by H. Q. Frost
No matter how much I scream or fight, I'm met with silence. Tears break through and I'm a mess. Finally gaining my bearings, I reach into my waistband for my cellphone and realize it's gone. I must have dropped it when trying to fight out of his grasp.
This is insane. This can't be happening to me. When Lol comes for me, he'll let me out.
Except he doesn't come. Someone eventually did, but I have no idea when because I cried myself to sleep. When I wake, there's food next to the bed and it looks like it's been sitting there a while; I eat it anyway.
The sun rises and when a soft knock comes over my door, I eagerly stand by it. A woman unlocks and opens it and I burst into the hall.
"Ms. Reif!" she gasps but I run to the end of the hall and grab the handle to the usually open door, tugging it; it's locked.
"Let me out!" I scream.
"Ms. Reif." The woman collects me when I collapse after fighting with the locked door. "Let's get you fed. You'll have guests soon."
I don't bother asking questions because I know she won't tell me. I wonder how she got in here if it's locked. There's got to be secret passageways. The woman stays at my side and makes sure I eat. Then she has the audacity to move me into the shower. Realizing I'm acting like a zombie and am now showering in front of this stranger, I snap out of it.
"Where is Callum?"
"Your Grace is tending to business. He'll be here soon." She smiles.
"This is illegal, you know." I rinse my hair. "This is kidnapping. He's locked me in a wing of his house! He's insane! He's going to be arrested."
She laughs at me and when I look at her, I see she really finds it humorous, which means I'm dead wrong.
"Why has he locked me away?" I start to cry.
"I don't know, madam." She helps me out of the shower and wraps me in a robe. "Let's get you dressed."
I let her help me because I'm feeling helpless. Things went from bad to worse. Not even Lol has come for me. I have no cellphone. I'm locked in my bedroom. This is a nightmare.
The woman doesn't leave. She tries her best to entertain me, but I'm so confused and starting to fear for my life. When Lol said I was his prisoner for a year, I thought it was a joke. This is no joke.
The door opens as the sun starts to set and the woman stands from the chair at the side of my bed. She bows her head and switches places with Callum.
"You're a monster," I seethe.
"You're dramatic," he counters and enters my bedroom. "The doctor is here."
"What the fuck for?" I snarl and he closes his eyes briefly like he's trying to gain composure before he drags me through the house by my hair again.
"You need to become pregnant, Ms. Reif."
"Fuck you." I slam myself to the bed and turn my back to him.
"Not a chance," he growls, suddenly over me, ripping me from the bed.
"Callum!" I squeal as he pulls my flailing arms and drags me across the floor.
"I tried to do this civilly! I tried to treat you humanely, but you're defiant! You will ruin everything for me!"
"You're not treating me civilly!" I scream at him, trying to kick free.
"I would let you up to walk on your own but I have a feeling you'd try to attack me." He is literally dragging me like dead weight down the hall.
"Let me go! I'll walk! You're hurting me! Let me go!"
Finally releasing me, I jump to my feet and adjust my shorts and shirt. His eyes drop to my breasts and I attack, swinging at his face. He fights me off from clawing him to shreds and we land on the floor with him on top of me, breathing heavily into my face while he seethes.
"I hate you," I snarl.
"Likewise. All you have to do is get pregnant. Marry me. Deliver my male child and then a few months later you can be on your way."
I spit. Right in his face. I spit finding out his disgusting plan. He never had any intentions of trying to make this work. He is only doing this because he has to. In a year he can divorce me. The paperwork I blindly signed says so. He can banish me from his home and from my child. I fucking signed that, giving him that right.
"I won't do it."
The smile on his face makes me sick as he wipes away my spit. "You're my property for the next thirteen months, Ms. Reif. Have you forgotten? You have no say."
"I do have a say. It's my body! I will tell my mother!"
"Like you, your mother has no say either."
"This isn't legal!"
"You made it legally binding by signing." His weight is pressing fully on me and it's starting to crush my lungs.
"I signed a document online."
"In front of a barrister."
Lol's a barrister? I'm not even sure what a barrister does.
"Did he not warn you he was signing first? Did he not warn you that by law your electronic signature binds you to the document? Did he not inform you you're signing away all rights to a fair life?"
Okay, so he did the first two but the last was worded much differently.
"Fight me all you want, but by the time you get any justice, you will have been locked in my home for the better part of five years before the law grants you any of your rights back. You're better off bearing my child and allowing me to divorce you a year after marriage."
My stiff body finally goes slack under him. I signed documents for imprisonment. I am so naive.
"Will it hurt?" I ask, my throat straining because I want to cry.
"What?" he asks in confusion, still pinning me down.
"Artificial insemination," I whisper.
Removing his weight from my body, he holds out his hand and pulls me to my feet. After brushing off his shirt, he adjusts his neck and clears his throat.
"I don't know," he admits tersely. "Let's find out, shall we?" He crooks his arm and I move farther away from him. "It's easier if you make them believe this isn't forced."
"Easier for who?" I snicker.
"You. Me. Both our families. Suit yourself. You can be alone through this entire process."
"I'm going to tell my sister and she will fucking burn this house down." Hope flutters in my chest. My sister's a fighter. She will rip him apart tooth and nail.
"I'll have your sister apprehended and condemned long enough to ruin any hope of a future for her, Ms. Reif. Careful who you try to rally on your side of the war. I will destroy them."
I almost call his bluff but then I remember who this man is and who we are. We're a low class family living in the Bronx.
Snatching his arm, I dig my nails through the fabric of his shirt, but he doesn't remove them as he unlocks the door.
"I wish you would have dressed more appropriately," he comments while I pad down the hall barefoot and in sleep shorts and a tank top.
"I wish you'd fucking die."
"Use that language in front of anyone but me and you'll pay." The calm to his tone is eerie enough to make me believe him.
"I hope you choke on your next meal," I whisper as we approach staff.
Callum curtly smiles and nods and I keep my gaze on that beautiful face that's an abomination. We enter a room I've never seen, which isn't surprising. I haven't been to half the rooms in this house. But it's white and sterile and looks like a creepy lab out of a sci-fi movie where bad experiments go wrong. My feet hit a cold tiled floor and my grip on Callum tightens. I move closer like he'll protect me. He's the fucking threat. What is wrong with me?
"Relax, Ms. Reif," he says calmly, his arm wrapping around my shoulders. "You're safe."
I harshly laugh and move away from him.
"Dr. Chen." He approaches a man that comes around a corner and they shake hands.
"This is her? Your fiancée?" he asks with a thick accent.
"This is the beautiful Magdelena." Callum opens his arm to gesture to me and I stare at him. The beautiful Magdelena who you would watch burn on a stake. Asshole.
"It is my pleasure." The doctor approaches me and grabs my hand, shaking and bowing his head over and over. I look at Callum
to make him stop but he gives me a look like he doesn't know what the guy's doing.
"Uh, can we go over the procedure?" My eyes scan the bright room but there's no indication as to what's going to happen to me.
"Sit down, sit down." The doctor gestures to a table. "I will get a stool." He hurries behind the wall and Callum grabs my hips, setting me on the table with ease.
"If I didn't abhor you, I'd have fun impregnating you the old fashioned way." The smirk on his lips makes me want to bite him.
"Thank god I'm a disgusting piece of shit," I hiss.
"Let's not get dramatic, Ms. Reif." He pulls his hands from my hips and not until my body feels cold again do I realize he was offering me some warmth. Not only is the room cold, but I'm nervous as hell.
"Ah, very good," the doctor says when he comes back with a stool but sees I'm already on the table. "This will be painless." His hand lands on my knee and squeezes before he pulls away. I want to yank him back and use him as a blanket. "I will need a urine sample first. We will check for ovulation. Do you know your cycle?"
"No," I partially lie. I know when my period's supposed to start, but I don't know when I'm ovulating.
"That is okay." He nods reassuringly. "We will test for ovulation. Then we will use Mr. Carbon's sperm and inject it into your cervix." I wince and he puts his hand on my knee again. "No pain. Only slight discomfort." When I nod, he pulls his hand away and my shoulders sink. I'm painfully cold. "Can we get a urine sample now?" He looks from Callum to me and I almost want to be defiant, but what's the use? This is happening no matter what. The longer I prolong it, the longer it'll take for me to get away from Callum Carbon.
"Yes." I glance at Callum who's looking at me oddly.
"I will get the sample cup." The doctor lowers his raised finger then hurries away.
"What?" I hiss at Callum.
"Your lips are blue."
"I'm freezing," I grind out.
"Perhaps if you were wearing appropriate clothing, you wouldn't be cold."
"Perhaps if you didn't live in a dungeon, I wouldn't be cold," I mock him.
"Come now, Ms. Reif. It's your dungeon too." He moves close and pulls me to his side, almost making me fall off the table. "I think you enjoy looking like a whore. Were you a stripper in the states?"
"What?" I squawk and pull away from him.
"You're braless. You dress provocatively. You carry yourself like you're putting on a show. If it makes you feel any better, I would imagine you're a more high-end stripper." His hands begin to rub my bare arms and as much as I want to push him away, I need the warmth.
"Flaunt what your mama gave ya," I say with disgust.
"Indeed." He chuckles. "The Carbon name has always needed a whore stripper."
My hand flexes and I swing. I get him. Hard too. My fingers snap over his face and he flinches back, immediately grabbing his cheek.
The doctor enters the room with a cup in hand and I hop off the table, approaching him before Callum can retaliate. I don't know if he'd hit me, but he has no problem manhandling me. After peeing in the cup, I keep away from Callum while the doctor tests it. I stare at the chart on the wall that is way more in depth than any other anatomy chart I've ever seen in a doctors' office. The sexual anatomy on this chart is very detailed and even has pleasuring tips. I read that area extra carefully to see if I can pick up any self-pleasuring pointers. Apparently I'm never getting fucked. Physically that is. My hymen will be broken by childbirth; I might as well take care of it myself.
"Please give us a briefing of the procedure," Callum states and I glance behind me to see the doctor joining us again.
"Well, as you said on the phone there is a rush to become pregnant, the traditional medical procedure will take much longer."
"Yes." Callum nods. "Right, so we will skip that procedure and try the quickest method possible."
"Intercourse," the doctor says and Callum grits his teeth but manages a smile. I almost chuckle but bite my tongue, wondering what he told this doctor.
"Next to intercourse," Callum insists.
"I suppose…" He glances at me. "I will medically act as…" Hand gestures try to fill in his words, and I get it. A turkey baster will act as my fiancé's dick because my fiancé is such a huge dick. "The traditional way to be inseminated involves tests, drugs, more steps that we're not sure your lovely fiancée will need. So I will act as the penetration that could possibly impregnate you. And Callum, you will continue to provide fresh sperm samples every three days until we conceive."
Well, well, well. Callum has to jerk off into a cup every three days. I have to admit that's a sight I'd like to see, but I won't ever admit it out loud.
"So, tomorrow," the doctor says and I look at him then glance at Callum.
"Tomorrow what?"
"Late tomorrow morning. Let's say eleven? We'll try the faux traditional method, then move on to more medically sound methods if it doesn't take. You'll begin a regimen of vitamins and a prescription today though." He looks from me to Callum.
"Eleven, Ms. Reif?"
When I look at Callum, he has a blazing red mark across his cheek and I smirk.
"Eleven it is." Without another look at either of them, I head for the exit.
Callum joins me before I make it down the hall.
"Here comes the warden," I groan.
"After tomorrow's appointment you're free to roam anywhere you'd like again."
"Oh, except not into one of your little luncheons. Your embarrassing fiancée needs to keep her whore ass out of sight."
"I needed to inform my uncle I was engaged, Ms. Reif," he snarls. "He had no idea, but you showing up filled him in rather quickly."
Oh. Well, shame on him for not telling his uncle he was engaged.
"And, I found out what you did to Evelyn." He snatches my hand like he wants to hurt me, but his grip doesn't tighten.
"Oh, you mean the whore you were cheating on me with? Talk about a fucking whore, Callum. This is some double standard right here. Why can she be a whore, but I can't? Speaking of. Have you seen my phone? I have plenty of people to text nudes of myself to, but can't without my phone."
I get no verbal reply, I only get dragged faster down the hall. The second we enter the door to the hallway my room is in, he steps back and slams it, locking me inside the wing. Rolling my eyes, I stroll to my room. Lol's sitting on my bed with my phone in his hands and I would normally get excited to see him, but not anymore. He knew what I was getting myself into and he didn't stop me. He'll actually be the one to stop me from ending this.
"Madam Dude," he says solemnly as if he knows I'm pissed at him too.
"My phone." I hold out my hand and he slowly stands from my bed, placing it into my palm.
"Mag, I tried to get you to read the contract over and over."
"So my sister could get into this situation instead of me? It had to be one of us and you better be glad it was me. Callum Carbon would be dead right now if it were Mary." That's not true. It's not like Mary is a psycho capable of murder, but I'm more laid back. I accept insanity more than she does. And this is definitely insane.
"He can be a kind man," he says quietly and I snicker, moving away from him.
"He's having me inseminated with his sperm, Lol. We're beyond kindness."
"I feel as if that's kinder than him using you," he states to the carpet and I sink my shoulders.
He has a point there. But maybe I want to get used. As sick as it is, even by him. I planned to come here, get a husband, and lose my virginity. I'm gaining a psycho and going to have a child ruin my vagina before it even sees a penis. I look at Lol, wondering how far I could push him. Maybe I can get him to pop my cherry, but then think better of it. It'd probably get him killed or something equally fucked up. This whole situation has turned from a fairytale to surreal.
"I want to be alone," I tell him, turning my back while I stare at the necklace on my dresser. I want to ask Lol where it came from, but I don't want to tal
k anymore.
"I'll get you food." He walks out of the room and I don't protest his kindness because I'm hungry.
If anything, at least I'll eat well for a year while I'm here.
Exhaling a deep breath, I stare in the mirror. I am going to have a woman impregnated today. We're one step closer to ending this nightmare. I don't even want to think about the child not being male. If it's not, we'll have to do this again and again until she produces a male. I don't think I could handle that long with her. She slapped me. When she had tried to slap me after the luncheon, I saw it coming a mile away and I was enraged she'd put her hands on me like that. I shouldn't have grabbed her. I shouldn't have locked her up like an animal. But she was trying to act like one. She wanted to cause me harm and I hadn't done anything to her. But she finally got her hit in and it stung. I have a slight discoloration to my face this morning. She's untamable and practically unbearable. But I am marrying the woman. I have to keep her in good health at least until the divorce, and then from there, I don't care what she does in her life.
I don't want to join her for breakfast, but my aunt insisted we all get together. Ms. Reif isn't supposed to get pregnant until after the wedding, but I want to speed up this process. Which means our wedding will be held in three weeks and Gee is over the moon.
When I enter the Garden Room, I pause upon seeing Ms. Reif. She doesn't look as hateful as she had yesterday and I almost wonder who this woman is. It's absolutely her. Her hair is still purple, and her clothes are revealing, but the look on her face is what's different. She looks happy. Yesterday she looked like she wanted to murder me.
"Good morning," I announce my presence to the women and they stop talking.
"Good morning," Gee responds first and I smile, then look to my fiancée.
She remains silent until Gee looks at her, and at that point she stands to greet me.
"Good morning, Callum." She moves close and touches my face, really putting on a show for my aunt.
"Good morning," I repeat and clear my throat before she kisses me.