Nausea hit her like a Mack truck.Her ex-husband could get eyes anywhere.Everywhere.Even the place Callum had promised was safe.Dominic could have turned someone at Titan.
“Take a deep breath.It’s time we caught up.”
His voice made her blood boil.God, fuck this guy.Would he ever be gone from her life?“Where are my parents?”She hated the shaking of her words.“What did you do to them?”
“There’s that voice I missed so much.You didn’t visit.You never wrote—”
“I want nothing to do with you.”
Dominic chortled.She could picture his head tossed back as he rocked in an expensive leather office chair, behind a desk the size of Manhattan, cocky and conceited—except he couldn’t be in one of his offices if he had Mari’s phone.“Where are my parents?”
“The years and distance have given you quite the mouth.I didn’t expect that after seeing you at the grocery store.”
“You didn’t see me.”But he confirmed exactly what she already knew.He had been there, had tracked her down, and wanted to mess with her.“Though I got your letter.I threw it in the garbage because I don’t care about you.”
“We never had pets like Alicia does.Did you enjoy her dogs and cat?Or were they just a mess of pet hair and—”
“Stop.”She wanted to throw up.Dominic was somehow with her parents and could get to her friends.“You don’t get to know anything about me.Let me talk to Mari.”
“Darling, you don’t want me to list the things I know about you.You’ll have nightmares for the rest of your life.”
Furious tears burned at the back of her eyes.“Leave me alone.Leave my parents alone.Give Mari back her phone and go away.I don’t have anything to say to you.I don’t have anything I want from you.I don’t want you.That’s why we’re divorced, Dominic.Don’t you get that?I wantnothingto do with you.”
“I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s not why I called.Wait, wait, darling.Don’t hang up.You know you want to know why I called.”
She only wanted to know Mari and Dad were safe.“I want to talk to my parents.”
“I can’t do that right now.Listen, you’re going to meet some friends in the next few days.”
“We don’t have any mutual friends—”
“Shut up, Grace, and listen.”
Her hands trembled.Trepidation rolled through her limbs, and she couldn’t produce a single word.She hated who she became when he was near.Weak and unable to fight.She couldn’t even hang up on him.
“When you meet with ourfriends,” he said with such cool detachment that slivers of ice pricked her skin, “you’ll be the woman I married.The woman who knows her place.Who knows what to say, and most importantly,what not to say.”
“We arenotmarried anymore,” she said, voice shaking.
“Marriage isn’t something you can walk away from.I chose you.You’re mine.That’s the bottom line.”
“No.”Fear had a stranglehold on her.
Dominic’s laughter poured through the phone again.“You’re stuck with me.That’s simply the way it works.”He clicked his tongue against his teeth.“This little game you’ve been playing of hide-and-seek has been fun.We’ll keep it up until it’s time for you to come home.”
He sighed like he was disappointed in a petulant child.“In the meantime, focus on the business at hand.When you meet with our friends, you’ll do, say, and behave as I would expect of you.Understood?”
She didn’t speak.
“I’ll take that as a yes.We’ll chat after the meeting.Nothing too formal.Just to check in and see how the conversation went.”
The line went dead.
Her heart hammered.Grace fumbled the phone.Her fingers danced over the keys and dialed her dad.He answered on the second ring.
“Dad?”she cried.
“Gracie, honey?”Worry dripped in his voice, but not the fear or anger that would come from sitting next to Dominic.“What’s wrong?”
