Page 42 of Blackmailed to the Altar

“You’re not me. What can I call you?” Maybe if I knew its name, I could talk it into leaving my body, or I could call the priest. He could exorcize this demon from my soul.

I see we still want to live in the land of delusion. Call me Riccardo, your other and, quite frankly, better half.

I scoffed aloud. This prick thought he was better than me. That wasn’t true. I was the original, and no one was better than me. Which was why I led my men to–

Did you lead them, or did I?His chuckle echoed in the back of my mind, long after I finished my shower.

I was going to have to rely on Dr. Mya Rivers to get rid of this pesky problem. I didn’t know how, nor really cared, as long as he was gone. I couldn’t run an empire with this in the back of my mind.

Hopefully I would find a solution soon.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Dr. Mya

The air was thick with tension as I paced the length of the bedroom, my steps quick and agitated. The familiar scent of leather and cologne lingered, a constant reminder of the man I couldn’t seem to escape. Sebastian mumbled some nonsense and went into the bathroom. After he forced my soul from my body with only his pierced cock, I couldn’t seem to find anything to say.

I heard the shower running and scrambled to his room across the hall. I hopped in his shower, and used his products to wash myself up, making myself smell like him. His manly scent stuck to my body as I toweled off while standing on the bath mat.

I wished I wasn’t attracted to him. He was a monster with severe mental health issues. I wasn’t sure I was equipped to handle the support he needed. I headed back to the room that doubled as my prison, or at least it should have.

Sebastian hadn’t really treated me like a prisoner. I had more freedom than was expected, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to speak to my friends and check in with my clients. I hoped that someone was able to take my caseloads.

It wasn’t so bad. I could see why Eden stayed. I mean, it didn’t help that I didn’t have my passport, and didn’t have a clue on how to get to the American Embassy, even if I wanted to.

I sank down on the bed, careful to miss the wet spots. There was no way he wore a condom, and I wasn’t currently on birth control. When was the last time I had my period? Fuck, if this guy got me pregnant I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I couldn’t be pregnant. I would know. I mean we weren’t careful. But I can’t be.

I should be freaking out more at the possibility of being pregnant, but Sebastian emerged then, and knocked all the sense out of my head. When Sebastian emerged from the bathroom, wearing only a towel around his waist, I expected something. Maybe an apology for kidnapping me in the first place.

Instead, I was met with stone cold silence. He walked out of the room like we were nothing. Like what we shared was something ordinary, when it felt extraordinary. Anger raced through me. I wanted to throw something at his head. And why shouldn’t I?

If he was going to ignore me, and treat me like an expendable whore, then maybe I should act the part. I stormed into his bedroom, not bothering to knock. The door slammed against the wall, announcing my presence with a bang. He looked up from where he was sitting on the edge of his bed, his face a mask of cool indifference that only fueled my anger further.

“You don’t care, do you?” I accused, my voice trembling with the weight of every unsaid word. “About me, about anything. I’m just… God, I don’t even know what I am to you anymore. I can’t keep pretending.”

He raised an eyebrow, feigning confusion. “What are you talking about, Mya?”

I watched him carefully, hoping for any sign that he felt something, anything that proved he wasn’t as cold and unfeeling as he wanted everyone to believe. But he just stared, his expression now unreadable, and it felt like I was screaming into the void.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Sebastian,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. “You walked away like it was nothing. Like I was nothing. I thought maybe, somewhere deep down, there was something good left in you. But you don’t care about me, Sebastian, and I don’t think you have the capability of loving me. I thought you were different.” My voice dropped to a whisper.

He sighed, running a gloved hand through his hair. “It was just a way to let off some steam, Mya. We had a good time, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

I looked into his eyes and saw something flash too quickly for me to catch it. Was it guilt? Regret? I felt the familiar tug of his magnetic pull, but I wasn’t backing down. I needed to know if there was anything human left within him.

I felt my heart shatter all over again at his words. “Just a good time? That’s what you call it? I gave you everything in that moment, Sebastian. I trusted you. I felt… I felt something I’ve never felt before.”

His eyes hardened, and he stood up, closing the distance between us. “What did you expect, Mya? That we’d fall madly in love and live happily ever after? This isn’t some fairytale. I kidnapped you. I’m forcing you into marriage. Do you not get that?”

I took a step back, the intensity in his gaze too much to bear. “No, I didn’t expect a fairytale. But I expected you to care. To at least acknowledge that what we had meant something.”

He scoffed. “You think this is about me not caring? I care, Mya. But I can’t give you what you want. I can’t be that person for you.”

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “Why not? What’s so wrong with me that you can’t even try?”

“It’s not you,” he said, his voice softer now. “It’s me. I have my own demons, my own issues. I can’t drag you into that.”

“You have Dissociative Identity Disorder, Sebastian,” I said, my voice softening as I felt the words sink into him for the first time. “You’re not fighting ‘demons’. You’re losing time, yourself, and I get it. I understand that it’s terrifying. I do. But ignoring it won’t make it go away. You’re hurting people, you’re hurting yourself, and, most importantly, you’re hurting me.”

---