As the car pulled away, I looked back at the countryside mansion.
Inside that house, a war had started.
And Ares was already in too deep.
CHAPTER 25
Yuna
THE FOLLOWING MORNING
“He Let Me Run”
Iwoke up groggy, stomach touching my back, nausea taking over me. I knew where I was and why, and that alone made my stomach twist harder. My parents had sold me to a French family I barely knew, and my own brother had not backed me.
I unhooked the IV that was in my arm, then jumped out of the massive bed. I ran to the suite’s double doors. Locked from the outside.
Of course.
I ran to the next door. Bathroom. I barely made it to the sink before dry-heaving into the porcelain. Nothing came up. Just bile and pain. That was when it hit me.
I had not eaten in three days.
I lied to my mother on the plane about eating before we landed in France. I had sold everything I owned weeks ago anyway. I was surviving on whatever I could get my hands on.
Cold water splashed over my face. I stared at myself in the mirror. Pale. Tired. Eyes hollow.
Royalty, huh.
I stepped out of the bathroom and froze.
Ares stood in the doorway like a shadow that never left.
Watching.
I hated that he was always watching.
Sunlight poured through the balcony doors behind him. It stabbed into my skull.
I stormed over and slammed the curtains shut.
“I’m sick, and I want soda,” I muttered, barely looking at him.
“We’ll get you soda,” he said calmly. “But nothing else.”
His calm was pissing me off.
“Nothing else?” I snapped. “You drugged me?”
“I did.”
His eyes did not judge me. That irritated me more.
I turned on him fully. “You think because you signed a contract, you own me?”
“I do.”
“You’re gross.”
