Page 76 of Vows of Silence

A horrified sound escaped me before I could stop it.

Not because Adrien wanted those things. I wasn’t naïve enough to expect a marriage without sex. What bothered me was that he was treating me like a sex slave. Something he could use and abuse at whim. And my father had agreed to these terms.

He’d signed them.

Approved them.

Maybe even thought them funny.

I scrolled further down the document until I reached the final page, and the breath caught painfully in my throat.

Both signatures were already there.

Adrien Vescari.

Vittorio Carbone.

Signed months ago.

Months!

Before I had even known this arrangement was happening. Before anyone had asked me what I wanted. Before my engagement party had even been announced publicly.

Right around the time the feeling of being watched had ramped up, making me feel smothered and suffocated.

Had Silas been watching me? Had it been Adrien keeping tabs on me?

Or a mix of both?

And why hadn’t Luca spotted any of this? Why hadn’t he warned me that my life was being decided for me?

The room suddenly felt far too small.

I stared blankly at the signatures whilst my entire understanding of my life rearranged itself in the most horrific way possible.

And through it all, Silas remained behind me, silent and solid and terrifyingly steady. His arm stayed around my waist, his hand still loosely covering mine against the mouse, letting me absorb the truth in my own time instead of forcing me forward before I was ready.

I hated that I noticed the difference.

Hated it even more when I found myself leaning back into him anyway.

For a long time, neither of us moved. My thoughts felt tangled together so tightly that I couldn’t separate one from another anymore. Adrien’s voice echoed through my head alongside my father’s.Corrective measures. Approved bodily harm. Collateral.

I felt sick. No, it was more than sick. I felt hurt and betrayed. I felt dirty. Unwanted. I felt so fucking unimportant.

Silas’s arm remained steady around my waist, his chest warm against my back, his breathing calm and even whilst mine refused to settle. As much as I disliked him, I couldn’t blame him for this. He had simply shown me the truth and let it destroy me all on its own.

Eventually, his hand slipped away from mine, and the cursor stopped moving across the screen.

I stared blankly at the contract for another few seconds before finally whispering, “You could have lied.”

The mask tilted slightly.

“You could have edited videos. Faked contracts. Manipulated all of this somehow.” My throat tightened painfully. “But you didn’t.”

Silence answered me.

Slowly, carefully, Silas stepped back from the desk. The sudden absence of his warmth sent a chill across my skin almost immediately, which was horrifying enough on its own. Before I could spiral over that too, his gloved hand gently closed around my elbow.