Cult
“Zorah,” Orlando’s voice called to her in the same moment she pulled the bathroom door open to return to the bedroom.
She was wearing only a towel, coming out in search of the clothes Shay said she was going to bring to the bedroom for her. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second and she gripped her towel tight and took a step back into the bathroom.
“I’m sorry,” he immediately turned his back to her, his spine stiffening. “Shay received an emergency call and asked me to run the clothes up to you. I thought you were still in the bathroom. I knocked on the bedroom door, but you didn’t answer so thought I’d drop these on the bed. I was just going to tell you through the bathroom door I was leaving them here.”
“It’s okay.” She watched through the crack in the door as he walked backwards towards her and held the bag out to her. She pulled it into the room and closed the door quickly, knowing her cheeks were a bright shade of red.
“I would never want you to think I’m taking advantage. I would never.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Shay said you told her you didn’t need her help. Are you feeling better after the flight and sleep?”
“I guess,” she said quietly feeling shy as she dropped her towel despite the thick door between them. “I just don’t understand why you kept me so drugged up or the whole catheter thing. I mean Shay explained but I don’t get why you didn’t simply come talk to me and ask me to come.” She lifted the pretty sundress and undergarments from the bag. It was as if Shay knew her tastes.
“It was our original intent. About five years ago, Ippocrate Giannone let it slip to Shay how you were betrothed to the Lucchesi Beast. We started to work in earnest to try to find ways to get you out of it. We realized fairly soon how horrible of a human being he is.”
“He’s not.”
“He is. He treats women like objects with no regard for their feelings or emotions. He is a cold-hearted man who gave little thought to what it means for you to give up your entire life to satisfy his own whims.”
“He loves me.”
“His version of love is nothing any woman deserves.”
“You don’t know him like I do.” She argued, “he loves me and is trying to be a better man for me.”
“You do know it’s bullshit, right?” Orlando asked as he turned to face her when she abruptly pulled the door open and glared at him.
“What is?”
“The whole Lucchesi special bride thing. It’s a brainwashing thing. I see it all the time in the women I rescue. Some man with an ego as big as his wallet convinces a woman they are spiritually connected somehow and suddenly the woman thinks the guy hung the moon and the stars because it was ordained God.” He waved his fingers around in the air mockingly, “ooh, love at first sight.”
“There are generations of his family who believe in this strongly and the marriages are good and secure. The men know loyalty and fidelity. Even if you don’t believe in the Lucchesi Bride blessing, the fact there is never a divorce, and nobody has ever cheated or harmed their wives is speaking volumes. It’s not hard to drink the Kool-Aid, Orlando, when you see the results all around.”
“Or maybe the men hide their affairs, or nobody talks about the abuse because they want the world to believe the hype.”
“I spent time with them. I saw the truth of it. I’ve seen the way the men revere their wives.”
“You do realize though your husband didn’t revere you for the entirety of your betrothal.”
“He made mistakes.”
“In the double digits.”
“You really hate him,” Zorah tilted her head and tugged her towel off her hair. “Why?”
“Zorah, I spent fifteen years of my life as a SEAL. On so many missions, I encountered women who were repressed, treated less than human let alone as secondary citizens and were helpless to escape their situations. There was one village we went into, where a man and his three sons and their little gang of jackoffs, believed every female belonged to them. They shared them all and the only requirement for a girl to be in their bed was for them to have bled. The minute one of the girls of the village started her period, it meant she was a woman, some were as young as nine. The thing is these girls were brainwashed into believing it was a gift from God to be sent to the elder’s home to have sex with a man who didn’t prepare them. They believed if the sex hurt, it was more special because it was what the men educated them to believe. When we tried to help these women, they turned on us for arresting their husbands. A cult is a cult. Lucchesi’s are a cult.”
“The Lucchesi family are not the same thing. The women are treated well. There are no child brides. There is no disrespect to the women.”
“No disrespect to the women? I was at a party a year ago, Zorah, in Spain. Your husband was there. He walked in with two women, one on each arm and when he left, it was with two other women. Now, I’m not saying he slept with all four of them but the fact one of the women was in a corner sobbing her heart out because he left her behind tells me there wasn’t much respect happening.”
“Well, say what you want but he doesn’t treat me like this. He’s good to me. He’s patient and loving and sweet.”
“For your sake, I would wish the Lucchesi blessing as you call it would be real, but I’ve seen too many episodes of women in bad situations because men feed them all the things they want to hear and, in the end, it turns out bad for them.”
“I trust him.” She shot Orlando a side eye as she drew a hairbrush through her damp hair. “I trust in his love for me.”
“You do you, boo.”
“I will.”
“Good,” he waved at her as she quickly braided her hair over her shoulder, “you look lovely. Shay thought you’d be more comfortable in the sundress, and it seems you are. If you’re ready, I know Chester is anxious to meet you. I can take you down.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded. “Then let’s go.” The sooner she was away from this jerk, the better.
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