Page 127 of Through the Water

He sighed. “For your sake, I hope you’re wrong, Ariana. I really do. It’s clear you’ve picked up some bad habits outside the walls, and it’s going to take a little time for you to unlearn them. I think I’ve been incredibly patient, but I’m ready to start a family and have no issues seeing you walk down the aisle with a swollen belly like some ruined woman. So, you can fight me or learn to submit properly. Either way, your body will remind you with every step what becomes of the wicked.”

At the sound of his zipper, I planted my hands into his chest and shoved before scrambling over to cower on the opposite side of the bed. My breaths came in short, panicked bursts as I searched for something—anything—I could use as a weapon.

Think, Ari.

The coils squeaked again as he stood, laughing. I squinted, straining to find his shadow in the darkness before pushing my hand beneath the mattress, feeling. My fingers closed around the jagged piece of glass.

Adrenaline flooded my veins, leaving me with a sudden sense of invincibility. The Hurricanes towel hadn’t been the only thing I’d taken from Ashlynn’s room. I’d also scavenged a broken mirror from her trash can, slipping the pieces in various spots beneath my mattress.

Just in case.

“Oh, little dove. You amuse me. You always have—” Brad pulled his belt off with a whoosh, cracking the leather in his hands as he moved around the foot of the bed. “You can fight me now, but with the right motivation, you’ll learn to love being down on your knees soon enough.”

“Never,” I spat, widening my stance just as I’d seen Ashlynn do in my dream, adjusting my grip on the glass. I would die before I let him touch me.

You’re the only one who can end this.

But I didn’t get the chance. Brad caught me as I bolted for the door and pushed me against the wall with enough force to knock the air from my lungs. While I was still hunched over, gasping and wheezing, he looped the belt around my neck and tightened it like a leash.

When he yanked me forward, my legs buckled. Then, I was choking. My eyes bulged from the sockets and I let the glass slip through my fingers to claw at my throat, desperate for something I’d taken for granted only seconds before. The leather seemed to grow tighter the more I struggled to get my feet under me, yet I kept flailing and grunting.

It only hurts if you let it…

My vision blurred as the world around me spun like a merry-go-round, faster and faster until it felt like I was floating.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

Brad hauled me to my feet and loosened the vice around my neck before tossing me onto the mattress like a piece of trash. I curled into the fetal position and coughed violently before gulping in ragged breaths. Despite my attempts to be brave, I began sobbing.

He hooked his hands under my thighs, jerking my body toward the edge of the bed with a low growl. My muscles spasmed in response and for the first time in my life, I considered the possibility I wouldn’t make it out of this alive.

I was going to end up like Ashlynn.

“Now, here’s how this is going to go,” he snapped as he worked his dress pants down over his hips with one hand, keeping the other flat on my abdomen. “I’m going to ruin your body, and you’re not going to move a single muscle. Am I clear?”

My breath caught as I tried to inhale through my swollen nostrils, sounding like a whimper. The belt hung around my throat like a grotesque necklace, a visual reminder of what would happen to me again if I didn’t obey.

Brad stepped out of his slacks and kicked them aside before looming over me. “Open your mouth.”

I mashed my lips together, praying he couldn’t see my disobedience in the darkness. He wrapped a hand around my jaw and squeezed until my lips parted, before spitting into my mouth.

Tears pricked the back of my eyes. It was the most degrading thing I’d ever experienced, and he was only getting started.

“Rule number one- answer me when I ask you a question. Are you going to be a good girl while I fuck the sin out of you?”

I would never give him my consent or my body.

Maybe it was nothing more than self-preservation or a last-ditch attempt by my brain to prevent further pain. Whatever the case, I recalled the aquarium and the living things locked in glass cages like trophies. With that, came another memory, one as vivid now as the day it had happened.

I didn’t know why I’d taken Morgan’s convertible, but there wasn’t a doubt in my mind I’d be risking death if I came into my arranged marriage as anything other than a meek little virgin.

A hymen was a symbol of purity—the only thing that made me valuable. Unfortunately, my horse, Pepper, had taken mine when I was eleven when she threw me from my saddle. My eldest sister, Aubrey, had helped me clean up before making me promise to never tell a soul.

Tristan had no other daughters. Without Brad’s money, the entire organization would be crippled.

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