“Detroit.”
My eyebrows furrow. “Detroit?”
“Yes,” he bites out. “Then a flight home, princess. We have a wedding to attend.”
The man is delusional if he thinks I’m getting on an airplane, let alone marrying him. I’d rather die than be tied to a monster the rest of my life. Not when I know what true love feels like and the real promise of tomorrow.
But I won’t fight him, not now.
“Do you remember the first fall we were dating? How you would pack a picnic for us every Wednesday?”
The steering wheel jerks left before he corrects it, breath hitching like the question sucked the air from his lungs.
“What?” His voice is sharp. A look of confusion passes across his face.
“Each week, you made a point to have wine and dinner on the beach as we watched the sunset.”
Silence stretches as he glances from the road to me.
“One week, you grabbed a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake from a bakery near a house you were showing. I loved that cheesecake.”
“I bought one every week,” he supplies.
Relief flickers through me. The danger hasn’t subsided, but maybe I can keep him calm until help arrives.
“You’d wrap me in your arms, a blanket stretched over us as we watched people surf. The sun would set quickly, but we didn’t care.”
I almost smile.
“You were in my arms, princess, what else mattered?”
Gone is the urge to smile as I fight the urge to shiver. I hate that nickname. It used to make me feel special, like I’d found my Prince Charming. Too bad it quickly morphed into a warning. The disdain in his voice whenever he hissed a threat or apologized after one of his “episodes.”
I stare out the window as fields of corn and soybeans pass by in a blur. The world feels too dark as we drive farther away. In the distance, I swear I can hear sirens, but it’s wishful thinking.
“Why get married now?” The question slips without thought.
“Because I love you, princess, and we need to show the network we’re happy together.”
“Why would they care?”
His head whips in my direction. “Your lawyer is causing a scene with false accusations that my dad is starting to believe.”
I scoff. “What’s false about how you treated me, Elias?”
Once again, his knuckles turn white from gripping the steering wheel. “I can’t believe you ran back to him. After everything he did to you.”
“After everything he did to me? What about what you’ve done to me?”
“I made you everything you are!” he roars, and I flinch. “But you were just a greedy whore who ran back to that piece of shit. How could you let him touch you? You let him touch what was mine. You let himfuckyou on the stairs like a whore!”
I want to throw up. Bile builds in my throat, and I will it away. He watched us in an intimate moment, lurking in the shadows.
Anger and fear spike as my blood boils at my predicament. How could I have frozen in place? I didn’t even try to fight back. Everyone always tells themselves if put in a situation, they would fight, but no one warns you about terror freezing you in its place.
“You were good back then. Kind, gentle, sweet.” My voice cracks a little as anger seeps in.
Elias’s arms twitch. The air shifts, thickening as tension coils. I ruined the memory with the cold, hard facts.
