Chapter Seventy-Eight
Didn’t she deserve happiness or even just some human decency? Her husband disliked her but she knew there was nothing she could do about that. She wasn’t beautiful in the traditional sense of the word. She didn’t have big breasts to sway favour with the man.
She had plain brown hair and plain brown eyes. Her skin was lightly tanned thanks to her Italian heritage and she was skinny, too skinny and not because she worked out all the time but because she’d mostly had to walk to wherever she needed to go and her diet consisted of whenever Ernesto felt she deserved food hence her secret eating at the diner where she’d worked.
When she’d turned sixteen Ernesto had taken her to The Club. She’d never been more afraid in her life as men leered at her and women seemed to walk around naked, taken against walls or on their knees in front of couches, their heads buried in men’s crotches.
It was the one threat Ernesto had used on her for as long as she’d lived with him. If she didn’t prove her worth he’d send her there permanently, to become someone’s plaything. She’d seen Kelley’s father, Charles Alexander, from a distance, two women on their knees in front of him.
She shuddered at the memory and tried to clear her head. She didn’t have much choice, she had to go back to that house and play at being his wife, his plaything. Ernesto had told her that for as long as she played nice and gave Kelley exactly what he wanted she’d be safe but that Kelley was a long-standing member at The Club and he could send her there too and if he did, her life would be over.
She hadn’t realized that she’d sat on the beach watching the waves crash into one another for over two hours and she quickly typed the address into the maps feature on her phone and started the long walk back to her golden gilded prison.
It took Milana another hour to walk back to the big house that overlooked the town and the same man that had called after her walked out of seemingly nowhere as she approached. He pressed a button on a wire leading from his ear and spoke into it.
The gate opened and she walked through it. The front door was thrown open just as she neared it and a thunderous Kelley appeared in front of her. “Where the hell have you been? Where did you go?”
Milana flinched back from him and the anger in his voice. “I went for a walk.”
“Who did you go to? What did you say?”
“I didn’t go anywhere.”
Kelley’s grip on her arm was painful as he dragged her into the house. People averted their gazes as he pulled her up the stairs and into her bedroom. The door slammed behind Kelley and he stood there looking at her rubbing her upper arm.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you.”
“It’s okay.”
“Don’t leave the house unaccompanied. Connor will introduce you to your personal guard. He’ll take you wherever you need to go and I need to know when you leave the house as well.”
“Okay.”
“Where did you go, Milana?”
“I felt overwhelmed by everything and I ended up at the beach, I swear.”
Kelley seemed calmer and Milana was thrown by the sudden change in him. “Never lie to me and we won’t have any problems.”
Milana nodded her head and Kelley turned towards the door. “You said you were going to talk to me about the house rules?”
Kelley’s hand froze on the knob and he turned back towards her. “My study is off limits to everyone, feel free to explore the rest of the grounds. Don’t leave the property alone. Those are the rules.”
Milana remained silent as Kelley left and she sat down on the bed when the door closed and let out the breath she’d been holding. She had no idea how she was going to survive here. He seemed angry with her, untouchable and aloof even if he was too handsome for words.
The fear of being sent to The Club steeled her resolve. Tonight she’d give him what he wanted, she could share her body but never her soul. She’d be the perfect wife, hostess, partner, whatever he needed her to be and expected from her.
At lunchtime, she plastered a smile on her face and went downstairs and followed the sound of voices to the dining room. Kelley stopped talking and she recognized Connor from that morning. She walked to the chair next to where Kelley sat and pulled it out.
“Don’t let me interrupt please.”
Kelley pulled the linen napkin from the table and placed it across his lap. “You weren’t.”
People appeared through a side door pushing three trays and elegantly placing the covered dishes in front of each of them. Milana’s stomach grumbled since she hadn’t eaten since the previous afternoon and Connor shook his head as she reached for the cover of her dish.
She lowered her hand and the same servers placed a glass of wine and a glass of water down in front of her and then lifted the lid. It smelled fantastic and Milana couldn’t wait to dig in. Kelley nodded at the woman who’d lifted his lid and he picked up his knife and fork and started to eat.
Milana closed her eyes and said a silent prayer to bless the food in front of her. She looked up and found Kelley looking at her, fork still in the air. She picked up her utensils and started to eat. The clinging of cutlery against plates was the only sound for a few minutes.
“Connor, please ensure that Milana gets her welcome package.”
“I will deliver it personally.”
Another nod and Kelley continued to eat. The whole ordeal was almost clinical and she almost missed her home. ‘No,’ she mentally scolded herself. Nothing could be worse than going back there.
Milana looked at the ‘welcome package’ Connor had delivered five minutes earlier. It held a laptop, and a phone, all seemingly new but already programmed. There was a black card with a PIN and a schedule with appointments already listed and a file containing information about her new personal guard, Black.
“Some welcome package, like I’m a visitor.”
