Total pages in book: 180
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 168587 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 843(@200wpm)___ 674(@250wpm)___ 562(@300wpm)
I sit up and reach for the nightstand to look at the time but realize I don’t have a phone. I left the Cathedral immediately after the ceremony. My phone was in my purse in the room where I got ready. I left it all behind. If I can’t have clothes to wear, I highly doubt he’ll allow me any communication to the outside world. He wants me secluded. One hundred percent relying on him for everything.
Not like I have anyone to call or text anyway because I’ve never had any true friends. My mother can’t save me, and my father has made it very clear where he stands. The only person who could potentially be on my side is my brother. And I can’t even trust him anymore. My father will make sure he doesn’t help me. He controls everyone in our family. He has the power.
“I’ll call you when I get up,” Tyson says. His voice gets closer as he walks down the hall back to the bedroom.
I shut my eyes and lie as still as I can, listening to him set his phone down and get back in bed.
The last thing on my mind is why he left the room to take the call.
True to Tyson’s word, I woke up this morning to him ordering men around in the living room who were delivering my things. Now, it was only clothes and bathroom essentials. I didn’t get my king size bed that I love or any of my furniture. But it’s all replaceable, right? People get their entire lives taken away in a matter of minutes in house fires and have to start over. The fact that they got out alive is most important, right?
Now, I’m not comparing my life to a house fire. I’m just trying to convince myself not to cry that I’ve got a rock on my finger, given to me by my sister’s ex-boyfriend, and that he’s making me his personal whore.
Everything is fine. I’m fine.
I walk out of the bathroom from hanging some clothes up in the closet when I see a black box on the bed. Tyson stands next to it at the dresser, putting on his watch. He looks up, seeing me in the mirror, and turns to face me. “Open it,” he orders, nodding to the bed.
Picking up the box, I push the lid open and pull out a cell phone. My eyes shoot to his, and he walks over to me. “What happened to my cell phone?” I wonder, knowing this isn’t it.
He doesn’t answer. Instead, he pulls it out of the box and hands it to me. “It’s already been charged.”
I swipe the screen and see the background is of us standing in the Cathedral at the altar in front of the Lords’ table. “Who took this?” I ask.
Again, no answer. It was probably Ryat. He was the only one there who Tyson actually liked. Going to my contacts, I growl, “You’re the only name in my phone.”
“I’m the only person you need to call,” he replies simply.
I throw the cell onto the bed and cross my arms over my chest. “What about my family?”
He gives a rough laugh. “Yeah, you won’t have any contact with them.”
“Tyson,” I growl.
He walks over to me, and I stiffen when he reaches out and wraps his hand around my throat. It’s not tight enough to restrict my air, but it pushes the collar into my neck. “Do not contact them. I will know and you will be punished, do you understand?”
“But—”
His hand tightens, and I stand up on my tiptoes, my hands gripping his wrist in a silent request to let go of me. He doesn’t. “They don’t give a fuck about you, Lake.”
His words are spoken softly, but he might as well have yelled them in my face because even I can’t argue that. “Like … you do.” I manage to get out through gritted teeth.
He pushes my back into a wall, slamming me into it, knocking what little breath I have left in my lungs out of it. “Go ahead, little darling. Communicate with them in any way, and I’ll show you just how much I care.” He releases me and steps back.
I rub my sore neck and begin to cough as tears fill my eyes. Without another word, he leaves the room. Picking up the cell, I sit on the edge of the bed. I have no doubt that he has an app downloaded that tells him every person I contact on here.
Refusing to contact him for anything, I place the phone in the top drawer of the nightstand and head back to the closet to finish putting away my things.
SEVENTEEN
TYSON
I enter my office, shutting the door behind me. I make it over to my desk, sitting down just as my cell phone rings. Unknown lights up the screen. “Tyson,” I answer.