whispers so gently, I want him to stop because I’m moments away from crumbling. “Do you need me to take you to the hospital?”
I shake my head, all the while sniffing so much, I sound like my grandmother used to in early Spring when her hay fever would get the better of her. Dear grandmother, Rosalie Taylor, or Bennett…or Steele?
“What’d he do, Miss? What’d he do?” There’s a crack in his voice, as though he could cry at any minute, but then we’d both be lost to it. I must look a lot worse than I thought.
“Please, Samuel,” I beg, pushing down that lump in my throat, the one that recently seems to be taking up permanent residence in there, “just take me home.”
“Ok, Miss. But if you change your mind about the hospital, just yell upfront. I’ll have you there in a jiffy!”
When he gives me one of those pitying smiles people give you right before you break into a thousand pieces, I have to cover my face with both hands. Thankfully, it prompts him to turn back to the front windscreen and pull away.
Chapter 18
Beth
“Someone’s waiting for you, Miss,” Samuel informs me as he points toward the tall boy waiting by my front door.
“Shit!” I gasp, realizing Samuel is still one of Oliver’s employees and is probably bound to report back to him. Not only that, but Xander’s going to go absolutely insane when he sees how bad I look. For the first time since this all happened, I give into the fact that my life is no longer my own; that there is nothing to stop Oliver Lawrence swallowing me whole and taking me away from all the people I know and love. This is bigger than us and I seriously don’t know what to do anymore.
“Samuel, please,” I beg him, “please don’t-”
“Miss, I haven’t seen anything or anyone,” he reassures me with one of his smiles while holding up his hands defensively. “You can trust me, but if you were my child, I wouldn’t let you go anywhere near that monster.”
“Thank you, Samuel, but I’m afraid I have no choice,” I reply with a sad sigh.
I don’t need to look at him to know he believes me; he’s seen first-hand what Oliver is capable of. He gets out of the car, and while I would normally be trying to get out without his help, today I need it. As he provides me with a physical crutch, Xander comes running over with his face morphing from confusion to shock as he takes in my fresh injuries. When I finally brave it to look at him properly, there’s no second-guessing as to how he’s feeling; his face is fixed with an undeniable rage. His fists are clenched, his jaw ticking and his whole body pent-up with unspoken aggression, all the while he looks me up and down.
“Thank you, Samuel,” I smile, even though my eyes are still lost inside of Xander’s deep green, raging ones. “I’ll be fine now.”