Page 55 of Inked Desires

“I’m sorry,” he says.“I always liked you. You should have stayed.”

A joyless laugh shakes me.

“Seriously? That wasn’t a life, Rob. I was a toy, a distraction for Jace, a punching bag when he lost it. I couldn’t stay.”

His shoulders tense. His gaze searches my face.

“What changed? Why now? I saw you take it all without flinching for years. What tipped the scales?”

My hand rests on my forehead. He’s always been more observant than the others. He knows. He saw.

“We were going to be fathers,” I whisper.“But it didn’t change anything for Jace. He threw the surrogate mother against a dresser and hit her in the stomach. You can guess the rest.”

Robert slowly nods.

“You lost the baby.”

“I lost… For him, it was just another burden, apparently. I wondered what he would have become if he’d been born. How he would have grown up, trapped in that hell. I got my answer. So I took ten thousand dollars from his damn safe and left. Jace thinks I’m too scared of him. And he’s right. But now… I don’t care. If he wants me, he can come get me. I have nothing left to lose.”

Robert says nothing. He just stares into space, thoughtful. We sit like that, side by side, in heavy silence.

The board announces the train is five minutes late. Yet the platform remains empty. Something about it all feels off.

“One thing puzzles me though: why did you leave with him?” my former bodyguard finally asks.

I run a hand through my hair, trying to organize my thoughts. Good memories are hard to pull out, crushed under the weight of the bad.

“I was coming from the middle of nowhere, Alaska,” I say bitterly.“There was this man, blond, with incredibly blue eyes, who was kind to me. Jace was charming. He said he wanted to take his time, build something solid before going further. He promised me the world, and he seemed to have money. I thought, for once, I had a bit of luck. But that dream quickly turned into a nightmare after the wedding. He dropped his mask. Not everything was bad, but too much to stay. I realized you should never reach for the stars. Jace was too good to be true. And back then, I still believed in fairy tales.”

“So, you didn’t know anything about the club, the illegal betting, and the murders?” Rob asks.

I take a deep breath. Jace thinks companions— as he likes to call them— are nothing more than trophies. Objects of desire bound by marriage to high-ranking members of his organization. They have no power, no value beyond their presence. Their role is to be admired, shown off at parties, and satisfy their husbands’whims. Anything beyond that is an affront, a threat to the established order.

“I only understood what was really going on behind the scenes, and where all that money came from, after our wedding,” I finally say.

He says nothing. We remain frozen in our positions. In the distance, an animal silhouette crosses the field, too far away to tell what it is.

“Stand up,” the man beside me suddenly orders.

Taken aback, I turn my head toward him. Robert stares at me with determination.

“Why?”

His jaw tightens, and his gaze darkens.

“I said: stand up!” he repeats, louder.

I don’t understand. Has he changed his mind? Will he finally hand me over to his boss to finish this? The truth seems to have deeply angered him. A miscarriage and my ignorance aren’t enough to earn his mercy. On the contrary. He looks furious.

Trembling, I grab my backpack and stand up, obeying despite myself. My legs are unsteady, my balance fragile. Even if he tries to drag me out of the station, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I’m no match for an experienced boxer. He could knock me out in seconds.

Robert straightens up as I do. We face each other, eyes locked. He slips a hand inside his suit jacket. When he pulls it out, a knife gleams between his fingers.

“What are you doing?” I ask, breathless.

He tightens his lips, gripping the handle firmly but says nothing.

“Robert?” I insist, softer now.