Happily Ever After: A Contemporary Romance Boxed Set

by Piper Rayne

  “Yes, Stepmother.”

  “Good girl. Now, go sit on your bed until I come get you. Do not touch anything. You get your dress dirty or mess up the makeup I put on you, and I will kill you myself.”

  She shoved me out of her room and slammed the door shut. I flinched and stood there for a second to make sure she wasn’t going to come at me with more. She loved to do that. You thought she was done talking, then she would come at you with another list of things you did wrong. It was her way of feeling in control and making me feel like I was nothing.

  The part I hated, it worked.

  8

  “He’s here. He’s here. He’s here.”

  I had never seen her act the way she was acting that night. It was like watching one of the teenagers I used to watch at the park when my parents would take me. All giddy over some boy and wanting to make themselves look good for them. I got all of that, but what I didn’t understand was, if she was so excited for him to get there, why was she pawning him off on me? I worried it was another one of her head games and she would punish me if I didn’t make him happy, but she would also punish me if I did.

  Nerves took over and I began to shake. I laced my hands together and held them in front of me hoping to calm them down. She demanded perfection from me and shaking at the first sight of a man would not be perfection in her eyes. The dumb part was, I wasn’t scared of him. I was terrified of what her plans for me were and how I could get through the meal without making her mad enough to come at me the second he was out the door.

  “Stand here,” she said and placed me on her right side just past the doorway. “When he walks in and introduces himself to you, give him your left hand. Tell him it’s nice to meet him, then shut up and wait.”

  “Wait for what?”

  “For him to decide if he likes you enough to stay for the food or not.” She rolled her eyes at me so hard; I was sure she saw her memories from years ago. Shaking her head at the dumb girl by her side, she quickly shifted when the door began to open.

  In walked the tallest man I had ever seen. He would have towered over my father by almost a foot. He had muscles bulging out everywhere and a deep tan from being outdoors all day. His hair was a deep brown making it almost look black until the light hit it just right. His eyes were as dark as two lumps of coal and his lips were so thin, I wondered if he even had any. There was a small scar on his right cheek that zigzagged toward his chin.

  “Hello Isa. It’s been so long since I saw you last,” he said to my stepmom. It was the first time I had ever heard her name spoken by anyone. My father called her Is or his angel when he spoke to her, which wasn’t very often. “You look amazing.”

  “Thank you Daan. You look amazingly handsome tonight too.”

  I watched as she held out her left hand for him to take and watched even closer as he brought it to his lips and gave it a long, passionate kiss. I tried to keep my eyes down so they wouldn’t see me watching, but I was curious on why he needed my hand at all. I had my answer.

  “And is this Sno?” he asked turning his attention to me.

  “Yes it is. My beautiful daughter. Isn’t she everything I said she would be?”

  I wanted to throw up when she called me her daughter, but remembering the threat from earlier, I held it in and smiled. Her threats were never idle, and I wasn’t going to be punished because she was lying.

  “She is beautiful. How old is she again?” he asked without breaking his stare from me. I didn’t look up, but I could feel his eyes burning into me.

  “She is seventeen, almost eighteen now.”

  “Prime age,” he replied.

  “Yes she is,” my stepmom said.

  “Well, then, I think I will be staying for dinner and maybe even dessert.”

  He held out his hand and she nudged me in the side with her elbow. I held out my hand like I was told to and he took it the same way he had hers. Only when he brought mine to his lips, it wasn’t only those that brushed against it but his tongue as well. A shiver ran down my spine when I dared to look up a little and saw the hunger he had on his face. I was half waiting for him to start eating me instead of the food that was prepared for him. I wasn’t sure why, but there was something about Daan that made me very uncomfortable.

  “Oh good. Then shall we go in?” she asked and held out her arm pointing toward the dining room.

  “We shall.” Daan held out his elbow at me and I wasn’t sure what to do. My stepmom hadn’t mentioned anything about that, and I froze.

  “Hm,” was all she said as she moved me out of the way and looped her arm through the opening in the crook of his that he had left. I was sure it was meant for me, but like a good sport, he went with it and let her take him into the other room.

  The place was all decorated with candles lining the center of the table and three setting placed carefully in a small semicircle at the one end of the table. The good plates my mom only brought out when special people came over were there and the glass bowl my father had gotten on one of his trips held rose petals and greenery in it. It made me mad to see she was using my mom’s things, but it wasn’t the right time to react. I was still trying to figure out what it was she was up to with him.

  She sat in the middle at the head of the table and Daan sat to her right. I was on the left of her and straight across from him. The few times I dared to look up a little, I was met with him staring back at me with a grin on his face that would shame the Cheshire Cat. None of that would be as awkward as where the conversation headed right after the first course was served.

  “Isa you said she had never been with a man before, right?”

  “That’s right,” my stepmom answered in between heaping mouthfuls of food.

  “How do you know that for sure? I know how teenagers are, I was one once a long time ago. You couldn’t have possibly kept an eye in her all the time.”

  “I could have, and I did. She is as pure as freshly fallen snow. Nothing on that girl has been touched by anything. I don’t even think she has touched her,” she said and they both smirked.

  “A blank slate. You know how much I love that,” he said and leaned in closer to the table. Placing one elbow on it and the other next to his plate, he still hadn’t shown any signs he had come for dinner.

  “I do know. A million dollars is how much you love a blank slate.”

  “Let’s not get too hasty. We haven’t settled on a number yet. She is a little on the thin side, so I will have to do something about that and that costs money too. Plus, we don’t even know if she can carry.”

  “I can have a doctor check her out, but that will take longer. I know how much of a hurry you are in. That is my price for her. Take it or leave it.” She had put her fork down and crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Well,” he said and laughed. “Let’s get through the meal first and then see where we go from there. Okay?”

  “Fine, but the price is firm. I have more than just you interested in the fair Sno. She is the hidden jewel around here and every man wants his turn. You have a choice, be the first or get the leftovers.”

  “You are as tough as always, Isa. You also make a good point, but I’m still not sure if I want to pay that much on top of whatever else she needs.”

  I sat there and listened to them talk about me like they were picking out a cow at auction. I wanted to yell at them that I was right there and that I wasn’t for sale, but her words echoed in my head over and over. So, I sat there and tried to eat a little of the food I had been denied for so long. The funny part, none of it tasted good to me. All I wanted to do was run up to my room, shut the door, close my eyes and wake up to things being normal again. I wanted both my parents back and I wanted to feel like a human again.

  I blinked hard to hold back the tears and not let them see how upset I was. To them, I was nothing. To everyone I was nothing. I might as well have died with the rest of my family since I was no longer a person anyway. She had made sure everyone I cared about vanishe
d and in doing that, I had been lost too.

  “She is a pretty little thing. I bet she tastes better than this garbage you are trying to serve me. No wonder you’re so thin, Sno. I wouldn’t eat this shit either.”

  I looked up and saw a smile on his face. I forced one on return even if I didn’t know why he was looking at me like that. He wasn’t terrible to look at but if he was friends with my stepmom, I worried about what kind of person he was. I also wondered if he was putting on an act for her to get me out of there. I hoped that was the case, but my gut told me otherwise.

  “Tell you what, give me five minutes alone with her. If she is what you said she was, I will double your asking price. If not, what do you have to lose? She would have already been tainted before me.”

  “Double the price? And all you want is five minutes with her?”

  “Yes.”

  She sat there thinking, but I already knew her answer. She would do it for that amount of money. Whatever it was he was after; he was going to get. She would get what she wanted too and the only one hurt over it would be me.

  “Okay. Five minutes. I will make sure you are left alone. There is a small study off to the left of the living room. You can take her in there, just keep the mess to a minimum.”

  “I’ll try, but no promises.”

  They both laughed and I tried not to throw up. He grabbed me by the arm and wasn’t as gentle as he had been before they made their deal. Taking me into the other room, he shut the door behind us and had his pants down around his ankles in no time.

  “Take that off and whatever else you have on under it. I don’t need all that fancy shit to get in my way. In one way, you should be happy about that. The less in my way when I want you, the better. I need you popping out kids for me as fast as you can. I know how fast you sluts dry up and I expect at least three from you before that happens.”

  “What are you going to do to me?” I asked as I backed up to the farthest wall away from him.

  “You are a virgin, aren’t you? Oh this will be fun.”

  I looked down at him and saw him get even harder. The sight of it, pointing at me with it’s one eye and the pure evil on his face, terrified me. I knew if I was going to get away from him, I would have to do it fast. I also knew if I did that, I would be running forever because my stepmom would never stop hunting me to punish me after causing her to lose that much money.

  “Well?” he asked holing up his hands. “Are you going to do what I said?”

  “I’ve never…can you take off your shirt? I want to see all of you.” It was something I had heard someone say once and it was all I had.

  “Oh yeah? I can do that.”

  His smile grew at the thought of me being into him a little. As soon as his shirt was up over his face, I made my move.

  9

  I ran harder and faster than I ever had. Slipping past him wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be and when my stepmom told them all to leave us alone, they had listened. Nobody was in my way between him and the front door. Busting through it and feeling the cooler night air on my skin was a refreshing feeling.

  Sweat dripped off my face and ran into my eyes. I blinked hard to keep it from stinging them, but the sweat still found little ways to seep in. Blindly, I ran through the thickest part of the woods that lined the farthest corners of the sleepy town I lived in. The sun had long dipped down behind the earth and a chill had settled in where the warmth used to be. I cursed myself for not having something on that was warmer than the thin piece of fabric my stepmom insisted I had worn that night. If she knew I was missing, which I was sure she had, she would have a party out looking for me and fast. It took until that night to realize why she had kept me after losing my dad. I was nothing more than an easy way to make money for her.

  I found a small cove of bushes a few hours from the house. Checking to make sure nothing else was staying in it, I climbed in and curled up to the farthest spot I could. Branches scraped me, breaking the skin and tearing at the dress I had on. The pain was bad, but it was warmer in there than it had been in the openness of the woods.

  Trying to get comfortable, I reached under my dress to fight the contraption she had put me in. Finally getting it off enough to figure out the clips, the bra was off my body. My ribs ached where the elastic had pulled on it and my shoulders hurt from the thin straps digging in. I was tired, hungry and thirsty, but for the moment, I was safe.

  Pulling my knees to my chest, I hugged them tight hoping to get rid of the chill that had settled into my bones. Part of it was the temperature outside, the other part was still the thought of my stepmom selling me to that creep. He wanted nothing more than to use me and throw me off to the side the same way she did. If I met his expectations, my reward would have been years of abuse at his hand. And for what? A few dollars? I wasn’t the only girl around and it hadn’t sounded like his first time at that either. I wondered how many others had money flashed at their parents and been tossed out like last week’s trash. I couldn’t understand how someone could do that to another person, but their own child was even worse. I wasn’t biologically hers and she made it clear from the very beginning how she felt about me.

  At first, I tried to get her to like me. Even if it was only for my father’s sake, but she was impossible to love. Nothing I did made her happy and when he wasn’t around, she let me know how much she would never love me.

  A stray tear ran down my cheek as I thought about all the things I had loved and lost. My mom, Dad, Jasmine. They were only a few of the people I would never see again. Nothing was the same as it used to be. If my mom were there she would have told me to keep my chin up and look for one good thing a day. That day, I couldn’t find one.

  Sounds in the distance kept me awake. Howling from the coyotes that called the woods their home and a lone owl who cooed as loud as they could. Crickets chirped and leaves wrestled making me think something was coming. I tried to block it out by burying my face in the crooks of my arms, but the noises got louder the longer the night went on. I prayed for morning to get there so I wouldn’t feel so alone in the dark.

  I must have dozed off finally because I didn’t hear the commotion until it was too late. Dogs wildly barking not far from where I was hiding startled me from the twisted dream of sick men and money loving woman. There were so many barks, I couldn’t tell what direction they were coming from or how many there were. All I knew was that I had to get up and I had to move.

  Leaving the safety, even false, of the little brushes, I peeked my head out and looked around. I saw flashlights off in the distance, but they weren’t close enough yet to see me. I was careful as I finished climbing out to not make any sound. Once I had my feet on the ground, I turned back once more, then ran.

  I made it a few miles farther when I stopped moving. My lungs were on fire and my legs were cramping from not eating or drinking enough in the past two years. Down to nothing but skin and bones, I looked like a walking skeleton. Placing my hands on my waist, I doubled over trying to catch some air. Sweat soaked me and I knew it would make me even colder once I stopped moving.

  It had been a while since I saw a light or heard any of the dogs barking. I hoped they either gave up for the night or I had gotten far enough away that they lost my sent for the time being. I sat down under a tall tree. With my back against the trunk, I shifted to get my spine off the unforgiving bark. Shivering again, exhaustion took its hold on me and I couldn’t fight it off any longer.

  I slept harder than I should have and when I woke up, the sun hit me, warming me slowly from the frigid night air. It would be warm again that day like it had been the day before. With it being late August, we had the hot temps in the daylight and the colder temps in the evening. I was happy to get warm, but that also meant I had to find a place to get water or I would be in bigger trouble than I had been that night. Almost feeling hypothermic, I would also look for something to keep me warmer. I wasn’t going to go back home ever and until I found a place to go
, I would have to learn to survive in the woods.

  My dad had shown me a long time ago what berries I could eat and what ones to stay away from. He even pointed out some of the mushrooms that were safe to eat. I remembered most of it, so I would go looking for that once it got a little lighter out.

  He was big on fishing and catching animals too. It wasn’t as easy for me to do after I looked at them. I didn’t think it was fair to take a life that had nothing to do with me so I could live. I would avoid that until the very end and only if I needed it.

  I wasn’t so sure on where I was since I ran in the dark, but there had to be water around somewhere. That would be the first thing I looked for. Get something to drink, then stay away from there until the moon was out again. She would know that was where I would go. Anyone would know that. I had to get water to survive. If I got to it before they caught up to me, I could at least make it until nightfall.

  It took a few hours of searching and walking in a few circles, but I found a small stream that fed into the larger river that ran through the town. I guzzled as much water as I could stand before leaving to go deeper into the woods. Along the way I found some wild blue berries and even a raspberry bush. I filled my pockets with them and then kept walking. It would be another long night, so I looked for a place to sleep for a few hours. Staying calm during the day then moving more at night would help in many ways. It would keep me cooler during the day and warmer at night. It would also keep me out of anyone’s sight.

  It was my new life and one I wasn’t given a choice on. I was a runaway.

  10

  I wasn’t really sure how long I had been out there. I tried to count the days, but they all blurred into one another. Sleeping for parts of them made it hard to distinguish one from the other. I had gotten better at sneaking out and getting what I needed. I even found a couple of houses that helped me out even though they didn’t know they were.