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When I realized Yakim truly meant to feed me, I stuffed the rest of the bread into my mouth and started spooning the stew in my mouth. The hot food burned my tongue but I couldn’t seem to stop.
“Slow down,” Yakim said in a commanding tone but I didn’t care. I needed the food like I needed air.
A sudden intense pain erupted in my chest as I choked. Dropping the spoon, I massaged my chest while the mound of food stayed stuck inside me.
“I told you to slow down,” Yakim chided. Shifting closer, he lightly beat me on the back to relieve my choke.
I groaned as the food finally slipped down to my tummy. Slowing down, I took dainty sips of the rich stew’s gravy.
Yakim stayed at my side while I ate. Did he worry I’d choke myself to death?
“Can I talk now?” I asked after finishing the last morsel of food.
“I’m never letting you go,” he said with a grim look in his eyes. “You’ll be wasting your breath by begging me.”
“I know I’m your captive,” I said bitterly. “I’ve been a prisoner my whole anyway, so it doesn’t make much of a difference to me. Did Lilja tell you the things I told her?”
“Don’t trust her,” said Yakim. “She’s always up to some mischief. It’s what I get for trying to protect her.” He let out an exhausted sigh but there was a hint of fondness hidden behind it.
He was a monster to me but a doting brother to Lilja. From the moment I saw her with Leon and Mikhail, I knew her relationship with them was very different from the one I had with Callum.
“She told you about letting me out,” I guessed.
“Yeah.”
“What about the rest?”
“I didn’t wait around to hear the rest. What could you possibly have to say to me, Lucia? You betrayed me and my brothers that night.”
Cold washed over me at his statement. “I never betrayed you! I begged Callum not to hurt you but he wouldn’t listen. My dad met with a horrible accident the same day that’s left him paralyzed all these years. I kept looking for you all over our neighborhood but found no sign. Callum kept a close watch over me, so I couldn’t search for you further away. I never meant to abandon you.”
The memory of that awful night replayed in my head. “Callum told me he killed you guys but I never believed him. You guys never showed up at the house again. Years went by and I was forced to believe him. You have no idea what I’ve suffered through these past seven years. My life hasn’t been what you imagine.”
“Youhave suffered? Living in that great big house and having everything you could possibly want be handed to you on a silver platter is called suffering?”
“You don’t understand.”
“What’s there to understand?” he barked. “If you hated living with your brother so much, you’d have left a long time ago.”
“He never allowed it,” I said in a bitter tone.
Yakim scoffed.
Tears pricked my eyes at his accusation. He didn’t understand the way Callum manipulated me into obeying him.
“He hurt others to discipline me,” I said in a choked voice. “He’d hurt the maids to punish me. I could never stand someone getting hurt because of me. If I was the selfish bitch you think I am, it’d have been easy to ignore it all and leave, but I couldn’t do it.”
Surprise flickered through those blue eyes.
“My dad’s his favorite target,” I continued. “He wants Dad dead. Dad’s already bed-ridden and has lost his ability to even speak. My brother still wouldn’t spare him. That’s how he forced me to marry Freddy. Callum would benefit from the deal with him but there was nothing in it for me. I did it to protect Dad.”
Brushing the tears away from my eyes, I gazed at him with a pleading look. “My dad’s with him now. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel? He’s the only person whose love has been genuine. There are times when I resent him for being alive but I regret it later and feel guilty. I’d be lost without my dad. I still need him.”
Pushing the tray aside, I grabbed Yakim’s hand. “You remember him, don’t you? Dad was kind to you and your brothers. He’d have never allowed Callum to hurt you guys.”
He jerked his hand away. “Is that all you had to say to me?”
“I missed you. I missed Rafael and Danny too.”
