Page 56 of Blackmailed to the Altar

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Dr. Mya

Weeks passed since his father’s passing, and I still couldn’t believe that I was married. I thought it would sink in at the wedding, but I was still shocked every day that somebody’s son was calling me wifey. Fuck. It still didn’t feel real. I was married, and everything was different, yet still the same. I had my sessions with Eden, and Sebastian had been too busy with business to bother with getting help.

I hadn’t seen Riccardo at all.

I was lonely, if I was being honest. It wasn’t like I didn’t have freedom here. But I missed my friend, Nina. I missed my old life. Hell, I missed walking around on campus, waving to the students, as they settled into the new chapter of their lives.

I needed a connection to the world, my world, and I was prepared to play dirty for it. The soft hum of Eden’s voice drifted around the room, a dull noise that I could barely focus on. She was talking, but her words seemed to float past me, as though I were underwater, hearing the world from somewhere far, far away. I tried to nod at the right moments, to give her the semblance of a therapist who was fully present, but all I could think about was the roiling nausea in my stomach.

I’d been feeling off since the funeral, a queasiness that wouldn’t quit. At first, I’d chalked it up to grief; Sebastian’s father had been a distant presence; an intimidating one, but a presence nonetheless, and without it, Sebastian struggled. He was used to seeing his father rule with an iron fist, his shadow looming large even in death.

I thought maybe the stress of dealing with it all had gotten to me, mixed with the endless plates of food, shoved at me by relatives who spoke to me as if I’d always been part of the famiglia, even though I just got married. It was easy to blame it on that. But this was different.

“Are you listening to me?” Eden whispered sharply. She shifted on the couch, her large belly making even the smallest movements a struggle. She was almost due, her face flushed from both exhaustion and annoyance, as she vented about Silas, and the constant baby-proofing of their home. She was fanning herself, complaining about the heat, about Silas’ overprotectiveness, about how she couldn’t sleep at night because the baby kept kicking her ribs. It was the same routine every session, but today, I could barely hear her over the pounding in my head, and the acid rising in my throat.

I focused back on our session. “Yes, you were saying that Silas has been distant lately?” Probably had something to do with the punishment Sebastian had given him. The one where he’d disappeared for a long period of time.

She nodded. “I know it’s not his fault. It’s his brother’s. Anytime there’s a fleeting moment for us to spend together, Sebastian has some errand he needs Silas to run for him. Like, why can’t he do it himself?” She rubbed her stomach.

Eden was pregnant, and not having a good time with it. Silas was hardly around, and she spent most of our sessions in the last few weeks complaining about Sebastian.

I forced a smile, nodding automatically, but my vision blurred as I focused on a spot on the wall, trying desperately to keep my breakfast down. I clutched the armrest of my chair, breathing shallowly, willing my body to cooperate until this session was over. Eden didn’t need to know that her therapist was one wrong breath away from hurling into the trash can between us.

“Let’s focus on something positive. Have you started getting ready for the baby?”

Eden shook her head. “Not yet. We are waiting for everything to die down after the late Don’s passing. It didn’t seem right to throw a baby shower now.”

Was she throwing shade? It wasn’t my fault I was forced into marriage, and I said as much.

Eden scoffed. “You’re like the most straightlaced woman I know. How could you be blackmailed into marriage?”

I couldn’t tell her, because her uncle was a part of my prison reform program. If she knew, she may not want me to be her psychiatrist anymore. Then what would I fill my time with during my captivity?

The sickness that wouldn’t go away, the bloating, the fatigue; it all clicked into place, like a puzzle I hadn’t wanted to solve. My heart sank as the realization hit me.

I was late. Very late.

I gulped back the vomit creeping into my mouth. “It’s a long story.” I looked at the clock. “One I don’t have time to share. Before we wrap up, give me one positive from this week.”

Eden sighed. “I felt the baby kick.”

I smiled for real for the first time in this session. “That’s cause for celebration.”

Her expression dimmed. “If Silas was here, it would be.”

I wasn’t touching her husband being punished by my new husband with a ten foot pole. “That’s all the time we have fortoday, Eden. Why don’t we think about some of the activities we spoke about earlier in the session, and next week I want you to tell me one thing you did without Silas.” I stood up too quickly, and dizziness assaulted me.

“Dr. Mya? Are you alright, Dr. Mya?” Eden’s voice snapped me back to reality.

“Sorry,” I said quickly, forcing myself to stand up straighter. “I just—let’s wrap up for today. I’m not feeling great.”

Eden nodded, thankfully not questioning me further, and I hastily concluded the session. As she waddled out the door, I bolted to the connected bathroom, barely making it before I was bent over the toilet, emptying the contents of my stomach. My head spun, and I clung to the porcelain, trembling. When it was finally over, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, breathing heavily.

I glanced at the small cabinet beneath the sink where Sebastian kept a stash of supplies, but I shook my head. I was stressed. I’d been kidnapped, forced to have sex until my body decided I liked it in my sleep, forced to marry a swindler who liked games, and stuck in this farce of a life.

I liked the life, but there were things I couldn’t understand, and I didn’t want to. Maybe I was the pot calling the kettle black. Like Eden, my poor client, suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. She was so twisted up inside, that she didn’t even know that being away from Silas was best for her.

---