Page 7 of Forbidden Love

I knew the moment I took up my grandfather’s offer of a life away from everything I knew, my father would do anything to make my life miserable. It has taken him three years to find something to hurt me, but he knew my weakness. He knew that taking Kally away from me would crucify me.

***

I walk right into my house and head straight for the well-stocked bar. I need to drown my sorrows. I need to forget about everything that was done and said tonight. Drinking myself into a stupor is the only thing I can think of to remedy that. The best thing that could happen is that I never wake up.

Nancy walks towards the bar, ignoring the tension and anger that must be radiating off me in waves. She wraps her delicate arms around my waist and holds on like any decent mother would do. She shares my pain and gives me enough strength to let out my frustration.

“Let it out. No good will come from bottling everything up.”

“She’s gone, Nancy,” is all I can say as I weep into her neck like I’ve done many times before.

“Does someone want to tell me what the hell happened? Where’s Kally? And what happened to your hand?” Nancy draws my hand into hers and inspects my cut knuckles.

“I can only fill you in from when I walked in, just in time to stop this idiot from murdering Colton,” says Damien.

“Damien, sweetheart. I didn’t see you. Are you okay?”

“I’m good, Nancy. The short version of the story is that Kally’s father owes money to our father, and he’s had Kally sign a contract to spare her family’s life.”

Nancy holds her hand over her mouth. “What does she need to do?”

I pull away from Nancy and pour myself a drink. I need to numb this pain, even if it is a short-term fix.

“What does she need to do?” Jared repeats Nancy’s question.

“Marry Colton on Saturday and give him a son.”

Just saying those words out loud makes the monster inside scream to get out. I’m not a bad person. I care about people. But this whole situation has stirred something inside of me I didn’t know existed. It scares me. I don’t want to be like my family. I’ve worked so hard to get far away from my sperm donor and human incubator. I can’t let this situation rip everything away and turn me into my family.

“You can’t be serious?” asks Jared.

“Deadly fucking serious. And I can’t do anything. I was too late to pay the debt.”

“You can’t blame yourself, bro. This was their plan. They had no intentions of letting Kally go. They wanted you to stroll in tonight and feel this pain. They knew you’d pay the debt. Christ, I would have helped you pay it to stop this sham of a marriage.”

“How much did they sell her for?” Nancy asks shakily.

“4.5 million.” I sit on a barstool and down the contents of my glass. I push the glass aside and lift the bottle to my lips. The glass is too small.

“You’re brighter than them all put together, bro. You’ll get her out of there,” says Damien as he takes the bottle from my hand and pours himself and Jared a drink.

“He’s going to hurt her at every chance he gets just to get at me. He’ll break her, Damien.”

“Enough!” Nancy snaps at me and slaps my shoulder. “You can’t think like that. You need to be the man Kally knows you are. You love her, yes?”

“More than fucking life itself.”

“Well, take tonight, drown your sorrows with your brother, and tomorrow, you work out a plan for getting your girl home. And less of the language. I brought you up better than that.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Can I leave you all alone? You won’t let him do anything stupid?” Nancy aims at Damien.

“I’ll stay with them. Go and get some rest.” Jared caresses Nancy’s arm, and she smiles sweetly at him.

“Come get me if you need me.” She kisses my head and wraps Damien up in a big hug. “It’s good to see you. There’s food in the fridge that just needs to be heated up if you’re hungry.”

“It’s good to see you too, Nancy. I’m starving. I can look after our backsides tonight. You get some rest.”

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