I could hear the anguish in her voice, could sense the shaking of her head and the tears that she was spilling.
“Well, now you do. And once this lesson has been taught, neither of you will dare disrespect me again. Isn’t that so, Abigail?”
I could feel him looking to me and I nodded my head, the movement restricted beneath the downward pressure of his palm. I prayed that my agreement would be enough, that he would let me go. Let us both go. I couldn’t be more humiliated, more pained, than I was right now. As for Emma, she sounded like a sobbing mess. The two of us broken at his hand.
Sure enough, he released my head, my hair falling forward to stick to the damp skin of my face, his downward pressure on my back eased as I sensed him straightening...
The slap that followed was all the more forceful for the sheer surprise of it, the cry it forced from my lungs, throat searingly harsh.
“Edward!” I heard Emma scream just as I heard her move through the room. “Enough!”
“It’s enough, when I say it is enough.”
“Use me,” she pleaded, her voice now directly behind me, right next tohim. “Do this to me. Not her. It wasn’t her fault, it wasn’t!”
I felt my stepfather pause mid-strike, and wondered if Emma had physically stopped him.
“You?” he said, as though surprised. “You’re offering to take her place?”
“Yes,” she said, the hope in her voice clear. “Surely, she has been punished enough now?”
The room fell silent save for our breathing and the shame ringing in my ears.
“Look at her,” Emma tried again, “she is terrified of you.”
“If she was terrified of me” — his hand fisted into my back — “this would never have happened.”
“It’s not that simple,” she said, “you, of all people, know the power desire can have over us, it makes us do things we shouldn’t...”
In my mind’s eye, I could see her reaching for my stepfather, her eyes painting a thousand memories for him to think on.
“I know what we did was wrong and I never should have let it happen,” she continued. “You have every right to be angry, but you have dealt with her enough, it’s time you dealt with me.”
The last was said with an air of confidence that took my breath away. She sounded so calm and in control now, like she was working my stepfather and leading him down a path of her choosing.
“Please, Edward,” she actually cooed, “maybe we could even have some fun with it...”
The suggestion on the last had the bile rising in my throat. I really didn’t want to hear this. But there was no denying itwas working. Everything she was saying had his hold over me relaxing again, his fist at my back now the flat of his palm as he rested it against me.
Clearly encouraged, Emma continued, “We could have some real, grown up fun, don’t you think?”
Various scenarios involving the two of them flooded my mind, each more sickening than the last. I was trying to push them out when Dad’s command reached me. “Abi, you can go.”
I had been too busy battling off my disgusting imaginings to register he had already stepped away from me entirely and I now lay hunched over his desk by choice.
Dazed and humiliated, I tried to focus my bleary eyes on him above me but he was looking to where I knew Emma stood and I didn’t need to be psychic to know the unsavory thoughts he now entertained. After all, they had just been racing through my own mind. Emma had all but spelled it out for him.
Conflicting emotions raged within me as I scurried backwards off the table. On some level, I was aware of my dress falling to protect my modesty but I was too busy debating what to do to care. Did I just go and abandon Emma or did I stay and protect her? Just like she had done for me.
I risked a look her way and could have laughed at the absurdity of my debate. She didn’t even spare me a glance now, her focus entirely on my stepfather as she wrestled control of the situation from him. The mere suggestion that I could be of use at protecting her was ridiculous. She didn’t need me. I could see my stepfather practically salivating before her, totally wrapped up in what she was about. If I didn’t dislike him so, I could have felt sorry for the way in which she had so readily ensnared him.
“She is just a naive young girl,” she purred, her fingers tracing paths along his bare forearms, her face one of seductive warmth, any sign of her earlier distress so non-existent that I almost questioned its actual presence. “Just think whatyou could do with such strength when handling someone as experienced and as tolerant as me.”
My eyes flitted back and forth between them both, my mind trying to carry out a risk assessment on the scene playing out, my conscience still unable to leave her entirely alone but the open seduction just too much to bear.
And then I saw a smile creep into my stepfather’s features and before Emma could react, he pounced. Taking up her wrist, he yanked her into his hold, pressing her back against his chest with one arm, while the other slipped across her neck as he spun them both to face me.
Dropping his head into the crook of Emma’s shoulder in a typical lover’s fashion, his eyes flew to mine, their glint leaving nothing to the imagination. “You know, honey, maybe Abi would like to stay with us...”
