Page 46 of Do It For Me

I shiver. “He was furious. He’s going to hurt you. He has a—”

“Trust me, sweetheart. Everything will be fine. I promise.”

“H-he almost killed me... I don’t even know what I did to make him hate me so much.”

He strokes my hair and kisses the top of my head. “Tomorrow, it will all end. You’ll stay at my flat for these last weeks before the wedding.” He pauses. “Do you want to know where I’m taking you for our honeymoon?”

“We’re travelling?”

“Of course,” he chuckles. “Just the two of us for a few months. What do you say?”

“I’d like that.”

“We’ll have our home. I’m making arrangements for you. The largest room will be ours; your mum can have one of the spare rooms, and later, I could build a little cottage for her, right next to our place. We’ll have pets too. Do you like horses?”

“I don’t know.”

“I have a mare, Daisy. She’s beautiful. You’ll love her.”

He keeps talking about our future together. He has so many plans, and it scares me a little.

Not once does he mention children, so I assume he doesn’t want any. I don’t know whether to feel relieved or hurt.

A few minutes pass before he starts singing to me, and when I fall asleep, I dream of our life together.

I wake to the sound of knocking at the door.

Startled, I look around. Dante is nowhere in sight, and everything looks the same.

Did I dream everything last night?

Mum bursts into the room, shutting the door behind her. “We don’t have much time,” she whispers, scanning my room for something.

“What’s happening?”

“You need to leave. Grab your clothes.”

It wasn’t a dream. Dante did come.

“Your father’s out. Dante is waiting for him in the living room.”

No.

I can’t leave her.

“Mum—”

“Help me, Lana!”

I obey, with a knot in my throat and tears in my eyes.

Five minutes. That’s all we need to gather the essentials. Nothing I have truly belongs to me.

Mum cups my face. “I’ll take care of the wedding. We’ll keep seeing each other, okay?”

“Come with us.”

Tears spill from her eyes as she smiles.