5
I take back everything I thought.
Caleb Hawthorne was not a good person. He was a wicked, terrible man.
I was too shy to refuse him, so he took my silence as an invitation, pressing forward until my resistance
crumbled and I yielded.
But that wasn’t the worst of it. He was also a pervert.
What kind of decent person brings a snake into the bedroom during that?
He brought one in, a twisted game of his. The snake’s forked tongue licked at my ankle, its cold scales slith ering up my calf as Caleb’s hot breath tickled my ear, his teeth nibbling my earlobe.
One hot, one cold, a combination designed to drive me mad.
The first year with Caleb was a daily countdown, me scratching marks on the wall, waiting for the day I could escape him and his detestable snakes.
By the second year, I discovered that darkness is contagious. After spending so long with a deviant, I’d bec ome a little deviant myself. I was getting addicted to the feeling.
By the third year, I started to think that maybe, just maybe, being with Caleb wasn’t so bad after all.
He was loyal. Apart from me, there were no other women. He granted my every wish, showering me with the finest things money could buy. I had diamonds the size of pigeon eggs, pounds of gold bars, and a walk-ir closet overflowing with designer bags.
Everyone knew how much Caleb Hawthorne valued me. They saw me as the future Mrs. Hawthorne. Ever my father, when he saw me, would bow and scrape, his old arrogance gone. I was living a life of luxury anc praise.
And I believed Caleb loved me. In those moments of passion, when he’d tremble and whisper my name, his eyes reflected only me.
So when the three-year contract ended, he didn’t mention it, and neither did I.
The day I found out I was pregnant, I was thrilled. I couldn’t wait to share the news with him. But as fate would have it, that was the first night in three years that Caleb didn’t come home.
The next day, I found out why. The Hawthornes had taken in a new girl to settle another debt.
