Page 113 of Darkest Sin

Thankfully, he doesn’t tell me to take my bra or underwear off. I’m not sure what I do if he had.

With shaky hands, I manage to put the dress on. It’s a simple wedding gown. Some lace on the sleeves and around the bodice. It flares out a tiny bit but it’s not poofy. It’s modest. Respectable.

And it’s the dress I’m going to be forced to marry Cillian in.

“Happy?” I ask.

“Very.” Though his sneer tells me he’s not happy at all.

“Where’s my mom?”

“Josh. Go get Tatiana.”

I watch Josh go up the stairs, leaving Denis alone with me and my sisters. I’m sure Denis has a gun on him but if we could overpower him, we could escape.

I don’t want to put my sisters in danger but I have to try something.

I run at Denis before he can even react and scratch my fingers down his face. He jerks back with a gasp.

“Get him!” I cry.

My sisters stare at me stunned but it’s Sasha who moves first. She jumps onto Denis’s back and starts scratching his face.

“Run.” I motion towards the door.

Irina hesitates but Ana rips the door open and runs outside. I kick Denis in between the legs, which sends him falling to his knees. Sasha smacks him in the head before taking my hand.

“We’re in this together,” she gasps. We follow our sisters out the door.

“No!” Denis screams, chasing after us. A gunshot fires off into the air, making the four of us stumble to a halt. “I will shoot you.” He points his gun at us as he approaches. “I will shoot.”

“If you do that,” Sasha says, “then you won’t have anyone to tell what to do. You’ll be powerless.”

“I won’t shoot to kill. I’ll shoot to hurt. I’ll shoot to stop you. So if any of you don’t want that to happen, then you will get in line.”

Josh comes running out of the house with our mom behind him. When he realizes what’s happening, he lifts up his own gun. Even though me and my sisters out number Denis and Josh, we don’t have guns. They win.

“Natalya, do you want me to hurt your sisters?”

“No.”

“What?”

“No,” I say in a louder voice. “No, I do not.”

“Good. So you will do as I say, yes?”

My shoulders slump. “Yes.”

“Good. Now get in the car. All of you. We have a wedding to attend. I don’t want to be late.”

Sasha and I share a look before we get into the car. “I know you tried,” she tells me, which only makes me want to cry harder.

Once my sisters and mother are in the car with us, Denis and Josh get in, and we leave the house behind us, heading for the wedding ceremony.

Heading to my future.

Mikhail