Sinner (MATURE 18+)

29

I hadn't seen Alias for the remainder of the day. I didn't sleep a wink that night and glanced around the room every few seconds, scared that Alias would pop out of nowhere and jump on me. But he never came. Early the next morning, I headed down to the dining room but stopped in my tracks when I spotted Alias sitting at the head of the table, sipping on a cup of coffee. I took a second at the doorway to compose myself and entered, keeping my face blank.

"Goodmorning, wife," Alias greeted with a smile as I sat down on the other head of the table. I hadn't even responded when Carsir ran in, a grin on his face. Upon seeing his father, his smile fell but he took a seat either way.

"Morning to you both," Carsir said, buttering a piece of toast and scarfing it down. I stared at my breakfast, my appetite gone as it usually was in my husband's presence. "Elena, you have a meeting today, right?" I looked up, startled and so did Alias, setting his coffee cup down.

"Oh, do you?" he asked, raising a single brow. I glanced over at Carsir and met his pleading eyes, understanding his words.

"Yes, the high families have requested one to discuss a few matters that I had not clarified since my coronation," I said, smiling. A sick feeling crept up throat but I suppressed the feeling to gag. I took a forced bite of my toast, setting it down softly. I swallowed it without tasting, watching Alias' face carefully. He seemed skeptical but knew he had no legitimate excuse to keep me at the palace.

"As you say," was all he said before opening the first page of the newspaper up. I met Carsir's eyes but I did not smile, instead, I asked to be excused and headed to my room. I ran to the bathroom and lifted the toilet seat up.

I gagged, my insides clenching together. My body painfully contracted and I would've retched something out if I had anything in my stomach. Not eating for hours on end left my stomach empty. The thought of replenishing and feeding my treacherous body disgusted me. The same body that turned against me and was turned on by Alias violating me. This was a punishment. My appetite was nonexistent anyways. But still, I gagged and choked emptily into the toilet seat, before shutting the seat closed, hugging my mid-section.

"Are you pregnant?" I looked up to see Carsir, staring at me, hard. A gurgled laughter left me as I got to my feet, ignoring my cramping stomach. I rinsed my mouth, before turning to him.

"I'm not." I brushed past him, but before I could walk away he grabbed my wrist. I jumped, shoving him off of me. "Don't touch me like that!" He raised his hands in surrender, eyes wide.

"I didn't mean to scare you, I'm sorry," he amended, taking a respectful step back. I lowered my arms and continued to my room, my heart still thumping hard in my chest. "I just wanted to talk to you, something we haven't done recently."

"There's nothing to talk about," I said, opening up the wardrobe and searching through my clothes for a dress to wear.

"We could always not talk," he suggested but before he could take even a step closer, I raised my hand.

"I'm not in the mood for sex," I blurted out, flicking through a few more tops before finding the dress at the corner. It was a long sleeve, burgundy coloured midi bodycon dress. I placed it on the bed, fixing nonexistent wrinkles.

"That's okay. I just wanted to spend time with you so, I came up with the idea of doing something mundane for once," Carsir continued, "a date."

"A date?" I repeated, wrinkling my nose. A date sounded so normal. Normal was something I was not used to.

"If you don't want to go, that's fine," he babbled, rubbing the back of his neck. I shook my head.

"I want to go." A smile lit up his face, reaching his blue-green eyes. "Let me get dressed then I'll meet you in your room in ten minutes?" Carsir checked his watch before nodding.

"Just enough time," he finished before pulling the painting off the wall and stepping into the service tunnel. "Fifth door on the right!"

As soon as he left, I took the dress to the bathroom and changed. I let my hair out and applied a bit more concealer onto my bruise. I didn't apply any makeup on my face because I couldn't meet my own eyes in the mirror. I couldn't face myself. So, like a coward, I walked away, grabbing my purse before heading into the tunnels. Counting five doors on the right, I pushed the canvas gently and the door swung open easily. Carsir wasn't there so I sat on his bed, staring at my chipping nail polish.

Minutes later, he entered. "Sorry for being late, I had to sort out your security detail."

"No security?"

"I marked down in the books that security would be escorting you but, there will be no one with us," he explained. "Come on." He offered me his hand and I took it, as he pulled me back into the tunnels. I didn't have a clue about where he was going but I trusted him, so I blindly followed until I saw the top of a grate, sunlight peeking through the bars. "Faux sewage grate leading up to the loading docks. I looped the footage for this security camera." Carsir climbed to the top of the ladder and pushed the grate up, sliding it above ground. He surveyed the outside before exiting the tunnels. I followed in his footsteps, taking his helping hand.

He placed the grate back into the ground, grabbed my hand and lead me to a car that was parked between two trucks. We got in and he raced off the back exit of the property, pulling us onto the main road. Carsir pushed a button and the roof of the car opened it, the wind tossing my hair around. I whooped, laughing giddily.

"I feel like we just broke the law!" I exclaimed, grinning. Carsir chuckled, turning the radio on. An upbeat song started but since I didn't recognize it, I tapped the beat on my knee.

"Getting you out of the palace was easier than I thought it would be," Carsir admitted, lowering the volume of the music. I shook my head incredulously.

"Easy? You did a million things," I argued.

"It's gonna be all worth it," he said, as we pulled into an empty lot of land. I furrowed my brows together, scanning the land and the large river just under the cliff we parked on.

"What are we doing here?" I asked Carsir who was grabbing a bag from the backseat of the car.

"I hope you can swim," he replied with a devilish smirk on his face. In the bag were a spare bra, panties, and a towel.

"You're joking...no way! We're going to die!" I croaked, but Carsir got out of the car anyway. He stripped his clothes off until he was in nothing but his swimming trunks. I gulped nervously, hugging myself. "Turn around at least." He rolled his eyes but followed my request. I lifted the dress over me, my panties not hiding the bruising on my hips. I wrapped the towel around myself and moved to stand beside Carsir.

"I'll go first," he said, peering over the edge of the cliff. I held my breath as he backed up, taking a running start before jumping off. I gasped but watch him gracefully flip once before cannonballing into the river. The water was still and I worriedly searched for any sign of him when he emerged, whooping loudly. "Come in!" My heart was in my throat as I took a few hesitant steps back. Taking a deep breath, I ran towards the edge before I was falling.

I wasn't as graceful as Carsir and only managed to curl myself into a ball before I made hard contact with the water. It took me a moment to gather my sense and I pushed myself up to the surface, gasping. Carsir was waiting for me, laughing. "That was amazing!" I cried.

"You were this close to belly flopping," Carsir teased, slowly drifting towards the shore. I swam lightly, keeping my head above water.

"Well, I'm sorry I don't have a gold medal in diving and didn't flip! How did you learn how to do that?" We got to the shore, water dripping off our bodies.

"I used to come here a lot after I moved," he explained, intertwining. "I was lonely so I used all my free time to practice my moves." We walked up the hill to the car. Before we parted hands to dry ourselves off, Carsir grabbed my other hand, making me look at him. "Elena, I'm only going to ask you this once."

"Yes?"

"Why are there bruises on your hips?" he asked.