Page 35 of Blinded By Loyalty

I turned on my iPad to catch up on the tabloids and Twitter. Nothing interesting was floating around either. It was always the royal family in my feed or some celebrity or musician getting divorced. It was sad how people didn’t stay married.

In my family, marriage was forever. Grandfather and Gram were the best examples of what a loving, devoted couple looked like. When Gram died several years ago, Grandfather had shut down for a long time. Even today, I was careful when I mentioned her. He missed her so much, I didn’t want to make him sad. Will and Miranda reminded me of my grandparents. Sadly, my parents seemed to only tolerate each other. I could have it wrong. I didn’t see what went on behind closed doors, thank God. But they were never lovey-dovey in front of people. Not like my grandparents or Will and Miranda. How was anyone to know if they were truly happy and in love?

I wanted to be disgustingly in love like Will and Miranda, and with a baby on the way. I beamed as thoughts of Mia made my heart flutter. Being an auntie was the next best thing to having my own baby. I was going to spoil my niece with a billion hugs and kisses. I’d give her everything I had never gotten from my own parents.

I opened up my email, mostly out of habit. Nobody emailed anymore. But I did like to see what kind of sales my favorite stores were having.

There was one email at the top of the list. The subject line read: YOUR BEDROOM IS READY. I didn’t recognize the sender but I opened it, despite my body shaking and read what was inside…

Hello my love,

It displeases me to see you fooling around with that dark, disturbing man. You should be more careful who you spend time with. I know you have needs, and I’ll fulfill every one of them, in time. I’m almost ready for you.

As you can see in the attachment, I’ve been studying your body. I won’t let you down, my love. I promise to make all your dreams come true, just as you’ll make mine.

Until next time,

Your love

I opened the attachment and I couldn’t believe my eyes. This crazy person had three life-size cutout pictures of me. One of my front completely naked. His hand was on my pussy like he was fingering me. The other was of my backside, naked and bending over. His hand seemed to be caressing my ass. How in God’s name did he get these pictures? The last one was an enlarged image of my face. But there was a fourth picture of his naked body. No face. Just him jerking off and coming on my face.

I swallowed as bile entered my throat. Launching off my chair, I dropped my iPad and ran to the toilet. Axel walked in, but I didn’t stop.

“Simone?”

I dropped to my knees, heaving and gagging. The pictures of the sicko coming on my face and touching my body were seared in my memory. They would stay with me forever.

My skin crawled as if maggots were eating my flesh. I violently scratched my arms, wishing I could unsee those images.

“Hey, what happened?”

I waved Axel off, not wanting him to see me vomiting. Or falling apart. I sensed him enter the bathroom anyway. I tilted my head down, letting my hair act as a curtain so he couldn’t see my face.

“I’m not going anywhere. What do you need?” He touched my back, his warm hand soothing me. I appreciated his sweetness more than he could imagine. I only ever received such tenderness from Will or my nanny, Sylvie.

“Please, don’t look at me.” I gagged as more stomach acid burned my throat. Tears streaked down my face. Not because of the pictures. As much as I hated them and felt utterly violated by this man tormenting me, I hated Axel seeing me weak more.

“Tell me what happened.”

I shook my head as I coughed. Why wouldn’t he give it a rest? I’d show him what was on my iPad once my stomach settled.Ifit settled…

Axel sighed and left the bathroom in a huff, but I was relieved. We’d only just opened ourselves to each other. It was beautiful and passionate. I’d never felt so whole before, so complete. Now these damn pictures, this damn man was ruining my evening with Axel. It made me furious me off.

“What the fuck!” Axel’s angry voice filtered down the hallway to where I was hugging the porcelain. “Jesus Christ!”

My tears picked up. Now they were because of the pictures. I dropped my head and wiped my mouth with toilet paper. Axel was talking to someone, probably York.

I focused on my breathing, willing my gag reflex to stop. I noticed it had gotten quiet. Axel must have lowered his voice so I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I honestly didn’t care at this point. I just wanted to hide from the world.

Closing my eyes, I rested my head on my hand, holding the rim. It was pretty disgusting how I was on the bathroom floor and touching the toilet. My mother would be mortified. Hell, I couldn’t recall a time she had the flu or threw up.

“Simone, let me help you up.” His hand went under my arms and pulled me up. I swayed a bit, my knees weak. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed my head. “It’s going to be okay, baby. We’re going to find that fucker.”

“Thank you.”

“Come here.” He picked me up and cradled me in his arms. His lips were on my forehead as he carried me out.

“I need to brush my teeth.”