06

LILY

There was no warning. No preparation. Dressers stormed in, tugging and pulling, while my mind splintered under the weight of what was coming

Was this the cruelty people spoke about him? The coldness and yet commandeering attitude?

Whatever I felt for him was buried by the time we arrived. A butler came out of the mansion, dressed in pristine black and white while helping me out of the car.

I was over whatever we were. I just wanted to go home at this point.

I had barely taken a step when Dominic’s warm scent overpowered me . I turned to find him standing by my side, his hand on my waist by default.

His grip was steady and firm. This didn’t feel like a performance, more like instinct. My pulse leapt, and the worst part was… his hand lingered, as though he didn’t want to let go.

I hated that my body still betrayed me despite how my mind wanted to stop the response. He brought his lips to my ear and my legs nearly gave way.

I wanted to claw my own skin for betraying me

“Act natural. Don’t embarass me,” His breath ghosted against my ear, low enough to shiver down my spine. It wasn’t just command. It was possession, intimate and cruelly familiar, like he knew exactly what it did to me.

You know what? Fuck Dominic. If he thought he could reject me this morning then tell me to act normal then he had another thing coming but Dominic wasn’t about to let me out of his sight.

He grabbed my hand and forced us to clasp hands then led us inside the house. The moment we entered the house, my lips curved upwards in a smile.

Something died in my chest.

Dominic was greeting some people before finally, he pulled me to his chest and I came face to face with four women.

All young except one who had greying hair and none of them looked even the least friendly.

“Where’s grandfather?” He asked and they pointed lazily to a corner. Dominic turned to me and did something I wasn’t expecting.

His lips brushed my cheek, lingering longer than any performance demanded. A show, yes but for whom? Them… or me? Heat pulsed under my skin, traitorous, remembering how his mouth had once known every inch of me.

I forced a smile, but inside I was shaking.

He whispered “I’ll be back.”

The moment Dominic was away from hearing shot, I heard a cynical chuckle.

My head snapped back to its original position and I tried to mask the horror that these women just saw me blush.

I chuckled and stretched out a hand as a gesture of goodwill but the women looked at me with a disdainful sneer.

Their eyes were full of mischief and venom.  An unfriendliness so great, it brought goosebumps to my skin.

“So, you can be in love?” One of the women asked and I frowned. What the hell did that mean?

“I mean…weren’t you bought by Dominic?” Another one coined and the last one laughed mockingly.

Shame overwhelmed me deeply and I shrank.

“I mean. It’s not as if your family is poor, you just like to have your fingers in every pie available, as long as your family gets richer. You don’t mind pawning yourself like a good little political slut, you should be ashamed you carry the name Croft,” the oldest woman in the group hissed and bile rose to my throat.

Pressure built up in my nose and traveled to my eyes. I was going to tear up if I didn’t leave here.

I looked behind me to find Dominic but he was nowhere to be found.

“Looking for your husband? Or should I say master since he bought you for cheap?” One of them mocked and I stepped away, drowning in humiliation.

I muttered something, anything, and fled before they saw me fall apart.

Five minutes into this family meeting and I already hated it here.

I was going to either stick to Dominic or stay in the car. There was no way I was going to try to be on my own in unchartered territory.

My eyes were still scanning for a clue as to where Dominic might be when my purse vibrated. My mind instinctively went to my phone.

The caller id read “Mom” but this was such a bad timing. I couldn’t answer. Dominic might call me.

I was still searching and ignoring every call till the last vibration came and I decided to find somewhere to hide. My mother didn’t call so frantically.

Fear crawled up my spine as I took out my phone to see ten missed calls and one new voice message. My knees grew weak and my hands trembled.

I placed the phone to my ear and pressed play.

My mother’s frantic voice came through and my blood drained from my face.

“Anna is in the hospital!! You have to come now. Oh God! The doctors are saying it’s horrible!” She shrieked and my heartbeat turned to a race.

My guts turned to ice.

Suddenly nothing else mattered. My daughter was in the hospital, not Dominc, not the Crofts, not the contract. Nothing mattered!

I turned around, about to sprint out of the place when one of the women suddenly appeared like an evil surprise in front of me.

A shocked gasp escaped my lips.

“Going somewhere?” She asked but my phone suddenly lit up and my attention was stolen.

I looked up too late to find her give me one final sneer before she snatched the phone from my grasp and ran deep into the hall where the real guests where.

I raced after her not even caring that Dominc had warned me to “act normal”.

“Wow! Dominic!” She suddenly shouted.

Dominic who had been conversing with an elderly man looked up. A small frown creased his brows when our eyes met.

“Theresa?” The elderly man called, the room went silent.

“Did you know, Dominic?” Theresa asked and my blood ran cold. Everyone was either looking at me or Theresa but Theresa didn’t care.

“Know what?” Dominic asked coldly.

“That your sweet new wife…” she trailed, sweat beaded my forehead as anxiety clutched me by the chest.

“Already has a child?” She finished and gasps rang out of the different corners of the room.

My eyes watered but I refused to let it fall. I knew all eyes were on me.

I walked to where Theresa stood, my phone dangling between her hands. I was about to snatch it from her when she deliberately let it slip from her hands.

I watched the phone clatter to the floor, the screen cracking into pieces.

My gaze darted across the room, Dominic’s jaw tightened, a muscle ticking. His eyes burned, dark and unreadable. He said nothing, but the tension in his body was a shield he refused to raise.

“Oops,” she whispered and rage overcame me.

She sneered, brushed my shoulder. Something in me snapped and I grabbed her collar.

She didn’t have the time to react before I raised my hand and delivered a fierce slap across her cheeks.

She shrieked in agony and then I pushed her away. Giving me the time to pick my phone and race out of the house. Just before I made my escape, his eyes caught mine across the room. Fury, pride, something raw flickered there but gone before I could name it.

He hated my me but it didn’t matter.

If Dominic decided that henceforth the contract was terminate then so be it. If this singular act of self defense would make the Crofts come after me then so be it.

I was done.

I rushed out of the house and through the gates. I didn’t even know where I was exactly but I had seen enough before my phone got destroyed to know what hospital my mother was with Anna.

Tears streaked down my face but no cab stopped. My body shook from the icy downpour.

Just when I thought I was probably going to walk to the hospital, a Mercedes pulled up in front of me.

At first, it had to be my eyes. It couldn’t be possible. It didn’t make any logical sense that he would come after me after what just happened.

The rain blurred everything until only his silhouette remained. Broad shoulders and a relentless stride. My chest clenched. Why had he come? He shouldn’t have come. And yet here he was.

“Are you waiting for an invite!?” His voice was sharp, but his eyes searched my face like he hated what he saw, like he hated that I was breaking.

I stood there in shock.

“Get in. Now!” He ordered and the moment I sat in the car, the rain poured like never before.

“Where are we going?” He suddenly asked me, not sparing me a glance.

“Saint Mary’s…” I said, my heart beating fast just as we locked eyes for a full minute.

“The hospital,” I finished and Dominc hit the gas pedal.

Dominc was driving to meet his daughter for the first time and he didn’t even know it and yet his knuckles were white around the wheel, his jaw locked as if my pain were his own. He didn’t know it yet, but he was already driving straight toward the truth, toward Anna, toward us.