Page 13 of Sweet Possession
Tears stabbed at the back of my eyes at her kindness. A kindnessthatnotevenmy own father had shown me during my eighteen years on this planet.
“I…I don’t know,”I replied honestly, earning me a sympatheticsmile from her.
“That’s understandable, Cora. It sounds like you’ve been to hell andback these last few days,”she said softly, reaching out to take my hand. Despite wanting to keep my guard up, I let her, craving the touch of a human who didn’t want to hurt me.“And I know it’s going to take you some time to believe it, but Foxreallydoes want to help you.”
“Did he buy you?”I repeated my earlier question, my voice comingout in a whisper.
She squeezed my hand.“No, Fox didn’t. Fox has never beenanything but a gentleman to me. My husband on the other hand…”she said, smiling conspiratorially.
“What happened?”I asked, desperate to know if she had been sold atan auction like I was supposed to be.
“Like I said, it’s a long story. The short version though, Nashblackmailed me into marrying him,”she replied, although there was no anger or fear in her voice, if anything, she spoke of Nash with nothing but fondness.
I gaped at her, my mind spinning with how someone could be blackmailed into marriage.
She chuckled at my reaction.“I know what it sounds like, and believeme, it didn’t start with me being this happy, it took me a while to come around. But Nash, well, let’sjustsay he has a way of charming people, and despite my protests, and the crazy situation he put me in, I couldn’t help but fall in love with him.”
For a few seconds, she stared into thin air, her eyes shining withaffection.
“So to answer your question,”she said, returning to the conversation.“No, Fox didn’t buy me. Never in his life has Fox bought another human being, he abhors human trafficking.”
My mouth opened and closed several times but my questionswouldn’t come out. If Mr. Fox feltthatstrongly about human trafficking, why did he buy me? Why didn’t he go to the police?
Before I could speak, Savannah beat me to it.“If I had to guess,would I be right in thinking the men who kept you inthatplace told youthatyou werejustanother girl on a long listthatFox had bought from them?”
“Something likethat,”I muttered, not able to meet her eye as shamefilled me. The picture of Mr. Fox she was painting was not the same as what Dwayne had painted.
“Hey.”She gave my hand another gentle squeeze, and slowly I raisedmy head, my cheeks burning.“It’s okay, Cora. Those men were horrible men who got off on scaring you. They were cruel and evil, and it’s no wonder you now feel like there is no one you can trust. But Fox, he isn’t like them. He’s the most kind-hearted and genuine man you’ll ever meet. And he would never hurt you, Cora.”She paused, and when I didn’t reply, she added,“I wish there was a way I could convince you to give him a chance, hereallyis a good man.”
“Why though? Why me?”I asked after a pause to let her words sinkin.
It was something I didn’t understand. If Fox didn’t want me for thethings Dwayne said,thenwhy did he go through the trouble of buying me?
I didn’t know how much my dad owed, but the way he would stress, Iknew it had to be quite a bit. Why would a stranger spendanykind of money on someone they didn’t know?
In my experience, people didn’t do thingsjustto be nice. Theyalwayswanted something in return.
“It’s not for me to say why he did what he did, that’s something youneed to ask him,”Savannah replied, her words only adding to my growing curiosity as to who Mr. Fox was.“What I can tell you though, Cora, isFoxjustwants to keep you safe. Whatever his reasons are, that’s for him to tell you, but if you can find it in yourself to trust him, he’ll take the best care of you.Thatman will move the earth to protect you.”
I gaped at her as a thick lump of emotion clogged my throat,preventing any kind of response from coming out. Every part of me wanted to believe her, believethatMr. Fox didn’t want to hurt me. But with my dad’s betrayal still weighing heavily in my heart, I didn’t know if I had it in me to trust another person.
She gave my hand a final squeeze before standing.“Give him achance, Cora. You might find it’s the best thing to ever happen to you. Look what happened to me.”
She crossed to the door, stopping to unlock it.“I know Fox told you totake your time, and he’s absolutely right. Take as much time as you need.”She paused, smiling fondly.“I’m afraid my husband and Fox are a bit of a package deal though, which means, you don’tjustget Fox, but you get us too. So when you’re ready, we’ll be waiting for you. It’s going to take time for you to learn to trust us, but I do hopethatone day, we can be friends.”
She held my gaze for a few seconds, and in her eyes, there wasnothing but sincerity.
When she left, I laid back on the bed and stared up at theceiling, surprisedthatI didn’t have the instinct to immediately jump up and bolt the door like I had done earlier.
Friends.
It would be nice to have friends.
Chapter 5
Fox
“Fuck,”I grumbled as the pancake I was attempting to cook burned.This was the third batch, and so far, every one had gone wrong.
