Page 25 of Penny
“It was Emily. She grabbed my arm and made me,” Candice shrieked, running to Liam’s side.
If I wasn’t already jaded by people’s coldness, her blatant lack of women supporting women would have surprised me.
“Is this true?” Arthur inquired, tilting his head at me. His eyes weren’t like his sons’. While theirs were dark, his were a light shade of hazel that lured you in with a false sense of security. I held his stare, straightening my shoulders.
“Candice, come here, darling,” Arthur demanded, patting his lap. She looked around the room and then at Liam for acceptance. “I’m the one who truly owns you. Not my son. Now don’t make me repeat myself,” he scolded.
She looked at me one last time with sorrow-filled eyes. Too late to feel bad. She was the one who’d thrown me under the eighteen wheeler. She stumbled slightly as she made her way to Arthur, and as she went to sit down on his lap, he shot to his feet. His hand gripped the back of her neck and slammed her face down onto the table. Mashed potatoes splashed on the table as her cheek smashed into the leftovers on Arthur’s plate.
“I hate unfaithful rats,” he growled into Candice’s ear, bending over her. Her dress rode up her hips, exposing the underside of her ass cheeks. “Penny, if you look away, you will be next.”
My eyes burned as I refused to blink or look away, and a high-pitch ring began, blocking her sobs. He unclasped his belt and unbuttoned his blue jeans, opening his pants up to slide his half-erect dick out. Candice slammed her lids closed, and her shoulders bounced as her face turned red.
The burning in my eyes forced me to blink, causing the ringing in my ears to fade away and the sound of her sobs to surround me. Arthur slammed into her in one brutal thrust. Her screams bounced off the walls. He looked up, locking his penetrating glare on to me, and it was all I could do to not look away.
Four hundred and ninety-nine.
My stomach twisted as I was forced to count down in my head while I tried to block out her pleas for him to stop. Arthur towered over her and sweat started to drip down his forehead. The centerpiece filled with lava rocks rattled, and Liam leaned back in his chair to avoid the shifting plates. Connor’s brow was furrowed, and his stare never left me. For the first time, and probably the last, he became my anchor.
Four hundred and ten.
My half-filled dinner plate fell to the floor, and porcelain shards shattered across the tile.
“Please, I’m sorry!” she wailed, making bile rise in my throat.
It should have been me. This was my fault, and I had to speak up. I was the one who stopped her from entering the dining room.
“If you work for us, you need to learn the fucking ropes,” he grunted, shooting a demonic glare at Liam. “You obviously. Haven’t. Finished. Your. Lessons.” He groaned out each word, wrapping her blonde hair in his grip and pulling her back.
“I was the one who stopped her. This isn’t her fault,” I bellowed, stepping forward. This was all wrong. I couldn’t leave her to suffer his wrath.
Three hundred and thirty-three.
She looked at me, tears flowing down her red face. Her eyes slammed closed, and her mouth puckered, holding back the screams. Spit flew from her mouth as she mouthed the words,I'm sorry.
I wished I could tell her she had nothing to be sorry for. This was me and my lethal need to escape. I didn’t just put myself on the line.
“Brave girl. But it seems this is teaching you more of a lesson to not stick your nose where it doesn’t belong. The funny part is, I would have kept berating my pathetic son even if you had come in,” he bragged with a menacing glare that made my muscles tighten to the point of sheer agony.
Two hundred and twenty-one.
He was right. If it were me lying there, I was disgusting and vile enough to probably like it. If I liked when Connor took me, why wouldn’t I like how Arthur’s violent thrusts felt?
I held steady, relying on my counting to carry me away from the sounds of her wails. I’d seen horror, but nothing like watching someone you barely knew get raped for your poor decisions. It wasn’t just bad luck that haunted me. If it were, then Candice wouldn’t be the one taking this brutality. I was the cursed, the damned, and the broken. The breaths I cast into this world were pollution, wreaking havoc on myself and others. Bubbles would be disappointed in me right now, and the safe place I searched for in the depths of my mind with her was gone.
Fifty-Five.
He pulled out of her, spilling his seed on top of her dress and pushing her face back in the mashed potatoes. The sound of his zipper made my skin crawl, but I stood steady, not allowing him to see my weakness.
“Get out of my house,” he growled at his sons, gripping Candice’s thin arm. “Since you are going home with Connor, this one will stay with me.”
I was numb, and the bile that gurgled in my throat threatened to push up and spew over the table.
Zero.
Chapter 15
Connor
