I am almost sorry to see her go until Julius pulls me into his arms and whispers, “I thought she’d never leave.”
“Why?”
I act innocent around him, but I understand exactly what he means because I feel the same. I love it when it’s just the two of us, locked in our own world, keeping the rest of it outside our bubble.
“Let me offload this document onto Eddie and I’ll be right back. I can think of a more pleasurable way to spend the afternoon, and it involves a locked bedroom door and your naked body under mine.”
I must blush because he laughs out loud and then drops a sexy wink in my direction.
As he heads off, I make my way to our room with a confident smile, however, my thoughts inevitably turn to Morgan, which opens old wounds.
I never liked her. From the moment I met her, I couldsense she didn’t have our best interests at heart, and as I walk, the memories come back with a vengeance.
“Rose!”
I jump as Morgan’s sharp voice disturbs my reading, and I place the picture book down and jump up guiltily from the window seat. She has been here with us for one month already, and as far as I’m concerned, it’s one month too long.
“Your father has been asking why you are wasting your days reading when you should be studying.”
I fidget on the spot, and she rolls her eyes as she holds out a broken figurine. I stare in horror, recognizing part of my mother’s collection, and she holds it out in front of her and hisses, “Look what you did.”
“I–” I stare at her in horror because I did nothing. I haven’t been near it because it’s locked away in Mom’s room with all of her possessions, and I am not allowed in there. My father holds the key and won’t allow anyone, even the maids, to venture into the room because, for some reason, when Mom took her own life, he took that as a personal attack on him.
She left him.
She chose to leave him, and he lost control of her. That is what I heard the maids discussing one day, and it has sat in my mind like a cancer, eating away at me, causing me pain, and now Morgan is holding one of her treasured possessions and blaming me for the destruction of that.
“What do you have to say for yourself, you evil little bitch?”
Her words hit me like whiplash, and tears well up in my eyes.
“I, I–”
“Enough with your excuses.”
She strikes before I even know what’s happening and grasps my wrist, shaking me violently.
“You will pay for this, you ungrateful brat.”
I’m sobbing as she pulls me along the hallway to my father’s office and, without stopping to knock, she drags me inside where he is working.
“What is this?” he roars as she pushes me roughly in front of his desk, holding out the figurine, her voice softening as she says in dismay, “I’m so sorry, Enrico. I found Rose in Edwina’s room and this priceless figurine in pieces in her hand.”
“Rose!”
I jump like a startled gazelle as his fist comes crashing down on the table.
“Explain yourself.”
I am openly crying as Morgan hisses, “You must punish her, Enrico. She must learn the value of obeying your rules.”
My father is known for acting first and asking questions later, and before I know what’s happening, he comes out from behind his desk and grabs me roughly, striking me hard across the face and yelling, “You ungrateful brat. How dare you steal into your mother’s room and destroy her possessions? Haven’t I given you enough, and this is how you repay me?”
I have no words. I am so terrified, and he screams at Morgan, “Lock her in her room with no food for twenty-four hours. She is to receive no privileges as a result of her actions.”
Morgan’s sneer will live with me to my dying day as she drags me sobbing from the room, my face on fire from the punishment, and as she throws me onto the bed, her evil voice taunts me.
“Dry your tears, Rose, and grow a backbone. I’m in charge now, and you will need one. There is only one woman that matters in your father’s life and there will be more of this ahead if you ever challenge me. Take this as a valuable lesson in control,knowing that I have it all. Serve your punishment and never challenge me, and we will get along just fine.”
