Page 27 of Relentless Sinner

Dad’s house is more contemporary. This house captures that old Victorian vibe that inspires art and transports you to another time.

The house has twelve large bedrooms, some of which are inhabited by live-in staff. Each bedroom has an ensuite bathroom and there are three separate bathrooms at the end of every floor.

The grounds are vast with woods as the backdrop, a lake, and a moor with gorgeous flowers like the countryside homes in England and Italy.

I was able to get lost in my surroundings for a little while until the tour came to an end and Eve introduced me to the wedding planner.

I was aware we were going to meet her but the moment the women started talking about the wedding I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience, watching somebody else in my body play out my life.

It just didn’t feel real. Yet I’m reminded that itisevery time I look at Jaxon’s ring on my finger. His mark of ownership.

The meeting with the wedding planner was a fucking shitshow and I was a mindless automaton nodding my agreement to everything the prissy woman suggested.

Bless Eve. She tried her best to look after me and engage me with the ideas that were put forward, but my heart just wasn’t into it.

I almost told her to plan the damn wedding without me. Surely it would have been better for Jaxon to let his people sortit out and exclude me. Being involved makes me feel even more trapped.

If he thinks that contract is what’s keeping me here he has it all wrong. I don’t care about the contract. If I did I wouldn’t have run from my father or tried to make my big break the first night I came here.

I’m onlyherestill because I can’t get away.

There is no damn way for me to escape until I see an opening I can take and after that…

Well, after all that’s happened I don’t know how I’d stay hidden.

I keep thinking about Dad and the men who took me. It was like they were waiting for me, the lost little lamb, to fall in their trap.

If I run from Jaxon there’s no telling what could happen to me. He and his men were able to killallthose men at the compound and wipe them out as if they were nothing.

I don’t think he would kill me. I’m more valuable to him alive. That doesn’t mean he won’t punish me. The manner in which I live may not matter to him.

I’m sure there are some stipulations somewhere about how long our marriage needs to last to qualify for the entire inheritance, but he hasn’t said anything about that. And I don’t know what it is. When the damn contract was presented to me I didn’t have the brain space or cells left to read the fine print.

The only good thing that saved me yesterday was talking to Cora. She’s coming to see me on Friday.Thank God.

Waiting until Friday seems like forever but at least I have something to look forward to. Cora would be here sooner but she’s traveling back from Milan. She was covering Fashion Week and doing an article with some of the designers there.

Friday will be a little over three weeks since I last saw her. When I told her all that had happened to me she burst into tears.

She had no knowledge of what was going on because Dad kept my kidnapping quiet.

The last time we spoke I told her about Dad forcing me to marry Jaxon. She didn’t know that my escape plan was already in motion. She was the last person I spoke to before I was taken.

We call each other all the time but when she’s away for work—especially in another country—we’re more mindful of things like the time difference, so we don’t get to talk as much. That was perfect for my kidnappers because Cora never raised any concerns until she hadn’t heard from me almost a week later. Then, when she checked in with Dad, he lied and said my phone was broken. He also told her I was okay. What an asshole. I can’t believe I’m thinking of him in such a way. It’s like I have two versions of my father—the one before Mom’s death and the demon after.

I couldn’t have the heart-to-heart I wanted with Cora because I’m aware that my calls are being monitored. The uncanny idea jarred me, so I kept the conversation brief. That infuriated me even more because I really needed to talk to her.

It’s hard to go from one control freak to another.

Control freak?

Is that the right word for Jaxon Bortsov? He’s so much more than a merecontrol freakand he scares me just as much as he mesmerizes me.

The latter worries me because I don’t want to be fascinated with him.

I’ve never met anyone so brutish. Or who could openly speak their mind the way he does. Then he switches so effortlessly between serious mafia boss and playful normal guy.

It makes me wonder if his playful side is a trick to lure me in so he can trap me in my emotions the way he did yesterday.