Her body shifts, and her pacifier falls from her lips, landing on the ground. I lean over to grab it, but I can’t reach. “Can you hand me that, please?”
Aris picks it up off the floor and offers it back to me.
“It’s dirty now.” I shake my head. “Just throw it in the sink on your way out. I need to clean it before I give it back to her.”
He shoves it into his front pocket. “What the hell does teething mean?”
I roll my eyes at his lack of parental knowledge. “It means she has teeth coming in and it hurts. Tylenol will help the pain.”
“Fine, whatever. I’ll pick it up on my way home.”
“What time will that be?” When he glares, I add, “There are a lot of different kinds. I need you to take a picture of the different ones and send them to Selene so I can let you know which one.”
Aris groans. “All right, I’ll send her the pictures when I’m there. It probably won’t be until five or six o’clock. I have a late meeting.”
Perfect!
“Thank you,” I say, dismissing him.
I wait for him to acknowledge his daughter before he walks away, but as always he doesn’t. He never hugs or kisses or gives her any attention. Not that I’m complaining. I’d rather him stay the hell away from both of us. It’s just that I find it odd. I think back to when I told him I was pregnant. In life, we have choices to make, and a lot of times when making a choice, it isn’t about which choice is the right one, but which one will keep you alive…
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Selene screeches.
I lift my head from the inside of the toilet and glare at her. “Get out,” I demand.
When she doesn’t leave, I reach over and slam the door in her face, so I can finish throwing up in peace.
A few minutes later, I hear yelling in the other room. Aris must be home and he and Selene must be arguing. They’re always arguing. Tiptoeing out to eavesdrop, I listen to what they’re saying.
“You never said you planned to keep her here forever!” Selene whisper-yells. She’s meaning to whisper, but her screeching voice carries.
“It’s not forever,” Aris explains. “It’s only until my brother completely loses his shit and I take over the business. It’s only been a month and my brother is already on a downward spiral.”
“Then what are you going to do with her?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Why don’t you just kill her?” Selene whines. When Aris doesn’t say anything, she says, “Aris…you don’t like, like her, do you?”
“No, I don’t like her, but I’m not going to kill her. Then I would be as much of a monster as my brother and father. Plus, she’s pregnant, and it’s either my baby or my brother’s.”
Oh my God! He knows! He knows I’m pregnant.
“She’s what?” Selene screeches.
“Are you that fucking stupid?” Aris accuses. “Haven’t you seen her throwing up since we brought her here?”
“And it could be yours?” Selene sounds like she’s crying.
“Yes, now stop asking fucking questions. I need to go check on her. When I come back, you need to be waiting for me in bed, with your legs spread and your mouth closed.”
Footsteps across the wood floor have me scrambling back to my room. I’ve just dropped onto my bed, when Aris enters the room.
“Did you hear all of that?” he asks. My eyes widen in shock. “Good, then I don’t have to repeat myself. You’re pregnant. You know it and I know it. The question is, who is the father?”
I have a choice to make…right here, right now. If I tell him the baby is his, he can take it from me after he or she’s born. If I say it’s Kostas’s, his hatred toward his brother can lead to him hurting it. Either way, I’m possibly screwed…
“It’s yours,” I admit.
“I call bullshit.”
“Call it whatever you want.” I shrug.
“If I find out you’re lying, you will pay,” he threatens.
“More than what I am now?” I challenge. “How long do you plan to keep this up, Aris? You know I heard you…you’re not going to kill me, so what are you going to do? Keep me prisoner forever?” I scoff. “It’s not like Kostas loves me. It was an arranged marriage.” But even as I say the words, I refuse to believe them myself.
Aris chuckles darkly. “If you believe that, you’re either dumb or blind. Until you, I didn’t think my dear brother was even capable of loving anyone besides our mother, but I was wrong, which is why I took you.”
“You took me because you think he loves me?” I don’t get it. There has to be more to it.
“I took you because my brother destroys everything he touches and he’s not going to get a chance to destroy you the way he destroyed our mother.”
“Aris…” I begin, but I don’t even know what to say. I hate him. He raped me. He hurt me. He stole me. But my heart still breaks for the man who lost his mother. He’s grieving and he’s broken. He’s not thinking clearly. My only hope is that he’ll eventually come to his senses and let me go. And hopefully before this baby is born.
That was a year ago. He was a monster the day he took me, but now, it’s as if he lives for destroying Kostas. He feeds off it. He’s never going to let me go, which means I have no option but to run.
Zoe’s tiny body stretches, telling me she’s waking up. Her fisted hands rise above her head, and her chunky little body rolls to the side. Her beautiful blue eyes open and she grants me the most beautiful smile.
“Mommy’s going to get us out of here, cara mia.”
After I feed her and give her a bath, I get dressed in a comfortable outfit. I don’t have any tennis shoes, so I make do with the pair of flip flops I have. I tie my hair back in a ponytail and then pull my bag out from under my bed.
When I tiptoe out of the room, I spot Selene on the couch watching TV. I need to be smart about this. Aris’s dumb ass gave her a fucking gun. If I play this right, that gun can become an asset to me, but if it goes the other way, it can be the very thing that kills me.
I spot the gun on the end table next to her. Laying my bag down behind the counter, near the garage door, I set Zoe in her high chair. “Be a good girl,” I whisper, placing a few cereal puffs on her tray.
“Hey, Selene,” I call out.
“What?”
“Aris is supposed to text you a picture of the different Tylenols for Zoe when he’s on his way home. Has he texted you yet?”
“No.” Good, that means he’s still at work. I have time.
Grabbing a frying pan from under the sink—yes, I’m about to be cliché as hell—I tiptoe up to Selene. I’m not sure if the pan will actually knock her out, but my intention is just to knock her off her game long enough to grab the gun. Once I have it, I can make a run for it and she won’t be able to stop me.
I spot her phone in her lap. I want to grab it as well, but the gun is more important. Raising the heavy item to the side, I swing it as hard as I can at the side of her head.
“Ahhh!” she screams, falling from the couch and onto the floor. Without looking back at her, I snatch the gun off the table, dart back to the dining room, grab my daughter and bag, and haul ass. I quickly type in the code to the garage and it works! Using the key in my hand, I hit the fob to unlock the doors. The SUV lights up and I throw Zoe into the seat next to me. I hate that I don’t have a car seat for her, but there’s nothing I can do. With a click of the garage door, it rises, and we’re free.