Chapter 51
The small party lasted for a few hours. We had lunch, and boy, was I happy to taste food other than that from the hospital.
I think I must’ve had the most that day, like a teenage boy with an insatiable appetite.
Zach and Anna had some wine, they made jokes about the time the three of them used to hang out and Gabriel used to third wheel them.
I didn’t talk, but they filled the silence enough.
I was tired when Gabriel kicked them out. He does that a lot these days, I realised. It wasn’t just Sam. Any time I felt drowsy, he didn’t hesitate asking any company we had, to leave.
Zach and Anna didn’t mind his bluntness. They were used to it. They were his found family.
It was early evening when we went upstairs and Gabriel cocked an eyebrow at me. “Where are you going?” He asked.
I blinked, confused. “Room?”
He smiled. “You’re cute.”
I knew he was just teasing me and not complimenting, but my cheeks heated. Oh, I really was in trouble. “What?”
“I asked Luna to shift some of your things to my room,” He replied nonchalantly. “Only some, because I didn’t have space for all of it. Once you’re feeling better, I can call in my interior designer who can help you make changes to the room to fit your wardrobe needs.”
I just stared at him for a second too long, flabbergasted. “What?” I sounded like a broken tape recorder.
“What?” He repeated. “You didn’t think I was going to let you live alone at the end of the hallway, did you?” An eyebrow was raised again, and then his lips lifted to reveal a smug smile. “Besides, we’re husband and wife. Don’t you think we should start acting like it?”
Had he forgotten the whole Lily thing that happened just before I left? It was two weeks before, but the sting that I had been trying to ignore still felt fresh when I thought about it.
“Gabriel…” Reluctance must clear in my voice, because he sighed.
“Just come, please?”
I stare, sigh, and then nod.
He leads the way.
Once we’re in his room, I see it. The pastel pink throw over shifted from my room to his, a stark contrast to his modern furniture. An emptied wardrobe which originally had his business suits was now lined up with shoes and bags, and I’m assuming my clothes were in the added wardrobe.
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– J M MM
Chapter 51
The frame that was on my nightstand, a childhood picture of my parents and me was also shifted.
“It isn’t much, but it’s yours,” Gabriel says carefully, watching me keenly take in. “And if you don’t want me to share the bed with you, I will be happy to take the couch.”
“As if you’d fit on the couch, I wanted to tease, I don’t. I just shake my head. “Not necessary.”
“You will have all the privacy you need here,” His expression softens. “Just stay.”
I didn’t want to do this, I didn’t want to talk about this, I just wanted to be delusional and believe that the man I had fallen in love with did more than care for me because I was his responsibility. But I had avoided this topic long enough, so I gulp and voice out, “Lily?”
He looks like he was expecting this question any time soon. “Don’t waste your precious voice on her right now, hm?” He steps ahead, wraps one of his arms around my back. “We’ll talk about it after you heal. I know I wronged you by not telling you the truth about her. I know I have a lot to make up for. But I meant what I said. You are my wife, Freckles. You.”
A little smile escapes me. He reflects it, placing a feather k*ss on my forehead. “Now, you want me to run you a bath?”
I raise my eyebrows playfully. “You?”
“Yeah, I figured I better get used to it since I have self–appointed myself as your assistant these days,” he teased back.
I laugh.
He just kept looking at me.
Conscious of his gaze, I bite my lower lip. “What?”
“Nothing.”
He really did give me no explanation, just moved to the bathroom, In moments, I could hear the water running.
He really was serious about running me a bath.
I smile to myself, moving to my new wardrobe. Having no idea where my lounge wear was, I just settled on a bathrobe, figuring I’d ask Luna about it later. I could ask now, but I didn’t feel like talking. My throat felt lumpy, and my voice felt tired, something I didn’t know was possible to feel.
When I stood in the bathroom in front of the long mirror, the clothes I was wearing pooled below my feet, I stared at myself
in the long mirror.
There was a mark along my torso, spreading from under my left breast, all the way to the right, and a little towards the back. It was stained with colours of purple, brown, red.
It hurt
Even though there wasn’t any physical pain because of the medications, touching it stung me. This was the first time I was seeing the mark it left, multiple of them. In the hospital, all my showers were sponge baths by a nurse, and I had been too dazed by the high dose of painkillers to investigate myself then
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✔ NM M
Chapter 51
It was clear now.
The belt wasn’t the only thing that left a mark. There were brown coloured lines where the ropes were tied on my wrists and ankles, the one on the ankle being more prominent. There were multiple other bruises on my arms, ones I didn’t even remember getting.
They all hurt in different measures.
I might have been staring at my bruises with undivided attention and pain, because i didn’t realise when the bathroom door. opened.
Gabriel hadn’t let me lock it in case I needed help. He said it would save him the trouble of breaking the door. He was also paranoid, because I hadn’t been left alone since I was found, not even for a minute. Someone was with me at all times.
I think he thought I would breakdown. Or get scared. Maybe even go into a panic attack.
I felt numb.
Gabriel stood behind me.
A week or so ago, I would’ve flinched. Even though I was wearing lingerie, I would tell him, ‘so much for the privacy you. promised me‘, and kick him out or k*ss him, depending on my mood.
Today, I didn’t even move.
My eyes fixated on Gabriel in the mirror, and his on my b*dy. They wandered, through every bruise, every mark, every discolouration.
In the end, they stopped on the belt mark for so long that I felt conscious, squirmy under his gaze. His soft expressions disappeared to turn stone cold, the affection and concern in his eyes dissipating to give way to anger before he looked up at me. “Never again,” he promised, “I will burn the world if it means that the warmth of the flames will keep you warm. No one except me will ever touch you again, and if they f**king try, I will cut their limbs off before they even come close.”
His head bent to my shoulder, his lips placing a chaste k*ss there. Hands wrapped around my waist from both sides, pulling me closer into him. I shut my eyes, letting the back of my head lean on his chest.
“You’re mine to hurt.” Kiss. “Mine to protect.” Kiss. “Mine to own.” Another k*ss. I opened my eyes to see him only staring at
- me. “And mine to love. Mine.”
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