Page 77 of Ruthless Prince

He frowned. “I know this is all very hard for you to understand right now, but we don’t see you as a prisoner,” he said. “You belong to our family now, so that’s how we see you.Family.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Yes. You’re going to be our daughter-in-law, and we’re very excited to have you here. Please believe me when I say that all we want is to take care ofyou.”

“Are you kidding? You have me locked up in adungeon!”

Chuck rubbed his jaw. “This wasn’t exactly our decision,” he said, waving one hand at our dim surroundings. “This is Logan’s design. If it were up to us, you’d be kept in one of the nicest rooms in the house during the transitionprocess.”

The transition process? Jesus.He said it like I was merely an employee who’d moved to a different department in one of his companies, rather than a young woman chained up in a winecellar.

“You couldn’t stop him?” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Your ownson?”

“Well, I could have stopped him, of course. But I wouldn’t.” Chuck smiled at me, but it didn’t meet his eyes. They were filled with the same penetrating coldness that lurked in Logan’seyes.

Like father, likeson.

I swallowed hard. “Whynot?”

“You’re a member of our family now, but you’re betrothed to him. He has the final say on your treatment. Besides, we need to get you accustomed to your new life. That may take a while, and it may be painful atfirst.”

“Great.” I gritted my teeth and dropped my eyes to thefloor.

“We really don’t want to hurt you, dear,” Chuck said. “But we know that your new circumstances are going to be very hard for you to accept. Acceptance must happen, however, so that means we’ll have to do whatever it takes to get you used to everything. Don’t worry, though. These first few weeks will be the hardest. After that, it’ll be smoothsailing.”

I shook my head. “You need to let me go,” I said hotly. “You know this iswrong.”

He let out a short sigh. “We paid a very steep price to have you, Willow. Your father owed us a greatdeal.”

“You didn’t pay anything. You just forgave a massive gambling debt he ran up at Wonderland,” I said. “If you had any brains, you wouldn’t have let someone with a gambling problem into your casino. Not to mention the fact that your secret gambling floor is totally illegal, so his debt shouldn’t have existed in the firstplace!”

“We provide the means for entertainment, and people take advantage of that however they please,” Chuck said, smile never wavering. His eyes were as cold as ever. “It’s not up to us to stop them from living their lives and making their ownchoices.”

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not up to you to buy women, either, but you went ahead and didthat.”

He sighed again. “I wish you’d understand that we’re trying to do what’s best for you, Willow. Your family members are terrible people. Your mother is a neglectful, power-hungry narcissist, and your father was willing to sell his own baby just to make his problems go away. If you accept us, we’ll take care of you. We’ll welcome you with open arms. All we want is for you to welcome us the sameway.”

I jerked my thumb in the direction of the cage. “If you think I’m going to welcome a family who allows their son to hurt me with things like that, you’reinsane.”

“Like I said, the pain won’t lastforever.”

“There shouldn’t be any pain atall!”

He nodded. “You’re right. There shouldn’t. If there was an easier way to get you used to life with us, we’d do it. But you need to be trained. You need to submit to your newplace.”

“Do you not hear yourself?” I said. “Do you not realize how crazy yousound?”

He held his palms up in a conciliatory manner. “I know it’s hard, Willow, but plenty of people in our circle have arranged relationships like this. It’s not crazy atall.”

I narrowed my eyes. He sounded exactly like Logan. “Some people arrange marriages for political or financial reasons, but everyone is a willing participant in those circumstances. No one is sold to anyone, and no one ends up in a torturechamber.”

Elizabeth spoke up. “Darling, I understand your concerns. If it were up to me, Logan wouldn’t hurt you at all.” She tentatively reached out to pat my shoulder. “I’m not sure he’d even want to if he didn’t dislike you so much. He used to be such a sweetboy.”

Chuck nodded. “That’s true. I used to worry he wouldn’t be able to train you when the time came because he’d only be capable of kindness toward you, rather than the tough love you’re going to need.” He cocked his head to the side. “Why does he hate you so much,anyway?”

I shrugged. “How the hell would I know? We were friends oneminute—”

“Sweethearts, I heard,” Elizabeth interjected with sparkling eyes, as if we were just a cute mother-daughter combo discussing our latest celebritycrushes.