Page 3 of Envy

“Yes, master,” I whisper reluctantly.

“You won’t need another man when your mouth is full of me.” He grips my hair savagely, tilting my head back, and shoves his cock into my mouth to the back of my throat, eliciting a choking sound. I try to suppress my gag reflex, trying to blank out the stinging pain.

My eyes roll back in my head as my lungs fight for air. Pain smothers my shame as I refuse to let him see my tears, but they slide down my cheeks anyway.

“That’s it,” he says, thrusting in my mouth. “That’s my girl. Take it. You were born to serve me and only me. Touch another man, and I’ll fuck your bleeding corpse.”

I’m choking, but he doesn’t care. The inside of my throat is on fire. My skull throbs in pain while his nails dig into my scalp. He won’t stop until I pass out or he comes.

There are times I’ve woken up naked on the floor, and he’s fucking me. There is no question he is good on his threats. Johnis evil—a pedophile of the worst kind. Sick and twisted and this time won’t be different.

Present Day

“Areyou sure you’re not my sister?” Melody’s voice is calm, but I hear it––the crack beneath her words, the disappointment behind the question.

I know her mind is fragile, but when she's in this state—the one where she remembers—it’s better to give her the truth. “I’m sure.”

It’s the only thing I can admit.

She exhales sharply. “Well, shit.” A loud sigh escapes her. “How did you know?”

I shrug, not wanting to say the words. Valen must have found out. Maybe it was David—the biggest fucking liar the devil created. Who also happens to know Garret. A little detail John and Mary left out.

It was all part of the plan. A way to make me fit in. A way to get me close enough to them. I had to go along with it. It’s not like I ever had a choice.

“Do you know who––”

“My parents are?” I finish for her. I let out a puff of air, wishing I had an answer. “All I remember is being in a place with a lot of kids. I was about ten.”

I leave out the part where all the girls––including me––were drugged inside a room in some building in the middle of nowhere. “All I know is that John Strauss adopted me.”

“Garret’s stepfather,” Melody mutters.

Garret.

Mary’s spoiled son. The one who inherited a fortune and lives like a crowned prince, fucking his way through Kenyan university. A mask of perfection. He parties as hard as he deceives. Drugs, sex, and power.

But I saw it the moment I met him. The truth beneath the mask. He is not what they think.

He is undeniably beautiful: dark hair, chiseled jaw, and a cocky attitude. Melody warned me a couple of times that he didn’t take anything or anyone seriously. He’s the life of the party. And at one time, girls didn’t go for him because he wasn’t popular but now, he’s all they want.

There’s a darkness inside him that rivals John's. And once he learned who I was––that I belonged to John Strauss––his mask slipped. The air in the room felt like it was sucked out and replaced with hate. Unadulterated hate. I was John and Mary’s dirty little secret, and I’m not to be trusted. We were enemies.

“We all graduated,” Melody says to Valen as if I’m not in the room. As if I don’t exist.

“I know.” Valen’s tone is careful, trying to avoid looking at me while softening his gaze on Melody. Nostalgia hitting me hard in the ribs. I wish someone looked at me that way. It’s possessive––but the good kind. The kind you wish for.

I shift on their couch, letting the familiar feeling of being unwanted settle in my chest.

I’m a liar.

An outcast.

Prey without protection.

It’s what she’s telling me without saying it. I’m not her problem. I have no ties to her or her friends.

“Do you know what that means, Rose?” Her gaze locks on mine.

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