“A month.” I hear right before Stefan switches off the phone and puts it back in his pocket.
“I need to leave,” I say, more to myself than anything else. The gestures. The kisses and caresses. The trip. All a lie.
But that’s our marriage, isn’t it? Why am I surprised this happened?
I just…fuck, this hurts.
“Would you like me to drive you somewhere?”
My eyes bounce to Stefan, seeing he’s edged closer. The island is still between us and despite the whirring emotion within me, the rage and the despair, I’m not completely gone to it. And I have enough common sense in me that has me shaking my head.
“I can go myself.”
“Perhaps you shouldn’t drive while you’re upset,” He suggests.
I know there are tears on my face, that my emotions are written all over it. “I’ll be fine.”
Within the grief turning over inside of me, there’s anger, enough of it that makes me want to lash out. Making sure to keep the distance between Stefan and I, I turn to the cupboard where Malakai keeps the keys to all his cars.
The Maserati key is the first one on the hooks and my fingers close around it, pulling it down.
I know Stefan is watching me, waiting to see what happens next and I also know he only told me about the bet to get to Malakai. I should be mad at being used like a pawn, but that recording was real. I knowMalakai’s voice, I dream it, hear it when he isn’t around. He haunts me.
My spine stiffens when I have to pass Stefan, unsure what he’s going to do but he lets me go and then I’m running.
I have no shoes on and only the clothes on my back, but I can get to Willow’s. She’ll let me stay there, let me use her things and I’ve driven in worse conditions than this.
I throw the door open to the garage, hitting the button on the key to unlock the Maserati. The grit on the garage floor bites at the soles of my feet and the fresh clean smell of the car hits me when I open the door. Of course, he just had it cleaned because of the glitter…
“This may hurt a little,” Stefan’s voice sounds from right behind me. I spin around, wondering how I didn’t hear him following me but then I see the needle, the syringe.
He plunges it into the side of my neck and then his palm slaps over my mouth, stifling my scream.
“Shh,” He hushes, arms wrapping around me as my heart pumps hard and fast, only working against me to push whatever drug around my body quicker.
And quickly it does, I can already feel it taking hold, feel my limbs go numb, my heart start to slow as dark shadows creep in at the edges of my mind.
“Go to sleep, Olivia,” Stefan coos, his face twisted and cruel as he watches the effects of the drug take hold. I can’t fight it even though I claw at him, each swipe of my nails turning heavier, softer.
I shake my head, tears stinging my eyes before everything goes black.
Chapter Sixty-one
“Where is she!?” I demand, “Where is my wife!?”
“Malakai,” Sebastian urges from behind, “Calm down. We’ll find her.”
I’ve searched the entire house. She isn’t here, not in any of the rooms or outside, I’ve roared her name until my throat is sore, but she is gone.
“Malakai,” It’s Dean who speaks, his face twisted in grief.
“What is it?”
“Stefan.”
“What?”
My legs eat up the space betweenwhere I was pacing and where he sits at the kitchen counter. He was looking at the cameras while we searched so he must have found something. Relief softens the tension in my shoulders. He’s found her, she’s safe.
