Midnight Daffodil (Poisonous Petals #1)

Chapter 17Olivia

seventeen

OLIVIA

T he time came to confront the shit I’d avoided for the last five years. I knew Matt would be furious when I got home. Familiar sounds and faces washed over me as the lobby doors opened. The concierge dipped his head as I walked past. Vera just dropped me off, insisting that she come up with me.

But this was something I had to face alone. For once. I reminded myself that Matt could easily replace me with anyone.

It won’t be too bad, right?

The sound of the elevator sent my nerves on edge.

I approached the apartment door.

I didn’t have my key. Shit. I turned the knob. Of course, it was locked. He always kept it bolted shut. I stood there dumbfounded.

Do I knock?

Movement beyond the door gripped my attention. My heart raced, my breath caught in my throat, leaving me suffocating. The locks clicked, and the sound of the chain unlatching from its position echoed in the silent hallway. As the door opened with a swish of air, my pulse kicked up, skipping a beat.

Just like every time before, he was right in front of me. All blonde hair and green eyes. The scratches on his face and neck were no longer angry red grazes that decorated his skin. The familiar rustle of Matt’s dress slacks and the crisp lines of his short sleeved button up were as reliable as the sunrise.

“I…” Words were elusive when his arms reached out and pulled me into an unexpected embrace. I shifted uncomfortably. Nothing good ever came from Matt’s affection.

“My love, where have you been?”

He held me away from his body at arm’s length and examined me.

“You look awful,” he said, pitying me. He pulled me inside, locking each one with a slow movement. The soft click of the mechanism sealed my fate.

He kissed my forehead. “I was worried something happened to you. I was worried you’d been taken from me.” His grip menacingly tightened on me. I knew what he was implying. “You were gone for an entire night without a trace. That should've never happened.”

His fingers dug into my arms, setting off alarm bells that rang painfully in my mind.

I’d made a fucking mistake. Again.

“I’ve been at Vera’s,” I said calmly. If he thought even for a second something was up, there would be hell to pay. “We should sit down and talk.”

That did it.

He grabbed me by my throat, my back connecting with the wall. Sharp twinges of pain circulated through my body.

“Spending time with that stupid cow when you should’ve been fucking home with me, and now you want to talk?” he snarled in my face. “She’s always manipulating you into thinking I’m the problem when I’ve dealt with your stupidity for five fucking years.”

My hands shook as I looked up at him. My fingers laced tentatively around his wrists, trembling between the wall and his body.

“You embarrassed me enough last night. I won’t have you doing it again,” he spat. “While you were dicking off with your friend, I was here worried sick over you.”

He let my neck go, slapping me across the face in the same motion. My fingers caressed the stinging flesh. “I’m so tired of you hurting me, Matt! I’m so tired of taking the blame for everything!”

His eyes widened at my outburst, and his open palm drew back at that exact moment, ready to backhand me. I ducked and ran around him, trying to get to the front door that felt so God damn far away.

Fuck my stuff; I gotta get the hell out of here.

I was stupid to think this was a good idea. What was wrong with me? I was in the arms of the strongest man I knew, and I left him.

To come back to this.

“Absolutely not, bitch. You’re staying here where you fucking belong.” He gripped my curls so tightly that I saw spots. I fell on the vinyl flooring in hopes of loosening his grip. My fall yanked him down with me, and his fist collided with my throat with brutal force.

“I don’t belong here!” The words burned like acid up my windpipe. I played with fire, but living like this was exhausting. “I don’t belong with you anymore. I don’t belong to you anymore.”

“You do. And if you aren’t with me, you’ll never be with anyone else.” A toothy grin spread across his face as he leaned down to my ear to whisper, “I’ll never let you go.”

His breath hit me with a cold chill as I struggled below him. My heart pounded wildly in my chest, each beat echoing my fear. He dragged me down the hallway to our room, the walls closing in around us.

The next blow to my temples was lighting quick. Giving me no time to dodge it, white hot pain cracked through my skull. My vision swam as he threw me on the bed. Numbness spread through my body. Struggling to stay conscious, I felt the mattress sink under his weight.

He crawled on top of me, pinning me beneath him. My strength faded fast. Matt had me exactly where he wanted me. Mustering all my remaining energy, I bucked beneath him, but it was useless. Another sharp sensation met the other side of my face.

Fuck, this has gone so wrong.

I demanded more from my body, shoving one leg free of him. I moved like I was caught in quicksand, leaving my ankle open to Matt’s crushing grip.

“If you kick me, I’ll break your ankles.” He smiled at me as he caressed my tear streaked face before landing another slap. He gathered both wrists in his hand. I fought the agony, attempting to move, desperate to save the joints he held tightly in his grip.

Matt was stronger than he looked. His free hand tore my shirt, exposing my braless chest. He leaned in, pressing his lips to my throat. Kissing softly at first before biting me until the skin tore and stung in his teeth.

“Stop!” The words charred my throat, the scream tearing from me with fervency.

“Your body is mine to do what I want with. I told you before you’d have my child, and I meant it. You want to act like a slut? I’ll fuck you like one.” He spit on my face, using his thumb to spread it over my busted bottom lip, shoving it between my teeth.

“Matt,” I croaked out, drool pooling out of my mouth.

“You disgust me. Look at you. It’s a wonder any man could stomach being around you for more than just a shitty lay.” His body weight bore down on me, each breath becoming more difficult to draw in. “I’m the only man that will ever tolerate you. You’re indebted to me.”

His fingers tore at the flimsy material of the leggings before tearing it to shreds. It lay tattered around me. My thighs clenched, desperate to close, to keep my body concealed from him, but his thighs nudged mine apart. Stretching me until it was painful.

As he exposed my form, shame washed over my skin in a cold rush. His thin lips came down on mine at the same time bile was rising. I thrashed my throbbing head, avoiding his tainted passion.

“I can’t wait to force my fucking seed in your used up cunt,” he said, grinning ear to ear, enjoying each moment of my torment.

His fingers dug into the sensitive flesh of my inner thighs. My body screamed in pain from the invasion.

“I don’t want this!” I writhed below him, feeling his fingers moving slowly to where I was still tender.

Anxiety and panic bolted through my bloodstream.

“What the fuck?” His quiet voice made my blood run cold. Dismay crawled across my skin as his silence descended, eyes landing on my swollen core. I twisted my shoulders, trying to get my wrists free of his grasp.

Matt always knew.

His fist connected with my skull, the sickening, wet smack echoed around us. Blood streamed down my face, gathering in my ear and enveloping me in an underwater reverie. Matt’s distorted voice berated me as my vision turned static.

My body wore Luke’s mark like the finest silk. Bruises from his passionate touch doused my body in a fiery path only we understood. The icing on the shit cake was the essence of him still slowly expelling itself from me. Leaving the scent of the one man I never should’ve left, permeating the most intimate parts of myself I could give to someone.

I felt like an airless sack of skin after Matt’s relentless fists beat into me, leaving me breathless and unable to fight. My body convulsed as his bony finger gripped my jaw, forcing my head up to meet his gaze.

“Who have you been fucking?” he asked through clenched teeth. His arm shook with rage. “I can’t turn a disgraceful woman into a wife.”

Do I lie? What do I gain from telling the truth?

My eyes wanted to close, but he shook me awake and spit in my face. I didn’t have to say it out loud who I’d shared the night with.

He already knew.

“Answer me.”

My focus was fuzzy, but his viridian eyes shone brightly above me. Seas of vexation swam in his gaze as he glared at me.

“Did you let that cop inside of you?” he asked, shaking me more. His grip was so tight that my hands went numb, trapped, and unable to escape.

I wanted to disassociate from my body more than I wanted my next breath. Everywhere burned. My ribs hollered from the inside every time I took a breath. No part of me was excused from the smoldering rage Matt laid upon me.

“Do you think I’m fucking stupid?” I didn’t even recognize his voice; a glob of saliva hit my face. “You think I don’t see the fucking way that scumbag looks at you? And how you look at him?”

My body was dead weight, absorbing each thud without a flinch.

This was it. Warmth cradled me. Matt’s going to kill you, Olivia. You finally pushed that last button.

“You spread your legs for that trash but not for me when I give you everything,” he admonished.

I felt like a ghost in the corner of the room, watching Matt’s hunched figure relentlessly drive his fists into my limp body.

The warmth I felt briefly dissipated as my soul slammed back into the motionless vessel carried in Matt’s arms.

Am I dead?

My chest was hollow, my lungs empty. A sharp cold seized my limbs, jolting my organs awake. I lay on my side in the shower, each of Matt’s kicks landing on my twitching body.

Ah, so I’m still alive .

My ears buzzed with pain. Matt’s rage was silent, but I felt every ounce of its fury.

“Piece of shit bitch,” I heard Matt grumble as cold water hit my face. Matt balanced on the balls of his feet, elbows propped on his knees under the cold stream of water, studying me. His face contorted with anguish.

“Did it mean anything to you?” he quietly asked.

My limbs felt like lead, and a chill settled deep within me. The truth seemed pointless, so I shook my head in denial, the lie slipping out effortlessly.

“Who was he, Olivia?”

I lay there, letting the ice cold water cool my throbbing face. Every single part of my body pulsed in tune with my heartbeat. If I was going to live, I needed to go to a hospital.

“Was it him?”

His eyes asked the question I dreaded. Returning here was already the stupidest decision of my life; I couldn’t verbalize what he already knew. Time felt fleeting as the water grew colder. He lifted me by my throat, shaking me until my eyes focused on his.

His pupils were tiny dots in his bright eyes.

“You’re going to tell them,” he spoke to me slowly.

I couldn’t grasp what he meant, but he was bold to assume I’d survive. My thoughts were hard to focus like an old radio struggling to catch a signal. They came in disjointed flashbacks, jumbled, incoherent, and as cold as the water pouring down on me.

Matt’s hair stuck to his face; the water obscuring his features made him look younger, nothing like the devil he was.

He shook me with an intensity that rattled my brain.

“You’re going to tell them that he took you. That he did this to you. That he raped you,” Matt said. “Then, and only then, I’ll take you to the hospital.” I could see worry etched on his face as his grip loosened, a clear sign that I must’ve looked bad enough for him even to admit I needed urgent care.

My thoughts muddled into a faded array of nothingness.

“Do it, or I’ll leave you here to rot. You tell everyone that Luke Ryder kidnapped you. That he’s obsessed with you and beat you almost to death after he brutally raped you.”

I heard his voice but couldn’t follow through with the request. Luke wasn’t the man Matt wanted me to paint him out to be. After the night we shared, I couldn’t lie like that.

I mustered the strength to shake my head.

“What the fuck do you mean no?” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “Are you so infatuated with him that you’d rather protect him than me?”

My head felt like a hundred pounds as I lifted it and looked at him. Through the flames raging in my throat, I managed to find the ability to speak. “Just have the doctor come here.”

His face softened.

“I can do that. You’re right. I barely touched you. You don’t need a hospital.” He smiled, kissing my nose. “You just need a nice shower and some rest. I’ll call in a favor, and have you seen tonight, my sweet Livie.”