Page 39 of My Everything

“Breakfast will be ready shortly, miss!” Lisa’s cheerful voice informed from somewhere inside the kitchen. My eyes darted to her round frame as she appeared in the opening.

“Oh no,” she breathed, blue eyes widening with worry. “What’s the matter?”

I looked around, expecting to see someone else behind me. It wasn’t until she rushed up to me, I understood her alarm was directed toward me.

My feet hit the floor, and I ran before she could stop me. One more word of fake concern and I’d break. I had to be alone. I had to think.

I slammed the door to my room, leaning back against it and tried to catch my breath. The sprint up the grand stairs had my heart pounding in my chest and pulse on overdrive. My father’s words echoed in my head.His lies.With a sinking feeling in my gut, the full truth started to settle. I was never sick. The danger of bursting an aneurysm or dropping dead was just in my head. Planted and fed by the one person I always believed I could trust. Amongst the deepest of despair, a sliver of light ignited.

I wasn’t going to die.

My legs started to tremble, and with a keening noise, I slid down the door until I was on the carpeted floor. I wasn’t going to die. But my life was over before it begun. I had nothing. No one. I just traded one tower for the next, and this one was so much darker.

My eyes landed on the cell I forgot on the floor earlier, and I scrambled to get it. Sitting on the floor next to the bed, I dialed Marc’s number again and waited while the call got passed on to the voicemail.

“I believe he had an accident.”

No. He was lying. He had to be. That video was fake. It wasn’t Marc inside that car. He did nothing to deserve being killed. All he did was keep me safe. It didn’t matter he didn’t want me. He was my only chance of getting out of here.

I called again, and I didn’t stop until the phone ran out of battery and my heart of hope. He didn’t pick up the call. He couldn’t.He couldn’t.

The phone slipped from my hand, landing with a thud on the soft carpet.He couldn’t.

A sharp rap on the door had me choke back a sob and jerk my head in the direction of the sound.

Alex stood in the doorway. A younger copy of his father. Dressed in the same formal clothes, black, of course. Just as his hair and eyes, looking every bit his freakingmobheritage as those cold eyes locked on me.

“Who were you calling?” He strode into the room and up to me. Before I could form a reply, he snatched the phone off the floor. “I’ll take this.”

“No!” I sprung to my feet, for a brief moment, prepared to sway and faint. It didn’t happen, and instead of relief, a grim feeling filled me, and Mr. X’s words echoed in my head.“You daddy fed you pills to make you sick…”

I choked back a sob, lunging for Alex. “Wait!” I cried out, grasping his arm before he had a chance to leave with my phone.

“You can’t have this. You don’t understand what you’re into.”

“I do,” I said. “I do understand. And I’m going to get out of here.”

His sudden harsh laugh reminded me of his father’s. “You’re not going anywhere.” He let go of me with a shove that sent me stumbling backward and falling. “You belong here now.”

I gasped, staring up as he loomed over me. Shit, why did he have to be so tall?

“Do you understand?”

“You don’t even want me!” I shot back.

He laughed, this time with a hint of real amusement. “I want the freedom you’ll give me.”

I scrambled to my feet, hooking my hands to my hips. “What if I just tell Mr. X you’re gay?”

Alex visibly flinched, then his features hardened. “Do that, and I’ll have your lover-boy executed on the spot.”

My mouth opened, then closed, repeating the motion several times before any sound came out. “My what?”

Alex laughed. “I’m not blind. You’re in love with him.”

“Who?” I dared to whisper.

He scoffed. “Your bodyguard, of course.”

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