Page 46 of Save Us
Chapter 18
Beth
Oliver takes me to a private restaurant that evening, one that is only open to the most prestigious members of Mayfield. A lot of shady dealing happen between these walls. As such, you can only work here if you are a member of Mayfield. I’ve always hated coming here, however, being that Oliver is the president of Mayfield, it’s somewhere that I’m very familiar with. It still unnerves me when I see all the strange and corrupted men of the elite coming here to gorge on their overpriced food and priceless champagne. I don’t even have Leo with me this evening. It’s his week to be with his son, and although he was reluctant to leave me, I practically forced him to go.
Leo’s replacement for the next few days, is a ridiculously tall man by the name of Franklyn, who treats me like I’m Oliver’s pet. To be fair, it’s an apt description given that I am expected to be seen and not heard. He doesn’t talk to me other than to offer the odd monosyllabic grunt. Most of the time he’ll simply point to where he wants me to wait for him. Oliver, on the other hand, prefers Franklyn to watch over me, purely because he knows I actually have a relationship with Leo. He is also more than aware that Leo’s loyalty ultimately lies with me instead of his employer.
As I sit at the table with a poker dot straight back, pushing the food around my plate with my fork, I can only think about Kai and what Jonah Fox had said to me earlier today. I’m lost in a sea of conflicting thoughts when Oliver suddenly reaches for my hand. It forces me to look back up at him and paste on my usual mask, the one that hides my real emotions. He smiles, trying to put me at ease, so I force my own smile, even though I know it doesn’t reach my eyes. I’m just not that good enough of an actress.
“Talk to me, my darling,” he says, attempting to look sympathetically at me. “You’ve been through a lot during the last few days, and we’ve been away from one another for too long.”
“I’m surprised you had let Carl take me,” I confess before looking back down to my uneaten dinner again.
“Something I shan’t be doing again,” he replies, snapping back up and sipping his wine with a determined expression on his face. “Your grandfather is losing power while I am steadily gaining more and more of it. But I agreed for your sake, Beth,” he says quietly, only so no one else in the restaurant can hear him use my real name. “I know I went too far, and I let my anger get the better of me. But you have to understand, Beth, you really hurt me when I found those pills.”
“Oliver, I am still grieving the loss of Rosie-” I begin but he cuts me off with a wave of his hand.
“Precisely why we need to have another one, so you can get over it and have a new child to love,” he replies, as though he’s making complete and utter sense. “A child with me, Beth, with your husband. I promise never to go that far again.”
“But-”
“Please, Beth, for me?” He squeezes my hand and looks at me in such a way, I know he’s not going to drop it until I relent. And If I don’t, he will only lose his temper. So, knowing that I took Jonah Fox up on his offer this afternoon, and received a contraceptive shot, I simply smile sweetly and nod.
“I love you so much, darling,” he grins before kissing my hand. “In fact, I think we should leave now. It’s been too long since I’ve been inside of you and knowing we could be making our very own baby is more than I can bear to wait.”
Before I can respond in any sort of way, he signals to the waiter and pays the check as fast as is humanly possible. The whole time, I inwardly throw up over the thought of having to let him have sex with me. I hate it. Every time, I hate how I’m betraying the man I truly love, as well as myself.
The next morning, I’m sore from where Oliver had been rough with me on all three occasions, but I don’t let on. Not even when he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me in tightly against his chest, kissing at my shoulder as though he is the gentlest lover in the world. I don’t even show him it hurts when he reaches up to squeeze my breast and dig his erection in between my thighs. And although I want to scream when he enters me so brutally it burns, I remain silent, impassive, as he thrusts and nuzzles his hot mouth into the crook of my neck. It feels so abhorrent, I have to bite my lip to stifle my whimpering, even when I release fresh tears onto the pillow beneath me. The whole time I find myself staring at those vines within the wallpaper, feeling like they’re squeezing more and more life out of me with every second I succumb to his will.
As soon as he moans loudly, I let out a breath of relief. I then wait anxiously for the point when he’ll finally release me so I can go and wash away any remnants of Oliver Lawrence from my body.
“Lie on your back and lift your legs in the air, Beth,” he orders before jumping out of bed.
“What? Why?” I ask with the sound of complete confusion in my voice.
“I read it helps the sperm to stick,” he explains, laughing softly over my ignorance. “I want us pregnant within the next month, my darling.”
Feeling beyond ridiculous and finding the whole thing humiliating, I force myself to do as he says while he watches me. Only when he sees my obedience does he finally leave me alone. Once the door clicks with the lock, I immediately put my legs back to the mattress and let myself silently sob for a few moments. His obsession to get me pregnant isn’t going to end anytime soon. I am going to have to face the reality of having to carry his child in the very near future.
I don’t join Oliver downstairs until about an hour later, in the hopes he will be leaving for work. It is a simple tactic to ensure I spend the least amount of time possible with him before he goes. As I reach the dining room, Pru nervously hovers about by the table, collecting up used cups and dishes. I can see Oliver’s mood has changed again. He is wearing an angry scowl on his face and moving in erratic and jerky movements. When I shuffle inside of the room and sit in my usual seat next to him, he spins his laptop around to show me a news headline with a picture of him sitting directly below it. The name of the paper is the one Xander’s Uncle owns, and the story is signed with his name, Xander Fenton.
“Read it!” he growls at me through clenched teeth.
Quickly scanning the headline, as well as the paragraph beneath it, it reports that Oliver, the President of Mayfield, an organization that tries to convey a charitable reputation, has been evading tax. Initially, I want to burst out laughing; Oliver hiding money in tax havens abroad and fiddling the books is only the very tip of his iceberg of depravity. Of course, I keep my lips sealed and instead, brace myself for the fallout.
“Your fucking ex-boyfriend has caused me no end of trouble, Beth!”
He sneers at me as though I had personally written the article and sent it to Xander myself. When I give him no response but, instead, dip my head to focus on the plate in front of me, he leaps from his chair so aggressively, it flips over behind him. I hear Pru gasp at the sudden noise at the same time as he marches up and pulls me up by my wrist so painfully, I hiss on an intake of breath.
“This is what comes of whoring yourself out to a piece of shit from high school! You had better hope I can clear up this God damn mess, Beth!”
He releases me with such a firm push, I fly back against the edge of the table where I bang my hip. I manage to swallow my groan, and with one last scowl at me, he thunders out with his coat and bag before slamming the front door. Pru tries to come and comfort me, but I smile it off. I guess the honeymoon period is now well and truly over, and I have my psychopath of a husband back again.
As he has done so for the last few days, while Leo is still spending some much-needed time with his son, Franklyn walks with me around the park. He says nothing, not even to acknowledge my existence, unless he thinks someone is getting too close. The whole time I keep my head hung low and try not to think about how Oliver will be when he returns home this evening. If things are really that bad for him, I know I will be the one to pay the price. I can already feel the impending weight of depression casting its ugly shadow over me. Every time that it does, I never truly know if I’m going to be able to escape from its clutches.
I end up sleeping all afternoon. Not because I’m tired but because the escape of unconsciousness is all I can do to get away from the darkness that is slowly engulfing me. It doesn’t work though, not even a little bit, for my dreams always catch up with me. All of them are anxious, with monsters chasing after me, ones I cannot possibly outrun. My mind is obviously working on overtime, already predicting that something heavy is coming my way, but I have no idea what it is. I can only hope it’s not my own death, or even worse, a pregnancy.
“Pack up your shit, Beth, we’re heading back to California for a week or two,” Oliver snaps at me as soon as he returns home. “We leave in the morning. Without Leo!”