Monster A Dark Arranged Marriage Romance - Vanessa Waltz Page 0,97

place off the Caribbean called Leda, a human trafficking hub where people fly in to party, to network, to do all kinds of shady business deals. I was drugged, shipped over there, and sold.”

Weakness tingled in my legs, and I let go of her to sit against the wall.

“A psychopath named Attila bought me. I lived in his villa. It was smack dab in the middle of a jungle. Hot as hell. Humid. Naked women everywhere, all of them trafficked. He used me as an enforcer. I protected the girls from clients that got too rough.” I pressed my hands into my eyes until stars exploded behind them. “I saw things, Evie.”

She sat beside me, slipping her hand around my bicep. “Did you try to escape?”

“I couldn’t leave them. I had to help. I tried, but the overseer caught me. Whipped my back. Then the bastard put me in cage matches where I had to fight other men. I butchered them for their amusement. That’s how I met Cainan. He was one of the people watching me fight.”

Her eyes glazed with tears.

“I wasn’t myself. They broke me on that island. They made me so hateful it turned inward, killing me from the inside. Cainan saw that cruelty and knew he could hone it. He got me out when he found out how well-connected I was. I got to Boston. I was home for weeks, but I couldn’t move on. I was stuck. I told nobody I was back. I didn’t want them to know because I couldn’t tell anyone what I’d been through. Who the fuck would believe me? Who would understand?”

Evie cupped my cheeks and kissed me. Heat blasted across my lips, almost dissolving my urge to continue. Would this be the last time I tasted her kiss?

“I was spiraling. I needed something to do, so Cainan gave me a purpose. He would allow me to join him in fighting human trafficking, but I needed to pass a loyalty test.”

This next part was the worst.

I had to get it out of me.

“He told me to kill my father, so I did.” The tightness in my chest released as it spilled out of me. “I shot my dad, who never stopped looking for me, never gave up on me once, then I blamed it on your MC to start a war. Hands down, the most evil thing I’d ever done. I can’t even explain why I did it. I just—I wasn’t in my right mind and Cainan knew it.”

My voice croaked, and I lost the energy to keep going. Evie’s raspy whisper chased my echo.

“How did you do it?”

“I blocked it out. I don’t have a memory of the actual murder. The only thing I remember is stepping onto my dad’s lawn for the first time in over a year, and hours later, Dad’s necklace dangling in my hands after I’d done it.”

“The same one you’re wearing now?”

She fingered the gold chain, finding the flat oval pendant nestled in the hollow of my neck, blazing with an image of St. Anthony.

“I keep it on as penance.”

I couldn’t believe I’d told her.

I’d never admitted this to anyone.

“I did so many things I hated on that island, and it turned me into a monster. A violent man with no self-control. I can barely look my mother in the eye anymore. It’s why I told you I never wanted children, because I feel so tainted. And after what I did to Dad, I didn’t think I deserved to father my own kids.”

But I was a father, and the burden sank into my heart like golden light, warming me from the inside out. Relief flooded my veins. The fire inside me banked lower. Air came more smoothly in my lungs.

I breathed.

“Now you know the man you married.”

And she’d leave me.

I braced for it as Evie’s gaze clouded with tears. Heaviness centered on my chest as I prepared for a stinging response. Then she smiled.

“I understand you completely. And I love you even more.” Evie’s trembling lips slowly broke into a sweet smile. “I love you. All of you. Every flaw. Even the parts of you that you think are too dark.”

I pinned her to my chest, overwhelmed. “Are you really pregnant?”

She lightly grasped my cheek, nodding.

It struck home, finally. “You don’t know how fucking happy you’ve made me.”

My heart hammered as she wrapped her arms around my blood-soaked chest. She smashed her mouth into mine, gripping my hair. The pit of my stomach churned.