Page 33 of Captured Obsession

He seems taken aback by my words. His eyes flash briefly with something I can’t read just before his mask slips back into place.

It’s still hard for me to believe that my friends are who he says they are. I’ve seen the way my girlfriends’ partners are with them. It’s all devotion and possession. I couldn’t imagine them being as cruel as Nikolai’s old boss. But just like Nikolai, I wonder if they, too, are wearing masks.

His expression shifts then, turning curious. “You still don't believe that your friends could be killers like me, do you?”

He regards me carefully as I pull back my hand, as if it’s been scorched.

“I know my friends. So, yes, it's hard for me to believe.”

He huffs. “Fine. Have it your way.” He fishes out his phone. “Call one friend and ask them out right. Which friend do you think has lied to you the least?”

I swallow as I look at the phone, grimacing at his choice of words. But what makes me hesitant is that I'm scared of the answer.

“You know the rules: no more than five minutes. I suggest you don't say anything that would cause a reaction out of me.”

I raise my head with dignity. I take his phone and scroll through the contacts that are the exact same ones in my own phone. It scares me what these people are capable of.

I call Lily, who answers on the fourth ring. “I've been trying to get a hold of you,” she says. “I even went to your penthouse in London, but they told me they haven't seen you for almost two weeks.”

“I'm fine,” I tell her, lying as best as I can. And that's when it dawns on me that I've been lying to them for a long time. Before being kidnapped. About being okay.About secrets that I haven’t had the strength to share with them. My mouth goes dry. “I've just needed time to think over things.”

“I'm so sorry Michael did this to you, Sienna. You didn’t deserve that.”

My eyebrows dip in confusion. “What are you talking about?”

“All the shit that’s being posted about how his mistress is now his fiancée, and that they’re expecting. I'm so, so sorry. You must be seeing it everywhere.”

My mind goes blank.What?“I-I haven't seen anything,” I stammer as the room feels like it’s spinning.

Lily goes quiet for a moment. “I thought— It's everywhere. Your father even called me two days ago because he couldn’t get a hold of you after he saw an article about it. I thought you would've seen it by now.”

One of Nikolai’s men bursts through the doors. “Sir, someone is trying to track an outgoing call.”

Within an instant, Nikolai snatches the phone from my hand and hangs up.

My hand is still outstretched, as if clinging to Lily's voice and the information she just gave me.

They're having a baby together.

I immediately feel sick, and all I can do is stare down at the half-eaten risotto in an attempt not to bring the other half back up.

So quickly replaced.

With the woman he was cheating on me with.

Nikolai is speaking furiously in Russian, giving orders, but it’s just a buzzing in my ears. I stare numbly at nothing. All I can see is a life I thought was once mine, taken from me.

I've done my best to be seen.

But it was never enough.

Iwas never enough.

14

NIKOLAI

“She hasn't eaten at all today,” Agata informs me.