Amira shrugs her shoulders, keeping her gaze directed forward to avoid my baffled expression. “Because maybe it’s the truth.”
I stare at her in amazement as my thoughts whirl inside my head. Concern floods my system at her deadened expression, the hollowness in her gaze creating a cavern in my chest.
“Is that how you’re feeling?” I ask, forcing my tone to stay neutral despite the fear and anger rising inside of me.
Her silence drowns out all other noise, but it’s her following words that threaten to shatter me completely.
“I’ve only ever welcomed death, Roman. It’s always seemed like the better option.”
“But you don’t think that now, right?” I ask, practically begging her to say no. “We’re together. Finally, we’re happy. Nothing seems better than that. Right, angel?”
Her eyes flinch faintly as if something I said had hurt her, jaw tightening until the muscles in her face spasm uncontrollably. The pulse in her neck pounds rapidly against the notch in her throat, the only sign telling me that this question affected her.
But once again, her mute answer screams through the quiet night, only succeeding in skyrocketing my confusion.
I’m about to open my mouth to call out her name when she gives me a subtle nod. “No. I don’t want to die, Roman. Not without you.”
I don’t know if I believe her, but my answer is the same. Until the day Amira Lupo takes her last breath, my place is beside her.
CHAPTER FIVE
AMIRA
Sunday
March 14, 2021
“Why don’t you open your pretty eyes for me, baby girl? I want to see the tears fall as I shove my cock in your cunt.”
Don’t let him see you cry, Amira!
Don’t let him see you break.
Keep your eyes shut!
I repeat my mantra over and over, vowing to hold firm until I feel the cold, rusted metal of a chain pressing against my trachea.
My eyes clench together tighter, panic clawing at all my senses as my father cuts off my breathing.
“I said, open your fucking eyes, Amira,” he growls, digging the metal deeper into my throat as he shoves himself harder inside me.
A pained gasp gurgles out of me, forcing my eyes to creak open the slightest bit. It’s enough to appease my father, though. His satisfied growls vibrate his chest as he releases inside of me.
I expect him to get off me like he usually does after coming, but he doesn’t. Instead, to my horror, he takes his weight off of me just enough to flip me on my stomach. Quickly, he attaches my wrists to the cuffs hanging on the bars of my headboard, securing me tight enough to keep me from moving.
“I hope you didn’t think this night was over, Mira baby. We won’t be done until you’re a puddle of tears and your blood is coating my tip.”
I wake with the first thrust, a scream on the edge of my lips when I remember the searing pain of his dick shoving into me without any lubrication.
“What is love without a little pain?”Gabriel would say right before thrusting himself into some orifice of my body.
Shivers rack through me as the memory coats my body like tar.
Poking my head out from underneath the blanket, I read the clock on the nightstand beside me.
Three forty-two in the morning.
Breathing through my open mouth, I slowly lift the comforter and slide out of bed, doing my best not to wake Roman next to me.
