Breaking Midnight (Il Paradosso Series Book One)

Chapter five

These people were all liars. It was what they did best, deceiving. They were brutal in every sense, and tricksters that served poison for treats.

I gaped at the woman in front of me, who was offering the most ridiculous resolution to something that was entirely their fault.

“I’m not a prostitute,” I countered, flinching against the stinging pressure that was applied to my wrist. She was cleaning the ugly red scars that the handcuffs had inflicted.

I knew that spiraling out of control wouldn’t be the smartest choice when dealing with my situation, but couldn’t say that I didn’t fear for my life as I continued to stare at her waist. The shiny piece of cold metal stared back.

The woman’s patience was only heightening the angst that had taken space inside my stomach while she worked on my wrists.

“I never said you were.” Freshly manicured nails brushed lightly along my skin when she began wrapping thin gauze around the right scar, and paused briefly to look up at me. 

“She said I would have made the perfect whore. What did she mean?”

Sharp almond eyes pierced through my soul. “You’re not getting paid for anything.”

I blew away at strands of hair, matted to the left side of my face. If my assumptions were correct, she was insinuating that I become one for him. I wasn't stupid. If I could surmise who she was affiliated with, then I was about to enter through a very dark tunnel, with no way out.

I kept my knowledge below the surface until I was certain, acting as if I had no clue to what she had been sauntering about ever since I awoke from the dead. I should have been digging my own grave. She stood before me with a stance that would have a normal human being questioning their options, but I remained indifferent and unwavering.

"I'm not a property that you can just move around according to your preferences."

I was about ready to lose it if what this woman was implying wasn't just a pathetic joke, and I knew for a fact that nothing good could come out of it.

"This is ludicrous." My voice was quavering with emotions that were inevitable, and beyond my ability of constraint.

"Your mother should have thought of that before screwing us all over."
My blood turned to ice. I knew she and her infamous past had everything to do with my paranoia.

The last two weeks I had felt uneasy. Almost as if I was being watched from afar.

Did she know my mother?

"But I didn't ask for any of this!" My voice cracked, along with the flimsy thread of endurance.

"Adriana, I'm trying to be decent and reason with you, but you're making it difficult for the both of us. You're starting to piss me off."

My eyes bulged in disbelief.

"The both of us? I was minding my own goddamn business, at my shitty job, when a group of scary men―whom may I add, looked like they were pulled straight out of the pits of hell―made a one-sided decision to come along, murdering my boss and his beloved wife, while I was forced to watch.”

I was out of breath. She stared at me impassively, allowing me to continue my rant.

“Then I was taken against my will by some macho, who thinks he has the rights to mess with me and my life as he pleases! Now, where do you possibly fit in this category when you're just as bad as them?"

"He has every right. In fact, he obtained his rights the moment that your mother offered you as compensation for her mistakes.” Her face turned to stone when she said that, causing a shiver to commence a trail down my spine.