34. Ginevra

CHAPTER 34

Ginevra

T he next morning I wake up and Blake’s already gone for the day. I go through the motions of showering and getting dressed, considering my options. If I don’t show up at Oliver’s office, he’ll find a way into this house, or worse. He’s so unpredictable. In the past I wouldn’t dare cross him, or do anything that might upset him. I always played along with his games.

But that Gin is dead. She died sometime in the last four months, I’m not entirely sure when because it was a slow, gradual demise. I didn’t realize she was gone until this moment.

The new Gin isn’t going to put herself at Oliver’s mercy. She’s stronger than that. Smarter than that now. She’s not a victim anymore.

I tossed and turned all night going over the potential outcomes of my decisions. Even my dreams were haunted by what I should do. I’ve come to a conclusion. I’m going to tell Blake everything. As scary as that is, it’s the right thing to do.

Yes, my decision is one-eighty from where I stood yesterday. If Oliver wasn’t harassing me, I’d keep my mouth closed. Blake and I would live out our year together in peaceful bliss. But I can’t go to Oliver’s office, let him do… things to me, and then come home to my husband like nothing happened.

That would destroy me, and us.

My only option is to take away Oliver’s power over me, and that means telling Blake everything.

Will he throw me out for keeping secrets? For lying to him? Maybe. It’s a risk I’m going to take because another side of me wants to put my faith in him. To trust him enough to let him see all of me and believe that he might still want me afterwards.

There’s a chance, right? At least I can hope and dream that there is. So, as soon as he comes home, we’ll talk.

Unmotivated to do anything other than rehearse what I’m going to say to him, over and over, until I’m sure I have the right wording, I spend the day in my room. Kyla checks on me a couple of times, but I assure her that I’m fine, just busy with my own shit.

At a quarter past nine in the morning, my phone chimes. Just as I expected it’s a ranting text from Oliver. When I don’t reply, he keeps going, sending me threat after threat until I’m mentally and emotionally numb from the barrage. Checking out is the only way to deal with him when he gets like this.

To that end, I silence my phone and tuck it in a drawer. I won’t let my fear of him dissuade me from what I need to do. From doing what’s right.

Morning turns to afternoon, which fades to night. I told our housekeeper, Fleur, to let me know when Blake comes home, but so far he’s not here. I consider texting him, but I shy away from it.

Night bleeds into the early morning hours and still no sign of him. In an effort to ignore Oliver, I’ve spent hours going over everything that I need to tell Blake. I’ve worked myself up so much that I’m emotionally exhausted. I can’t keep my eyes open for another moment.

T he incessant ringing of my phone wakes me, and I grab it out of the drawer where I tossed it yesterday. I glance at the notifications. There must be a hundred missed calls from my sisters. What on earth is going on?

My phone rings again and I answer Sophia’s call. “What?—?”

“Have you seen the article? In the Big Apple Buzz ?”

“No…”

“Look at it now. But only if you want, it’s very disturbing. Call me back.” She hangs up and I open the gossip paper’s app. The glaring headline has my stomach doing a nosedive.

WIFE CHEATS ON NOTORIOUS BLAKE BARON WITH MILLIONAIRE HEIR OLIVER ZALESKI

I scan the article, which is all lies and twisted truths, scrolling all the way down to the video at the end. My mouth goes dry.

No, no, no . This can’t be happening.

Against my better judgment, I push play.

Our privates are blurred but the video clearly shows Oliver railing me from behind while I’m tied up, my face contorted in pain—or pleasure—it’s difficult to tell since there’s no sound. But I remember that night with vivid clarity. The pain, my cries for him to stop only urging him on, and how helpless I felt that I couldn’t get away, how I couldn’t fight back.

He’d given me some kind of drug that kept me lucid but unable to control my body. Then he treated me like a puppet, arranging me how he wanted and tying me in place. Then he?—

“Did you enjoy yourself?” Blake’s steely tone draws my attention. He’s standing in the doorway, arms folded, his features so impassive they could be carved of ice.

I lick my parched lips. “Did I enjoy what?”

“Screwing Oz. You sure look like you were having a good time in that video.” His eyes flash with malice.

I’m stunned into silence. Bile rises in my throat. My stomach heaves, and I dart to the bathroom, barely making it to the sink before retching my guts out. I’m shaking, tears streaming down my face. How could he think such a thing?

Blake storms in after me. “You can stop with the act now, Gin. I know all about your relationship with Oz. Your lover .” He spits the word at me.

“He’s not my lover,” I manage to get out before dry heaving into the sink. I didn’t have much to eat yesterday.

“Then what the fuck do you call this?” Blake shoves his phone in my face, the video playing.

I bat it away with enough force that his phone flies across the room, skidding on the marble floor. “Do you really want to know what that’s called?”

“Yes, I do!”

“It’s called rape !”

Blake freezes, every muscle in his body tensing.

When he doesn’t speak, I continue, “Take a c-closer look at that why don’t you? I’m screaming for him to s-stop ! But you don’t believe me, do you? You think I’m a liar and a slut. That I’d cheat on you with my horrible ex because you’re too insecure to realize I’d never, ever do such a thing. You have no idea what he did to me.” My voice breaks on that last word. I sob, my legs giving out and I sag to the cold stone floor.

Suddenly Blake drops to his knees, then he’s caging me in his arms, my face buried in his chest. I’m so mad at him, but I don’t have the energy to fight him right now.

“Fuck. I’m so sorry. I’m a goddamn idiot. Of course I believe you, sweetheart.”

He believes me. That’s all it takes to break me wide open.

I ugly cry at his admission. He holds me tighter and I draw on his strength to get me through another anxiety attack. By going against Oliver’s demand, I brought this on myself. Of course he’d leak that video to the press in order to punish me. Now the entire world thinks I’m an awful person. A cheater.

But I want Blake to know the truth. He deserves it.

Eventually, I hiccup, blow my nose on a tissue, and lean against Blake’s solid chest, his arms wrapped securely around me.

My first confession comes out flat. “My uncle started molesting me when I was nine.”

He tenses around me, but doesn’t say anything, giving me space to speak.

“I told my father but he ignored me, accused me of l-lying, so I never went to anyone about this kind of thing again. Not when I was eighteen and a guy raped me in a pool house, or any of it. Then–”

“You don’t have to tell me this, magpie. You don’t owe me any?—”

“I need to tell you,” I whisper like I’m already losing my voice. “I should have told you the truth from the beginning, but I was afraid.”

“Afraid of what?” he murmurs close to my ear in a quiet, soothing tone.

“Afraid you’d hate me, that you’d look at me differently. That you wouldn’t w-want to touch me ever again.”

He pulls away only far enough to cup my cheeks and look me in the eye. His gaze burns with sincerity. “Oh, baby girl, nothing could ever make me not want you. You’ve become my world, Gin. I’ll do anything to keep you happy and safe. I was a jealous fool, blinded by my own fears, and I’m so very sorry.”

I nod. We’ll see if that's true or not.

He says I’ve become his world, yet he has also reminded me that we’re divorcing in a year. If I mean that much to him, then why would he throw away our relationship? I can’t figure him out. Right now, I’m too tired to try.

Summoning my inner strength, I glance away, and continue my story, “Word got out about me and that guy, except instead of blaming him, everyone started calling me a slut . They said I deserved it, for the way I look, for the way I dress.”

“You don’t. No one deserves that,” Blake cuts in, hugging me closer.

I inhale a shuddering breath. “I know, but after a while I guess I started to believe them, and I just let guys do whatever they wanted to me. I was already damaged goods so what difference did it make? I never said yes , but I didn’t say no either. N-not until Oliver.”

I swallow hard, my hands shaking again. The weighted silence that stretches between us tells me Blake has a lot to say, but he’s keeping quiet to give me the space I need to get all of this out.

“I-I met Oliver at a party last year. At first he seemed suave, charming… a lot of fun. He seemed to actually like me, not just my body. But then he wanted to have sex and I just… I had to be intoxicated to go through with it. It didn’t take him long to see the pattern and h-he got rough with me right before Christmas and we broke up. But he’s so… cunning, and he convinced me to give him another chance so we started dating again after the New Year.”

I was so stupid to fall prey to him. So dumb . “Again, everything was fine for a while—good even. Until his moods started getting darker and his actions more and more erratic. Th-that night he s-spiked my drink with something that m-made my limbs so heavy, but my h-head was clear. He t-took me to this basement that was all s-set up, like a p-porn set.

“The part of the v-video you saw was just the beginning. I… I lost count of how many times he r-raped me that night. I felt everything . The next day m-my entire body was o-one giant bruise, except for my face, he n-never touched my face.

“I couldn’t tell anyone what had happened, I was too humiliated, and they w-wouldn’t believe me anyway. Plus O-Oliver told me he’d l-leak the v-video if I said a word about it. I told my parents that I was s-sick for a week and s-stayed in my room to recover. The n-nightmares were the worst part of it, and the l-loneliness. After that, I broke up with him and he’s been th-threatening me ever since.”

I deeply inhale, having gotten the worst parts out of the way. My pulse thunders in my ears, nearly drowning out Blake’s next words.

“Is that why you pretended to not know him at dinner?” Blake gently asks.

“I’m t-terrified of him,” I admit. “I p-panicked and didn’t know w-what else to do. He th-threatened me that night when you took that call, then a-again at the art opening. H-he told me to come to his office yesterday morning, but I didn’t go. That’s why the Big Apple Buzz published this article.”

“The article should be gone by now. I called in a favor to have all traces of it removed before confronting you.”

“Y-you did?” I glance up at him. While his tone’s soft, I read the fury in the hard set of his jaw, the need for violence in his stormy eyes. He really does believe me. And so far, he’s not treating me like I’m disgusting. It’s like… like nothing’s changed between us, even with the truth laid bare.

“Of course I did,” he says. “I’ll be personally paying a visit to the Big Apple Buzz ’s CEO later today as well. It seems they’ve forgotten who they’re fucking with.”

“Right.” A smile flashes across my face. “The big, bad Blake Baron.”

“No. Mrs. Baron .” He nuzzles my neck. “They can mess with me all they want, baby girl, but no one fucks with my wife. Even if I foolishly believed you cheated on me, I’d never allow those vipers to drag your name through the mud. You’re mine, Mrs. Baron, and you deserve both privacy and respect.”

My heart skips a beat. All the tension, and worry, bleeds from my body.

“What stopped you from going to his office?” he carefully asks.

Reality comes back to me like a frigid splash of water across my face. “I kn-knew that if I went, then this would n-never end. He’d continue to pull the strings. My only other option was to confess the truth to you and hope you’d f-forgive me, but you d-didn’t come home yesterday.”

“There’s nothing to forgive. None of this is your fault, Gin. I’m serious. You’re so brave for telling me everything.” He strokes my hair, wrapping a curl around his finger, and I relax further into him. “Now that I know the truth, I’m going to kill Oz. Slowly. Painfully. He’ll never hurt you again.”

“Promise?”

“I promise with all my heart.”