Blackmailed to the Altar (Caputo Crime Family #2)

18. Chapter Eighteen

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

D r. Mya

The air was thick with tension as I paced the length of the bedroom, my steps quick and agitated. The familiar scent of leather and cologne lingered, a constant reminder of the man I couldn’t seem to escape. Sebastian mumbled some nonsense and went into the bathroom. After he forced my soul from my body with only his pierced cock, I couldn’t seem to find anything to say.

I heard the shower running and scrambled to his room across the hall. I hopped in his shower, and used his products to wash myself up, making myself smell like him. His manly scent stuck to my body as I toweled off while standing on the bath mat.

I wished I wasn’t attracted to him. He was a monster with severe mental health issues. I wasn’t sure I was equipped to handle the support he needed. I headed back to the room that doubled as my prison, or at least it should have.

Sebastian hadn’t really treated me like a prisoner. I had more freedom than was expected, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to speak to my friends and check in with my clients. I hoped that someone was able to take my caseloads.

It wasn’t so bad. I could see why Eden stayed. I mean, it didn’t help that I didn’t have my passport, and didn’t have a clue on how to get to the American Embassy, even if I wanted to.

I sank down on the bed, careful to miss the wet spots. There was no way he wore a condom, and I wasn’t currently on birth control. When was the last time I had my period? Fuck, if this guy got me pregnant I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. I couldn’t be pregnant. I would know. I mean we weren’t careful. But I can’t be.

I should be freaking out more at the possibility of being pregnant, but Sebastian emerged then, and knocked all the sense out of my head. When Sebastian emerged from the bathroom, wearing only a towel around his waist, I expected something. Maybe an apology for kidnapping me in the first place.

Instead, I was met with stone cold silence. He walked out of the room like we were nothing. Like what we shared was something ordinary, when it felt extraordinary. Anger raced through me. I wanted to throw something at his head. And why shouldn’t I?

If he was going to ignore me, and treat me like an expendable whore, then maybe I should act the part. I stormed into his bedroom, not bothering to knock. The door slammed against the wall, announcing my presence with a bang. He looked up from where he was sitting on the edge of his bed, his face a mask of cool indifference that only fueled my anger further.

“You don’t care, do you?” I accused, my voice trembling with the weight of every unsaid word. “About me, about anything. I’m just… God, I don’t even know what I am to you anymore. I can’t keep pretending.”

He raised an eyebrow, feigning confusion. “What are you talking about, Mya?”

I watched him carefully, hoping for any sign that he felt something, anything that proved he wasn’t as cold and unfeeling as he wanted everyone to believe. But he just stared, his expression now unreadable, and it felt like I was screaming into the void.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Sebastian,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest. “You walked away like it was nothing. Like I was nothing. I thought maybe, somewhere deep down, there was something good left in you. But you don’t care about me, Sebastian, and I don’t think you have the capability of loving me. I thought you were different.” My voice dropped to a whisper.

He sighed, running a gloved hand through his hair. “It was just a way to let off some steam, Mya. We had a good time, but it doesn’t mean anything.”

I looked into his eyes and saw something flash too quickly for me to catch it. Was it guilt? Regret? I felt the familiar tug of his magnetic pull, but I wasn’t backing down. I needed to know if there was anything human left within him.

I felt my heart shatter all over again at his words. “Just a good time? That’s what you call it? I gave you everything in that moment, Sebastian. I trusted you. I felt… I felt something I’ve never felt before.”

His eyes hardened, and he stood up, closing the distance between us. “What did you expect, Mya? That we’d fall madly in love and live happily ever after? This isn’t some fairytale. I kidnapped you. I’m forcing you into marriage. Do you not get that?”

I took a step back, the intensity in his gaze too much to bear. “No, I didn’t expect a fairytale. But I expected you to care. To at least acknowledge that what we had meant something.”

He scoffed. “You think this is about me not caring? I care, Mya. But I can’t give you what you want. I can’t be that person for you.”

Tears welled up in my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. “Why not? What’s so wrong with me that you can’t even try?”

“It’s not you,” he said, his voice softer now. “It’s me. I have my own demons, my own issues. I can’t drag you into that.”

“You have Dissociative Identity Disorder, Sebastian,” I said, my voice softening as I felt the words sink into him for the first time. “You’re not fighting ‘demons’. You’re losing time, yourself, and I get it. I understand that it’s terrifying. I do. But ignoring it won’t make it go away. You’re hurting people, you’re hurting yourself, and, most importantly, you’re hurting me.”

His eyes snapped back to mine, raw and conflicted. “I didn’t want this. I can barely understand this,” he said. “The voices, the lost time, the violence. I can’t even trust my own mind right now, let alone be trusted with you.”

I shook my head, frustrated. “So, what? You think pushing me away is better? That hurting me like this, is the answer?”

The vulnerability of his confession was not lost on me. It hit me like a punch to the gut, but I had to remain strong. I caught a glimpse of the broken man behind the facade of the Don mask he wore daily. He showed me a glimpse of his pain, the fear he had from losing control of his own mind, before he shut down. His eyes shuttered closed, and I knew I’d pushed him far enough.

He looked down, unable to meet my gaze. “I don’t know what the answer is, Mya. But I know that staying with you would only end up hurting you more.”

I let out a bitter laugh. “Well, congratulations, Sebastian. You’ve already succeeded in that.”

He looked up, something dark flickering in his eyes. “You don’t get it, do you? I’m doing this for you.”

“For me? You think blackmailing me down the aisle was for me?” I spat. “You wanted control, Sebastian. You used my vulnerabilities against me. You made me your fiancée, and now you’re acting like what we had was nothing.”

His expression softened for a split second, a hint of regret flashing across his face. “I had to make sure you stayed. I needed you safe.”

“And you thought the way to do that was to trap me? To manipulate me?” I shook my head, the tears finally spilling over. “You broke me, Sebastian. You made me believe in something real, something powerful, and now you’re pretending it was all just a game.”

He took a step forward, his voice barely above a whisper. “Mya, I never meant to hurt you.”

“Well, you did,” I said, my voice cracking. “You may think you’re protecting me, but all you’re doing is breaking me. And one day, you’ll realize that what we had was more than just sex. It was real. And you let it slip through your fingers.”

With that, I turned and walked away, leaving him standing there in his self-imposed isolation, a prisoner of his own fears. I couldn’t do it anymore. Between Sebastian and Riccardo, I was torn apart inside.

I walked down the hallway in a daze, feeling like I’d lost a part of my body, after what we shared was thrown in my face. I wasn’t watching where I was going and bumped into a small frame.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” I looked down into Eden’s tear-filled eyes. “What’s wrong?”

I led her trembling form to the office and shut the door behind us. Eden sank into the chair, the big comfy chair in the corner, and I sat across from her on the couch, with my legs folded under me.

“I had a bad dream about Uncle D–” She choked on her fear before she could finish saying his name.

In our sessions her uncle was basically Voldemort. She couldn’t say his name without choking or sobbing uncontrollably. As she spoke, I pulled out my pen and paper that was sitting on the table between us, to look like I was taking notes. In reality, I drifted, thinking about how I stopped Darren momentarily with my little drug.

After a less than thorough pat down, I sat in my new office with a small grin. I’d made it. I could finally start getting the patients I wanted, with limited funding. I’d taken my drug to a pharmaceutical company, and they laughed me out of their building. Now, I had a random selection of inmates that came to me. The most notorious, Darren, the serial killer who hit Virginia’s campus, and wreaked terror for a year, before getting caught.

The guards dragged him in. He was portly and balding. A gross looking man.

“I don’t have all day,” I snapped at the guards. This wouldn’t do. I needed to be friendly. I needed them on my side.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t the new doc.” The guards strapped Darren to the metal chair.

“Hello, Darren.” I greeted him as pleasantly as I could, but it riddled my stomach with anxiety.

“What’s your name, beauty?” Darren leered at me. His dead eyes looked me up and down, while licking his chapped lips.

“Dr. Rivers,” I said. I could do this. I wouldn’t get caught.

“Dr. Rivers,” he purred. He had his hand trying to reach his crotch, but the restraints stopped him, and his eyes gazed squarely at my chest.

“So, how are you doing today?” I steered the conversation to the subject at hand.

“What do you think? I fucking hate it here. I want out,” he snarled, the vein in his neck sticking out.

I could see the madness in his eyes now. “I can’t help you with that today, but what I can do is listen to any grievances you have. Maybe I could put in a kind word with the warden.” I wanted him to trust me.

“Can you bring me contraband, doc? I’m lonely, and could use a magazine to look at.”

“They don’t have reading material here? What magazines is the library missing?” I didn’t understand. I mean, this was a private institution, and they knew the warden had more materials on hand than most.

“Well, I prefer Vogue–” Darren started, but I cut him off.

“You read Vogue?” My voice rose from my surprise.

“Teen Vogue. You didn’t let me finish, doc.” He gritted his teeth in a grin. Right now, he looked like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Instead of an orange jumpsuit, this prison had different colors, and Darren wore white. It was dirty, like he’d been in a fight recently. He had no remorse. I could see it in his body language, but I had to find out everything.

I leaned back, swallowing my vomit, and motioned my hand. “Go on.”

“Probably because he’s been released,” I muttered. I shook off the haunting memory of meeting Darren. The man shouldn’t be out in polite society. He was a menace, but I was too far away to do anything about his release right now. Maybe in the future.

Eden gasped.

I instantly wrapped my arms around her ignoring her flinch.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to blurt that out.”

“It’s alright. I wish Silas could kill him,” Eden was saying.

I pulled back and gave her a fake grin. “Then why don’t we go ask him to do just that.” I stood and stretched my hand out to her. She looked at it for a second before placing her own in mine. We walked out of the office, hand and hand, in search of her husband. Maybe it took a monster to slay a monster. I wasn’t sure. But I guess I was about to find out.