Page 23 of Love Corrupted
Chapter Seventeen
When I got back to the room, Mason was gone.
I went straight to the closet and swapped my pajamas for regular clothes and a pair of black Converse. I heard the bedroom door shut, and knew it was Mason.
“What are you doing?” he asked as soon as I stepped out of the closet.
“I’m leaving,” I told him flatly.
“Oh.” He nodded. “And where are you going?” He crossed his arms and looked to me, waiting for an answer.
“I’m going home, Mason.”
He looked thoughtful for a minute before responding. “I don’t like the idea of you being home alone. I’m more comfortable knowing you’re safe and not doing anything rash.”
What? What the hell was he talking about?
“I’ve been alone half my life, Mason, and I’m sure my mom will be around. I haven’t seen her in…”
How long had I been with him?
“Katie, you’re not making any sense. My father slit your mother’s throat the day you were born. And you’ve never been alone; I’ve always been watching,” he explained innocently, acting as I should have known this all along. I didn’t know if he was twisting his words again, or actually telling me a solid truth.
If the woman in that picture was my mother, and his father killed her, then it made sense why Glenda despised me. I was the result of her husband’s disgusting aversions. Knowing exactly where my train of thought went, he continued.
“Glenda wasn’t able to have kids after Annie. You were supposed to be a little boy, by the way. That’s the only reason she agreed to take you in as her own. But I’ve been inside you, so I think we can both agree things didn’t work out.”
“No one will ever want you.”
“The real world would destroy you; you’re weak.”
“It’s your fault he’s gone.”
“You ruined my life.”
Glenda’s condescending voice echoed in my head. My father did the devil’s dirty work and I assumed he had paid the price. Nothing was ever as it seemed, this entire time. No, that wasn’t true. The voices in my head had been right all along; that was the one constant.
“I heard your conversation with my dad. Figured now was as good a time as any.”
“You mean, you finally grew a pair of balls?”
He started to full-out laugh.
“Katie, if you were wise, you would see I’ve been protecting you all along.”
I have seen it.I let him continue, biting my inner cheek to refrain from grinning like an idiot. He was getting extremely worked up over this.
“I want to go home,” I repeated quietly.
“When we’re together, you are home. You want to go back to the woman who was going to kill you for money? Search for a father that used you as collateral for a debt? I own everything that was ever theirs.” His green eyes bored into mine and he stalked towards me.
“I own you, and I will never forfeit that right, so get the fuck over it.” He stopped a few steps in front of me, staring me down. “You’re the perfect puppet. No matter how hard I pull on your strings you don’t break.”
I stared up at him, keeping my face void of emotion, trying to hold a poker face like he often did.
“You’re not leav—”
“You’re right,” I cut him off, stepping forward and wrapping my arms around his waist. He stiffened, his entire body going taut.
