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CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“Bradley, it is your job to obey me. I am, in fact, your boss now,” I boasted confidently as I told him to bring Declan to me.

Bradley looked at me with confusion. “Declan Rothschild is expected to leave tonight with his wife.”

“And he will eventually; I just need him to stay a bit longer.” I had already asked Sarah and Marisha to get in touch with the resort’s connections to the media. They would help me put together the elaborate story I would issue in a week.

“Alister is to not be stressed about anything regarding this.”

“Demi…” Bradley walked over to me as I stood in my black lace robe on the balcony.

He put his hands around my waist and turned me around to face him.

“Don’t,” is all I said before trying to pull away.

“Do you want Declan to be the father of your child? He’s sick. He puts his wife in a cage… What would he do to my…” I froze as Bradley looked at me sadly.

“I need your help. It’s the only thing I can do for Layla. What she did for me… Bradley, I’d have been the one who was trapped having baby after baby and spending all my time in that cage. Please let me do this for this child. For your child.” I stroked Bradley’s cheek.

“There is no way Alister would let me keep the baby here. They are paying millions for your baby. But this is a way we know they can live a beautiful life with means and freedom, Bradley.”

“What do you propose?” he asked.

“I need you to help me convince Alister that Declan has left the resort with Sage. There will be a boating accident in a few days that Declan will be on and it will make headlines. This will be somewhere else…in water that isn’t anyone’s to worry about. Then, Sage will send payment from the life insurance policy to Alister for the baby. We will go through with it all.”

“You’re going to kill Declan Rothschild?” Bradley asked me in a hushed whisper.

“Yes,” I said with no hesitation.

Bradley ran his hand through his thick blonde hair. “Don’t do this, Demilion.” He pulled me into him.

“No, you don’t do this.” I pushed him off me, ignoring the pain I felt in my heart.

I guess there was something left inside me. All because of him. But he wasn’t mine.

He’d never be mine, and I could never be his.

“Will you do this for me?”

Bradley sighed. “Yes, it’ll be a piece of cake.” He leaned in and planted a small kiss on my forehead.

“A piece of cake.” I smiled.

“Demi, I will always love…”

Shaking my head, I put my hand up. “Bradley, I’m begging you to not say it. Please.”

He nodded and began to leave, but I grabbed his hand from behind.

“Do you love my sister?”

I dropped my eyes as he looked over his shoulder.

“I think that…it’s hard for me to not love her, too. But we’ve been forced to spend so much time together and have this baby together. Alister wants the pregnancy to go smoothly, so he has me caring for her. At first, I was faking it all, Demi; I was pretending to love her, and now…”

“Then why tell me that you love me?” I whimpered.

“Because I do love you, Demi. I love you by choice. But Layla, I love…because she and I are bonded over a trauma deeper than it all.” Tears streamed from my eyes, and he wiped them away before tilting my head up.

“I wish more than anything that we could have had our chance. You always felt like you were my Cinderella—the shoes even fit.” He was referring to the Nikes he bought me all that time ago.

“Yeah, me too, Bradley. But the thing is, Cinderella is dead.” I turned away and gripped the banister of the balcony, staring at the ocean.

* * *

Alister was out of town again, which was perfect timing since I had many moving parts to organize. I finally found his private office after walking in circles through the penthouse. I stood in front of the wall, where I found a similar painting hanging, that was already in another room. The shriveled lips with shades of red and nude brushed against them to give them life had my stomach churning. Squinting, I could see names scribbled beside each one in black lettering. These women must have tried to fight back, talk back, or simply tried to speak up for their rights. Gagging as I tried to read the names, I forced myself to turn away.

I brushed my hand against the golden knobs of Alister’s desk. There were random papers and pens scattered throughout. It was disorderly compared to everything else in the penthouse. Fingering through the knick-knacks, I found a few badges. These were the ones I had seen Alister use.

A phone rang as soon as I lifted it up, causing me to fall back with my heart pounding against my chest.

Looking up at the desk, I saw the old-fashioned telephone and waited for it to stop. But it didn’t. Shaking, I stood and lifted it to my ear.

“My beautiful raven, what ever are you doing in my office?”

My eyes scanned the ceiling, but there wasn’t a visible camera. “Your ass looks so good from here.” I flung around and looked at the wall of bones.

“Alister, I…” I needed to compose myself quickly. “Alister, I need to get to the nightingales. I want to check in and make sure everything is going well. Sage Rothschild also wanted to see…”

“Ah, I see. My wife is managing the business while I’m away. Oh, Demi, you don’t know how happy this makes me. You can keep one of the badges, and I’ll have a custom one made for you,” he said.

I smiled, knowing he could see me, and then I knew what I could do to seal this all up. Sliding on his desk, but still facing the wall, I spread my legs, revealing the lace panties I had on under my dress.

His moan echoed into my ear.

“I’ll be back in the morning. Stay in the bed for me, my love.” He hung up and I kept the facade going, knowing he was watching me intently. Grabbing the badge, I pushed everything back together neatly before walking out of his office.

Internally, I was fighting myself. There was some sick version of myself who was enjoying this game of power and control. I hated that person inside me, and it was plaguing me completely. She was taking over. But perhaps that was the only way I could survive. I think I’ve come to realize what we do to survive can’t be held against us. We are all just fighting to live, after all.