Page 59 of Taking Adalisa

“You can’t control where I go and who I see. I am an adult,” I tell him, brushing off the guilt.

He has claimed me, and now we are married. I shouldn’t feel guilty for making him worry about me.

“I do. From now on, any time you want to go anywhere, there will be someone with you. You will ask permission to go anywhere. If I find out that you left without the guard or without getting the okay from me, your bottom will be hot.” Matthias’ voice drops an octave, and he looks me in the eye. “Do you understand?”

I don’t say anything. I am not going to agree to this. There is no way.

“Adalisa,” he growls. “Do you understand?”

“I understand what you just said, but that doesn’t mean I’m actually going to do it,” I reply.

“You understand. That means you know the consequences if you break those rules,” he releases my chin and starts up the car.

We sit in silence as he drives. Have I made a mistake? Should I have go with everything he asks me to do and think?

No.

I need to not think about that. Everything I did was to keep myself safe. Leaving him was my only option. I didn’t think I would get caught so soon, but this is the only option.

Wasthe only option.

I have no doubt Matthias is going to be keeping an eye on me from now on and make it so much more difficult to get away.

“We are staying at the compound with Ethan and Margery,” he informs me.

“Margery?” My head whips to face him. “Margery, as in my friend?”

CHAPTER 23

ADALISA

“Yes, Margery is your friend. She has been safe the whole time, like I told you. Ethan didn’t want anyone to see her yet, but I need more eyes on you when I go out,” he explains.

“Wait. Hold up.” I raise my hand.

He couldn’t actually be talking about that Ethan, could he?

Ethan is dead. Ethan died years ago in the car crash.

“What?” Matthias asks, pulling up to a gate.

I look around quickly. The walls are one foot deep, made out of concrete, and probably seven feet tall or higher, with barbed wire at the top. How am I going to get out of here? There is even a guard in a little shed next to the gate.

There is no way.

Shit.

“Adalisa?” Matthias asks. “What’s wrong?”

“Ethan as in Margery’s Ethan who died?” I search his face.

There is no way that Ethan survived and Margery didn’t know about it. She told me she identified the body.

“Faked his death,” is Matthias replies.

I blink several times as I stare at the back of his head. Ethan faked his own death and didn’t tell Margery? I thought he loved her.

“So, her telling me that she kept seeing him and he was leaving her presents was actually true,” I whisper to myself.