Page 34 of Vicious Vows

I pressed the phone to my chest and stuck my head out of the door, checking one more time to make sure I was indeed up here alone. So far, I hadn't heard anyone walking around in the halls or coming out of their rooms, but I wanted to be sure. I only had one shot at this.

I slinked back into the sunroom and pressed my back against the bookcase before I started dialing my sister's phone number—the cell phone she only used for work. When Dominic first explained to me what was going on, I know he sent people to go looking for Farrah and had come up empty-handed, which meant it was no use calling her house. I was sure she wouldn't answer her personal phone, but she did have a prepaid cell phone she used for her side business. She never gave the number out unless it was for a client.

Now that I thought about it, I guess those clients weren't law-abiding citizens. What if she were expecting Dominic to call her on that phone?

"You've got to try," I hissed out into the empty room. My fingers shook as I pressed the numbers, and I prayed that I remembered the number correctly. It's been a long time since I've had to manually type in a number.

I pressed the phone to my ear and held my breath as it rang a few times. She didn't answer, and there was only a generic message letting me know that I could leave a voicemail. I didn't have time for voicemail.

I pressed redial, and the phone rang again; this time, it was picked up after the third ring. My heart leapt in my chest when I heard my sister's groggy voice coming through the line.

"I'm off the clock," she groaned.

"Farrah!" I whispered.

"Who's this?" She asked, a note of suspicion in her voice.

"Oh god! Farrah!" I said a little louder before I moved away from the door.

"Faye?" She questioned as if she couldn't believe that it was me on the phone.

"Yeah, it's me. You've got no idea how happy I am to hear your voice." I sighed and let my head drop.

"What are you doing calling me?" She asked without even the slightest twinge of concern in her voice.

That was what she had the nerve to ask me, after all this time away knowing exactly what she signed me up for. She had the nerve to ask me why I was calling her?

"How could you do this to me?" I fisted my free hand against my side and could feel the phone creaking with the stress of me squeezing with my other hand.

"I didn't do anything to you, Faye. I told you where you were going. You went there and you signed the papers. You should've read the fine print." She yawned through the phone, and I gasped at her nonchalance.

"Read the fine print? You told me it was an interactive dinner. That I was just going on a date with this man for you. You didn't tell me anything about having to marry him. Do you even understand what kind of trouble I'm in now?" I gasped out, my words trembling.

"Oh Faye, don't be so dramatic. Dominic is far from the worst you could do. He's got money, and everyone fears him. No one is going to mess with you or anything like that." She scoffed, and I nearly threw the phone against the wall. How could she be so obtuse about this?

"You think I give a damn about his money? I don't want to be here. Don't want to be part of this world. Did you know that he kills people? He threatened to skin me alive, Farrah. I didn't know this was what you were into, but if I did, I wouldn't have come in your place. You have to fix this." The words tumbled out of my mouth so fast I could barely understand them.

"Fix it? I can't do that. Does he know that I'm not really there?" She asked, finally sounding a little fearful.

"Of course, he knows; I told him that same night."

"You snitched on me?" Farrah asked, her voice hitching up, and I heard the sound of bedsprings bouncing as she sat up in bed.

"Farrah,... he raped me," my words trembled.

"Why'd you let him do that?"

I shook my head at her audacity, 'What part of rape did you not understand?'

She sighed again, "Faye, if you just did what he said, he wouldn't have had to do that. Honestly, you need to grow up a bit. You make everyone into the bad guy when you just need to take responsibility for your choices. There were other options besides him having to force himself on you." She spoke to me as if I were her child who needed a reprimand instead of her twin sister who'd just told her something traumatic.

Somehow this had become my fault.

"Farrah, I don't have any choices, but you do. You could talk to Dominic, talk to whoever you know, and find a way to get me out."

"I already told you I can't do that, and it's really shitty that you're trying to guilt me into doing it. Why can't you just accept what is and make the best of it?" She asked, aggravated.

Tears pooled in my eyes, and the frustration boiled to a peak inside of me. "Farrah!" I ground out.

---