I had no idea how it came to this. One moment he was telling me stories of his past, of his love and obsession with my dead mother Rose, and the next… The next? I… I was taken by surprise.

As well prepared and cautious as I had been—since I knew this sort of shit was going to happen to me, was going to be done to me eventually if James couldn’t get to me in time—Herbert had still managed to take me by surprise. I gave out a frightened gasp before he pounded on me and silenced me with his disgusting kiss.

Oh, he hadn’t taken me yet. He just—as always, as he had done countless times before—teased me in his sick, twisted way. He pinned me against the bed, his heavy weight on me, suffocating me, and then he stripped me until I was bare, until I had nothing on me, until I felt weak, exposed, vulnerable, and completely at his mercy.

He was greedily stroking my skin, his beady eyes leering at my naked body, feasting on my breasts and private parts. Oh, how I wanted to die. How I wanted this to end, but I knew that was not to be.

James. The beloved name kept echoing in my head. Please come soon. Please…

When Herbert finally and eagerly touched me down there as if my pussy were precious gold, I couldn’t stand it, just couldn’t stand the feeling of his hand on my most sensitive part, the most intimate and private place that I only shared with James, where only James could bring delight and pleasure and joy. And despite being pinned against the bed by a body that felt like a ton of bricks, I fought back like a wildcat, screaming and shaking my head.

“Let me go! Let me go!” I yelled as I struggled underneath the man. “I hate you. Stop doing this to me. You’re disgusting. Stop touching me!”

“Shh… Uncle will make you feel good. Just keep still.”

I adamantly shook my head as I tried to bash him in the face, but he was twice as big as me and even thrice stronger. In the end, I couldn’t even put a scratch on him.

Then he inserted his fingers into my opening, and I cried, feeling so sick and disgusted. Suddenly, he was angry, and I heard him growl. I had no idea what was happening when, the next moment, I glimpsed his hand swinging toward my face.

Within the blink of an eye, I felt the hardness of his knuckles smashing against my cheek. Intense pain exploded on my face, numbing my head, which was followed by a dull ache burning throughout my body. I didn’t even have time to register the fact that Herbert had just hit me—for whatever reason I had displeased him—when another blow came, hitting the other cheek, twisting my face to the left. Then another came, followed by another and another.

My head was spinning in a haze of pain as darkness began to invade my mind. I couldn’t see anything except the blackness that descended upon me. I tried to catch my breath as panic seized me, imprisoning me in its tight, dark grip.

Oh God! Am I going to die now? Oh God! No! God no!

I felt another hit on my stomach and then another. God, how I wanted Herbert to stop hitting me. I wanted him to leave me alone. I cried as I moved into a fetal position to protect myself.

No. Not again. Not this again. Is there going to be no end to this?

Tears flowed down my cheeks as I slowly faded into the abyss and succumbed to the darkness.

I had no idea how long I had been out or how long Herbert had continued to hit me. I also had no idea what had triggered his anger, which scared me. Had his temper gotten worse? Switching between the pleasant uncle to the tyrant within the blink of an eye without warning.

When I came to, my head and body were throbbing with so much pain that I cried. I had always been a strong girl, and pain in itself was nothing more than a reminder for me that I had been physically beaten and that my body needed to heal, needed to get better.

When Herbert had started hitting me that first time when I was but a mere child, I had cried as though my life depended on it. After that, however, when I knew this sort of shit was going to become routine, I never cried again. I had been strong. I had gotten used to the abuse.

For Herbert, the beatings had merely been a way to show his strength, an illustration to express to Andy and me that he was the boss, the bigger person, the one in control. His abuse, too, for the majority of the time, had been to threaten and scare us, to put us under his thumb, not meant to kill. Because really, why would he kill us since, in his own sick way, he couldn’t live without us? He needed us to feed his ego, his sick sexual craving.

But this time I couldn’t handle it. This time, the beating was more severe, meant to kill. It was as if a demon had possessed Herbert and he went all out, hitting me as if he really wanted to murder me. And that scared me.

“You look like shit.”

I sucked in my breath at the sudden sound of the female voice, which both surprised and frightened me. I had thought I was alone in the room when I woke, but apparently, I was wrong. How long had Sophie been here in this dark, dingy room with me?

I tried to open my eyes. God, why was it so hard? And painful? Shit! I had a feeling that my eyes were severely swollen from the beating.

Once I somehow managed to open them, I saw Sophie’s hazy figure standing before me, her arms folded across her chest and her head cocked to one side as if she found my dire circumstances amusing.

The sight of her pissed me off.

I was so angry with her, with what she had done to me, with her facilitating Herbert in my kidnapping that I wanted to yell at her and beat the crap out of her. I had never felt this pissed with anyone before. God, how could one girl do that to another? How?

“Wow? You look damn pissed with me, don’t you?” Sophie said. Then she came to sit on the side of the bed next to me, my body sprawled weakly like a naked corpse. “I truly don’t understand how James would want to fuck a girl like you. You’re so ugly in every way. Even more so now that you’re covered in bruises.”

I heaved as I glared at her. Oh God, I so badly wanted to swear at her, tell her how much she pissed me off right now. But my mouth just wouldn’t open.

Shit! I might have a broken jaw, too.

Sophie shook her head as she chuckled in mirth at my useless endeavor.

She said, “You do look rather pathetic, Mia. Oh my, if only James could see you now, see how ugly and undesirable you are. I can promise you that he wouldn’t look twice at you, which is what it was meant to be from the beginning.” She leaned close to me and grinned as she poked a finger against my bruised cheek.

I growled in pain at the excruciating burning contact. Shit! What was this woman doing?

She sighed pleasantly, as if enjoying tormenting me. “Does that hurt?” She intensified the pressure on my cheek.

With tears in my eyes, I glared at her. God, if I could yell and swear at her, I would. But damn, I couldn’t move my mouth.

“Wow! You really are pissed with me, aren’t you?” she said, finally removing her fingers from my cheek. “Just look at the intensity of your eyes.” She sighed again. “Well, I don’t have to deal with you much longer because Herbert is taking you out of town tonight.” She clasped her hands together, pleased at that very idea, as if she were about to get a diamond ring. “Then I won’t ever have to deal with you again. I won’t have to see or hear from you again.”

That was when I was so angry that I thought, Fuck the pain! With all my might, I forced my mouth to open and said, “You… bitch!”

That seemed to take Sophie by surprise. Yes, of course my body might have been a tad bit broken, but my spirit certainly was not.

Take that, you bitch Sophie.

I continued. “James… going… to… kill… you!”

Sophie was quiet for a moment as she stared at me. She was probably pissed that I had the gall to take a shot at her even in this sorry state.

She folded her arms across her chest. “Yeah, we both know that’s not going to happen. Like I said before, James may be a billionaire, but he’s no Mexican mafia. He may have bulk, but he’s no fighter.

“And stop fantasizing about James rushing over to save you, Mia, because that’s not going to happen. He doesn’t give a fuck about you. Once you’re out of the picture, he’s free to find another girl to replace you. You’re not important. You’re just another toy to him. Of course, once you’re completely out of the picture, I’ll be returning to his side, and everything will be back to normal, the way things used to be before you came waltzing into his life.”

She suddenly got up and turned on her heel. With her back to me, she said, “Have fun living with your sick, abusive uncle, Mia. The fact that I know you’re going to suffer for the rest of your sorry, sad life makes me extremely happy. Do you know that?”

Tears burned my eyes as I forced the words out of my mouth again. “James… is… going… to… kill… you.”

She turned to me again. I saw her release a big sigh and then roll her eyes, as if to imply she found my repeated threat dull. She suddenly moved toward me, and once her face was inches from mine, she said, a grin playing about her lips, “No… James is not going to kill me. Herbert is going to kill you, Mia. And that’s a fact. He’s going to fuck you day in and day out until you’re so fucking exhausted, fucking sick, and fucking depressed that you just want to die. That’s what’s going to happen to you, Mia.”

She was sneering at me now as she continued. “And you know why? Because you had the gall to waltz into James’s life and steal him from my clutches. And it’s your fault that I got fired. It’s your fault Aria hates me. Yes, everything is your fault, Mia. Everything!”

All I could do as she spouted such nonsense was to stare at her in disbelief. My God! What the hell is this woman on about?

She straightened up then and turned on her heel. At the door, she said, “Good-bye, Mia.” Then she was gone, the door slamming shut behind her.

Alone, Sophie’s words kept echoing within my mind.

James won’t be coming to save me. I won’t be able to escape Herbert’s clutches. I’ll be tortured and sexually abused, day in and day out. I’ll just be his sex toy, his plaything, as he acts out his sexual fantasies on me.

God, I felt this was the end of the road for me, that I had no way out.

Panic seized me, threatening me and strangling my throat like devil’s claws. The emotion overwhelmed me so much that I felt like choking as tears welled in my eyes.

No. No. No. I had to do something if I didn’t want to be taken out of town before James could find me, if I didn’t want to be abused and beaten by Herbert again, if I didn’t want to be killed by him one day. If I didn’t want what Sophie had implied to come true.

Yes, I was a strong girl. I had endured so much since I was young, and I still survived. So there was no way I’d just give up and succumb to fate. This unwanted fate. I knew, come hell or high water, I needed to get myself out of here. I had to escape, whether James came for me or not.