Page 38 of Sold to My Ex's Brother
He falls silent, like he doesn’t want to fill me in on the truth. A cold shiver runs down my spine, and I frown at him.
“Anton? What’s... What’s going on with Ruby?”
“I don’t know yet. I need to figure out where she is. Get in touch with her before Artem has a chance to.”
“Why? What’s he going to do?”
He turns to me once more, seemingly having skipped right over the question I just asked. “When he was holding you before the auction,” he asks. “Did you see anyone else back there? Any other women who might have been held alongside you?”
I shake my head.
“It was just me,” I whisper, my gaze dropping to the ground. I can still remember all too clearly what it felt like to be in that place, to feel the world closing in around me, not knowing if I would ever find a way out. I can’t imagine anything worse than being back there, but the idea of other women being trapped in the same way...I should have known it was possible, but the notion is enough to make me sick to my fucking stomach.
“You didn’t hear anyone else? Any mention of any other names of people who might have been?—”
“Anton, I was stuck in a room by myself, in the dark, with no idea what was going on or if I was ever going to get out,” I tell him sharply. “No, I didn’t exactly get any useful intel while I was in there, okay?”
He falls silent for a moment, not taking his eyes off me. I can’t read his face. Is he pissed at my attitude? Annoyed that I have so little for him? I wish that I could be of greater help in all of this, but instead, all I can feel is the weight of how little I know pushing down on top of me. I can’t help, I can’t do anything, and by the sounds of it, another woman is in danger...
“Anton, what’s going on with your brother?” I demand. “I know I can’t have been the first he tried to sell off like that. But how long has it been going on? Are there other women in danger right now that I should-”
“You don’t need to worry about any of this,” he tells me, and I almost laugh.
It sounds ridiculous. If he had any idea what it had been like to be held in that place, in the dark, in the damp, without any idea of the fate that was going to befall me or if I was going to walk out of there alive was funny to me, downright comical. And I had actually had a best-case-scenario situation, where the man who had purchased me had turned out to be someone who wasn’t going to use and abuse me exactly as he saw fit.
“Of course I do,” I exclaim. “If he’s out there, if he’s still doing this…”
“You’re never going to have to lay eyes on him again,” he replies, his voice so full of a steady certainty that I could almost believe him. But that’s not what this is about right now.
“I know I’m safe here,” I reply. “But I can’t just sit around and let him do this to other women. I can’t, Anton. I won’t.”
I lay my hands on my belly for a moment, glancing downward.
“What if the baby is a girl?” I whisper. “And I’m bringing her into a world where something like this could happen to her.”
He downs the last of his drink, eyes darkening as he steps towards me. “I’ll never let him near our child,” he replies, his voice laced with such a harshness that I jolt with surprise. I know it’s not aimed at me, but rather his brother, but it still comes as something of a shock.
“What if you don’t get a choice?” I plead with him. “Look, Anton, I’m just I’m asking you to let me help. I know the girls who work at the bar, I might be able to find out more about Ruby if I go down there and ask a few questions...”
“You need to stay here. Where you can be safe.”
Something in me deflates when he replies. He has that tone to his voice, that sharpness, that leaves little room for argument, but he can’t seriously think that I’m just going to hold my hands up and let him call the shots.
I’m as much a part of this as he is, having been thrown into the dark, dangerous deep end of this world, but he is treating me like I might break if he asks any more of me than he already has.
I try to change my tone, moving towards him again, warming my face with a smile. “I know you just want to keep me and the baby safe,” I assure him. “But... I could be useful in all of this,right? I know how the bar works, and that’s what he’s been using as a cover to make sure nobody catches on to him. If I go back there?—”
“Then he’ll snap you up just like he did last time, but he’ll be more careful about who he sells you to,” he replies bluntly. “You’re not going back there. You’re not leaving this apartment, unless you need to.”
“Anton-”
“No more discussion,” he shoots back. “I’m done here.”
He pours himself another drink, and I stare after him helplessly as he stalks his way back through to his office. I feel like nothing I’m doing or saying is going to get through to him. Doesn’t he see that he is trapping me in here, too? It might be for my own good, at least as far as he is concerned, but that doesn’t mean that I feel any less trapped than I did before.
I sink down into one of the large seats in front of the empty fireplace, staring into the cold hearth as the guards begin to fill the room again.
No matter where I turn, it feels like someone has placed a burden on me that I don’t know how to fight off. Whether it’s my father’s gambling debts, Artem’s twisted demands, or Anton’s insistence on protecting me, I don’t know when I will be able to live this life of mine just for me.
