Page 121 of Original Sins (Dark Odyssey 6)

My heart sinks into the chasm of despair as I watch Georgiou and Henry grab the rest of their clothes and walk past my father.

Both glance back at me with defeated expressions when they get out the door, and then they're gone.

I put my clothes on quickly and face my father for the rest of the punishment.

“Dad—”

“Don’t, don’t fucking explain anything. You have no idea how disappointed I am in you right now. Evie, you sold yourself at an auction. You sold yourself. What the hell were you thinking!”

“I was trying to escape you,” I blurt, and shock replaces the rage glowing in his eyes. “I was trying to escape you, and I needed the money to do it. Dad, you can’t just rule my life and choose my path. Why the hell would you think you should do that when that wasn’t even what you and Mom did?”

“Don’t bring your mother into this. She would be ashamed of you.”

“Maybe so, but Dad, Peter beat me and tried to rape me. You were told what he did, and you still wanted him to marry me. You still planned for him to be my husband. She wouldn’t have done that. She also wouldn’t pass me around like a piece of meat without feelings. I don’t even know who this William person is.”

“You think just because you don’t know him, it’s okay to whore yourself out to Georgiou and Henry?”

“I love them.”

Now he looks shocked and more furious than he previously did. “Them? Did you saythem? As in the two of them?”

My cheeks burn with the weight of what I just confessed, but I summon bravery and steel my spine. I have to see this through and tell him how I feel.

“Yes, the two of them.”

A crude mocking laugh falls from his lips, and he shakes his head at me. “You don’t know what the hell you’re saying. You are young and foolish.”

“I’m the same age Mom was when she met you.”

“Stop it, Evie. Being with an older man isn’t the fucking same as being with two men. There’s no way you’re going to tell me you think it’s the same thing. It’s not. Get your things we’re leaving, and you’re coming back to Italy with me. You will never see Georgiou or Henry ever again.”

Words dictating my fate.

My lungs burn from the tightness in my chest, and my body locks in on itself.

My God, he means it, and I know he’ll make sure he makes good on his word to stop me from seeing Georgiou or Henry again.

How will I live the rest of my life without seeing them?

This is it.

It’s really all over, and now I can’t even escape.

33

Henry

Destruction came before the sun rose.

I got a call from my secretary telling me Donny had pulled all the contracts.

I expected anybody else who’d signed up to use our services to follow suit over the next few days.

Today is Thursday, so it could all happen by tomorrow.

I, however, have decided that I’m not going to be around to see it.

I’m scheduled to be at work for nine, but I went in straight after my secretary called, getting my ass there for eight.

---