Page 78 of Forever Fake

He pulls away only far enough to cup my cheeks and look me in the eye. His gaze burns with sincerity. “Oh, baby girl, nothing could ever make me not want you. You’ve become my world, Gin. I’ll do anything to keep you happy and safe. I was a jealous fool, blinded by my own fears, and I’m so very sorry.”

I nod. We’ll see if that's true or not.

He says I’ve become his world, yet he has also reminded me that we’re divorcing in a year. If I mean that much to him, then why would he throw away our relationship? I can’t figure him out. Right now, I’m too tired to try.

Summoning my inner strength, I glance away, and continue my story, “Word got out about me and that guy, except instead of blaming him, everyone started calling me aslut. They said I deserved it, for the way I look, for the way I dress.”

“You don’t. No one deserves that,” Blake cuts in, hugging me closer.

I inhale a shuddering breath. “I know, but after a while I guess I started to believe them, and I just let guys do whatever they wanted to me. I was already damaged goods so what difference did it make? I never saidyes, but I didn’t saynoeither. N-not until Oliver.”

I swallow hard, my hands shaking again. The weighted silence that stretches between us tells me Blake has a lot to say, but he’s keeping quiet to give me the space I need to get all of this out.

“I-I met Oliver at a party last year. At first he seemed suave, charming… a lot of fun. He seemed to actually like me, not just my body. But then he wanted to have sex and I just… I had to be intoxicated to go through with it. It didn’t take him long to see the pattern and h-he got rough with me right before Christmas and we broke up. But he’s so… cunning, and he convinced me to give him another chance so we started dating again after the New Year.”

I was so stupid to fall prey to him.So dumb. “Again, everything was fine for a while—good even. Until his moods started getting darker and his actions more and more erratic. Th-that night he s-spiked my drink with something that m-made my limbs so heavy, but my h-head was clear. He t-took me to this basement that was all s-set up, like a p-porn set.

“The part of the v-video you saw was just the beginning. I… I lost count of how many times he r-raped me that night. I felteverything. The next day m-my entire body was o-one giant bruise, except for my face, he n-never touched my face.

“I couldn’t tell anyone what had happened, I was too humiliated, and they w-wouldn’t believe me anyway. Plus O-Oliver told me he’d l-leak the v-video if I said a word about it. I told my parents that I was s-sick for a week and s-stayed in my room to recover. The n-nightmares were the worst part of it, and the l-loneliness. After that, I broke up with him and he’s been th-threatening me ever since.”

I deeply inhale, having gotten the worst parts out of the way. My pulse thunders in my ears, nearly drowning out Blake’s next words.

“Is that why you pretended to not know him at dinner?” Blake gently asks.

“I’m t-terrified of him,” I admit. “I p-panicked and didn’t know w-what else to do. He th-threatened me that night when you took that call, then a-again at the art opening. H-he told me to come to his office yesterday morning, but I didn’t go. That’s why theBig Apple Buzzpublished this article.”

“The article should be gone by now. I called in a favor to have all traces of it removed before confronting you.”

“Y-you did?” I glance up at him. While his tone’s soft, I read the fury in the hard set of his jaw, the need for violence in his stormy eyes. He really does believe me. And so far, he’s nottreating me like I’m disgusting. It’s like… like nothing’s changed between us, even with the truth laid bare.

“Of course I did,” he says. “I’ll be personally paying a visit to theBig Apple Buzz’s CEO later today as well. It seems they’ve forgotten who they’re fucking with.”

“Right.” A smile flashes across my face. “The big, bad Blake Baron.”

“No.Mrs. Baron.” He nuzzles my neck. “They can mess with me all they want, baby girl, but no one fucks with my wife. Even if I foolishly believed you cheated on me, I’d never allow those vipers to drag your name through the mud. You’re mine, Mrs. Baron, and you deserve both privacy and respect.”

My heart skips a beat. All the tension, and worry, bleeds from my body.

“What stopped you from going to his office?” he carefully asks.

Reality comes back to me like a frigid splash of water across my face. “I kn-knew that if I went, then this would n-never end. He’d continue to pull the strings. My only other option was to confess the truth to you and hope you’d f-forgive me, but you d-didn’t come home yesterday.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. None of this is your fault, Gin. I’m serious. You’re so brave for telling me everything.” He strokes my hair, wrapping a curl around his finger, and I relax further into him. “Now that I know the truth, I’m going to kill Oz. Slowly. Painfully. He’ll never hurt you again.”

“Promise?”

“I promise with all my heart.”

CHAPTER 35

Blake

“I’m sorry, sir, but Mr. Zaleski can’t see you today. You need to make an appointment and come back another time.” This secretary has no idea that she’s playing with fire. But she’s beginning to catch on. Her gaze nervously flits back and forth between me and Gin.

I didn’t want to bring my wife to this encounter, but she insisted. I think she’s attempting to face her fears, her abuser, in a relatively safe and controlled environment. With me by her side, I’ll never let anyone touch her again.

The stupid fucker in that office should have run far, far away instead of hiding behind his secretary. That decision alone tells me how arrogant he is, and I can’t wait to break him.

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