He followed me out of the room. “Whatever you feel like eating. I would like to eat within the hour, though. I have plans tonight.”
Plans? He always had plans. None of them involved me. I was his prisoner, locked in these same four walls in a gilded cage.
“Of course, Matteo.” I walked toward the kitchen, my back straight, but inside, my soul felt like it was crumbling. Soon, there would be nothing left but a shell because that’s what Matteo's hate did to me.
Twenty minutes later, I brought a plate of steak and salad to the dining table, placing it in front of him like I was his servant.
“Where is yours?”
“I’m not hungry,” I muttered, because honestly, even the thought of food was enough to twist my guts.
He lashed out, catching my wrist and dragging me back to his side before I could even put up a fight.
“Matteo!”
Ignoring me completely, he pulled me into his lap. His arms trapped me there, and he picked up his knife and fork, easily cutting into his steak.
“Eat,” he ordered, bringing the fork to my mouth.
I shook my head. “I am not hungry.”
It was one thing for him to treat me like shit and order me around like I was a servant, all the while mentally torturing me, and there was another if he thought he could order me to eat.
I wasn’t a child or a dog.
“And I am not asking,” he snapped, and the sharp, metal prongs of the fork pressed against my lips. “Open your mouth.”
“No.”
“Open your goddamn mouth or admit…” he bellowed.
“It’s not poisoned,” I snapped because that’s what this was about. He thought I had poisoned his goddamn steak and salad.
Yanking the fork out of his hand, I took a bite, twisting in my seat so he could watch me chew and swallow. And he did watch me.
Matteo’s eyes darted from my lips to my throat and back up again like he couldn’t help himself.
“It’s not poisoned, Matteo.” I snatched some salad from the plate and ate that as well. “I am not that stupid. What I am is not hungry.”
For several long seconds, he stared at me. “I guess you want me to be thankful that you are no longer trying to kill me? In your head, I should fall to my knees and worship you?”
It might have been my imagination, but he looked like he wanted to do just that.
“I was never going to do it,” I muttered.
“No?” His arms tightened around me, no longer trapping me in a cage of his arms, but actually wrapping them around me.
“You just hid the poison? You weren’t going to use it? Tell me, Sophia, why should I believe you?”
I wanted to scream at him that he would believe me if he loved me, but what would be the point? I was half guilty anyway, and even if I wasn’t, he had already made up his mind.
Throwing back his head, he laughed. “See, you can’t.” He chuckled. Lowering his face to mine, there was absolutely no sign of laughter in his dark eyes. They looked emotionless like a shark’s.
“You can’t because you and your family are snakes. Double-crossing lying snakes. You are vermin, Sophia, and vermin need to be exterminated.”
Exterminated.
The word seemed to echo in my mind. Over and over again.
