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Elina

CHAPTER SIX

I didn't sleep well.

I spent the night between naps and nightmares. My whole body shook, and as much as I tried to fight the sensation, I was so scared I felt sick.

The first thing I notice is that the house is quieter than usual. By this time, I usually hear the gardeners moving around, as well as Mom giving orders to the servants. She always wakes up early.

I frown, trying to understand why everything seems so quiet, and then I remember.

Odin and last night’s events.

I don't think anything will ever be normal in our house again. Dad is broke, and we'll have to leave. In fact, I may have to flee because I'd rather die than have to accept what Sheik Naim said yesterday.

He’s always harassed me, but I've managed to escape his advances in the past, just like all the other suitors. I’ve avoided being alone with him; the man disgusts me. It has nothing to do with his looks or the fact that he's nearly twenty years older than I am; it’s because of the meanness I've always seen in his face.

I'm not one to get scared easily. And my father is a scary man. I grew up watching the servants, my mother, and my brothers trembling at just one look from him.

Who am I trying to deceive? I was scared myself, I just disguised it better than the others.

Leandros is a cruel man, but perhaps, for me, he's the known evil. Naim, however, is diabolical. In our society, his advances on me would be considered disrespectful coming from a married man to a single woman. That's not how you court a woman.

I'm not experienced, but I've watched couples here on the island, and I've also seen how my sisters' suitors acted. Everyone treated them with respect, at least until they were guaranteed a commitment.

The sheikh, however, has always made me feel naked in his presence, and the feeling is very unpleasant.

Yesterday wasn't the first time he’s grabbed me by force. At a party he threw for my parents on his yacht, he locked me in one of the cabins with him. I didn't tell anyone, but I was terrified. For a moment, I thought that...

I don't even like to remember.

Lucky for me, we heard my mother's voice—she was looking for me. I think that was the only thing that held him back.

After that day, I never gave him the opportunity to be alone with me again. Until yesterday.

I had just talked to my brother in the hallway, and I was sad because after eight years of not seeing each other, we had a fight.

Theo is handsome. He always has been, only now he's not my little brother anymore—he's a grown man.

I thought that when I saw him again, I would still be mad at him for leaving, but all I felt was homesick.

Theo has always been my favorite brother, but even before he left, we weren't close. I distanced myself emotionally from all of my family members at a very young age, since the day my father explained to me that people only paid attention to someone like me out of pity.

The others didn't seem to realize how closed off I was, but Theo did, and from then on, he always looked at me with hurt. I pretended not to notice, because I didn't want closeness with anyone, but I knew he suffered as much as I did from the distance I imposed on both of us .

As soon as he turned eighteen, he left the island, and we never spoke again, apart from rare phone calls. Sometimes I even look for excuses to call him, even if we end up arguing in the end.

Theo came back to the island with a boyfriend.

That didn't surprise me, as I always suspected he didn't like girls, but my brother was very brave to come back to our island with a boyfriend. I thought my dad was going to froth with hate, and I tried to show my brother support by stopping in the hallway and talking to him, but as usual, I didn’t say what I should have said, and he got even angrier at me.

As I was heading back to the main hall, I saw Naim approaching and I tried to run away, but he forced me into one of the rooms.

If I close my eyes, I can still hear his words.

He said that I would be his wife and that he had come to an agreement with my father. The monster also said that within a week, he would pick me up for the wedding.

Without asking what I wanted or anything.

The two of them simply decided my life.

I told him I would only marry him if I was drugged, and that's when the man went crazy. He started screaming and pinned me against the wall, squeezing my throat so hard I thought he was going to strangle me. He said he would teach me to obey, and many other things as well, things a man should never say to a woman, especially one he intends to make his wife.

I became desperate, but I’ve practiced for years so that people won't know what I’m feeling. That being so, I assumed my role as a brave woman impersonator. I tried mirroring his arrogant posture and pretending I wasn't too scared, but the man didn't seem to believe me.

I feel sick when I remember how he touched me.

I don't want to get married, but most of all, I won't marry a man who disrespects me.

I had to cover the red marks with makeup before heading back to the main hall, otherwise everyone would have noticed.

If it weren't for Odin . . .

Odin, who until today was the only boy I had the courage to approach and who rejected my offer of friendship .

I don't know what got into me that day at the beach to make me get off my horse and try to talk to him, but in a crazy way, I liked his quiet manner.

He always looked at me when I rode. I understood.

He only came to the island on weekends, and it was rare to see him anywhere but near the sea, so I always directed my walks to the beach.

When I finally got up the courage to say something, he was rude to me.

I had already changed by then. I already knew what I was, but I took the risk anyway.

And he rejected me.

I wasn't prepared for what he said, and because I was so young, I still wasn't as good a mimic of emotions as I am today, but I still pretended that the handsome boy was nobody and that I didn't care.

I never saw him again until yesterday, and I didn't even think about him until a few days ago.

I'm good at this: leaving things that hurt me locked away in a dark room, forgetting that they ever happened. I just couldn't imagine the impact of meeting him again.

Not just because of the unusual situation—being molested by a man in his house—but because of who he has become since our last conversation. I'm used to living with powerful men. My father only visits or brings into our house very influential people. He and the sheik are like that, but Odin is a step beyond anyone I've ever met.

When he was young, Odin was handsome. He's always been tall, but now I think he's about seven feet tall. Yes, it must be around that, since he won a scholarship to play basketball in the United States. I heard Aristeu talking to my father once.

But now he's also very strong, with a physical solidity that reminds me of a mountain. Even under the perfectly tailored suit, I could see his strength.

Even though I was still frightened by the situation he'd saved me from, I couldn't stop my heart from racing when he came close. No matter how hard I tried to calm myself down, my heart seemed to act on its own.

His square-jawed face and typical Greek nose mesmerized me. He has a masculine, animalistic beauty that awakens unknown sensations in me. The way he faced the sheikh made me wonder too. I never thought anyone could challenge Naim, because even my father was wary of him; however, Odin didn't even blink.

He forced the sheikh to release me.

At that moment, I realized that, although he's not a friend, he's an honorable man.

No, Elina. Don't you dare think of him as your hero. Remember, he’s left your family in misery.

The man hates us.

No, maybe he just hates my father.

I could see by the way they looked at each other. I am sensitive to the emotions of others, although most of the time I pretend not to notice.

Suddenly, a strange feeling spreads through me.

The silence in the house is starting to suffocate me. There's no noise, and I feel an almost desperate urge to find out what's going on.

I walk downstairs, still in my nightgown, not even bothering to put on a robe, and my heart almost sinks when I see Naim standing in the middle of our living room.

He runs his eyes from side to side until he finally sees me. His look is evil, but it's what he says next that really freaks me out. “Ah, alone at last. I was going to act like a gentleman and wait until the wedding night, but your father decided to hide like a mouse after the transfer I made to him last night, so I guess I'm within my rights to have proof of what I bought. When I'm done with you, you'll understand once and for all that it's not smart to challenge me, Elina.”