Page 66 of Cruel Knots

“You’re no good to me dead, Lucia,” he says slowly. “I need you to suffer for a very long time.”

His threat should scare me but at this moment, I only care about the food.

Reaching out, I grab a thick slice of buttered bread. My gaze stays fixed on him as I take a large bite and chew. A moan threatens to escape me at the deliciousness of this simple food.

When I realize Damien truly means to feed me, I stuff the rest of the bread into my mouth and start spooning the stew in my mouth. The hot food burns my tongue but I can’t seem to stop.

“Slow down,” Damien says in a commanding tone but I’m unable to stop. I need the food like I need air.

A sudden intense pain erupts in my chest as I choke. Dropping the spoon, I massage my chest while the mound of food stays stuck inside me.

“I told you to slow down,” Damien chides. Shifting closer, he lightly beats my back to relieve my choke.

I groan as the food finally slips down to my tummy. Slowing down, I take dainty sips of the rich stew’s gravy.

Damien stays at my side while I eat. Does he worry I’ll choke myself to death?

“Can I talk now?” I ask, finishing the last morsel of food.

“I’m never letting you go,” he says with a grim look in his eyes. “You’ll be wasting your breath by begging me.”

“I know I’m your captive,” I say bitterly. “I’ve been a prisoner my whole life anyway, so it doesn’t make much of a difference to me. Did Lilja tell you the things I told her?”

“Don’t trust her,” Damien says in a grim tone. “She’s always up to some mischief. It’s what I get for trying to protect her.” He lets out an exhausted sigh but there’s a hint of fondness hidden behind it.

He’s a monster to me but a doting brother to Lilja. From the moment I saw her with Leon and Mikhail, I knew her relationship with them was very different from the one I had with Callum.

“She told you about letting me out,” I guess.

“Yeah.”

“What about the rest?”

“I didn’t wait around to hear the rest. What could you possibly have to say to me, Lucia? You betrayed me and my brothers that night.”

Cold washes over me at his statement. “I never betrayed you! I begged Callum not to hurt you but he wouldn’t listen. My dad met with a horrible accident the same day that left him paralyzed all these years. I kept looking for you all over our neighborhood but found no sign. Callum kept a close watch over me, so I couldn’t search for you further away. I never meant to abandon you.”

The memory of that awful night replays in my head. “Callum told me he killed you guys but I never believed him. You and your brothers never showed up at the house again. Years went by and I was forced to believe him. You have no idea what I’ve suffered through these past seven years. My life hasn’t been what you imagine.”

“You have suffered? Living in that great big house and having everything you could possibly want be handed to you on a silver platter is called suffering?”

“You don’t understand.”

“What’s there to understand?” he barks. “If you hated living with your brother so much, you’d have left a long time ago.”

“He never allowed it,” I say in a bitter tone.

Damien scoffs.

Tears prick my eyes at his accusation. He doesn’t understand the way Callum manipulated me into obeying him.

“He hurt others to discipline me,” I say in a choked voice. “He’d hurt the maids to punish me. I could never stand someone getting hurt because of me. If I was the selfish bitch you think I am, it’d have been easy to ignore it all and leave, but I couldn’t do it.”

Surprise flickers through those blue eyes.

“My dad’s his favorite target,” I continue. “He wants Dad dead. The man’s already bedridden and has lost his ability to even speak properly and my brother still wouldn’t spare him. That’s how he forced me to marry Freddy. Callum would benefit from the deal with him but there was nothing in it for me. I did it to protect Dad.”

Brushing the tears away from my eyes, I gaze at him with a pleading look. “My dad’s with him now. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? He’s the only person whose love has been genuine. There are times when I resent him for being alive but I regret it later and feel guilty. I’d be lost without my dad. I still need him.”

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