Chapter 16 Daniel In The Dressing Room
“Go try this one on”, his tone was definitive as he handed me one of the dresses. I gulped, not finding words to deny him. He was a powerful man, and he quite literally owned me.
When I didn’t move, he spoke low and deadly, “Get the fuck up unless you want me to back out of our ‘deal’ and see your family go homeless all because of you.”
“I…I’m going”, I mumbled out, tripping on my own two feet as I approached the dressing room.
Get a grip on yourself and put your fucking head down! My brain yelled at me, asking me to shove all sense of myself away in a dark corner and be a puppet for the monster who was going to be my husband.
I had to do this, I convinced myself as I latched the door of the dressing room behind me. For my family… for my little brother… I had to do this no matter what it cost of me.
There was no saving grace for me in this situation… it was like an anti parody of the fairytale, there was the damsel in distress and then there was the bad man who wanted to take her away, except that there was no prince charming to save her… the damsel would not escape from her tower of misery in this story, instead she would have to hold her head down and try to survive this nightmare as long as she could.
I smiled a sad smile to myself as I hung the two dreadfully white gowns on the hooks.
The only distraction from this roiling misery trying to break me down in sobs was this Gucci store. I took in the high ceiling dressing room in awe, the triple mirrors with dazzling circular side lights lining their edges caused me to backtrack as I slipped out of my clothes.
No matter how much I despised the Kanes with every bone in my body, I had to admit… the kind of influence and power that family held was outright enraging.
The moment Benjamin and I stepped foot in this multi-storeyed high-fashion store, every worker in there was suddenly flocking to him, asking him multiple times how they could cater to his needs. He didn’t even have to introduce himself.
I fucking hated the kind of power that perverted bastard held, like he could get away with doing anything he wanted. And what hurt me to my core was that I could see how true it was.
And his damn sister who did whatever he asked of her.
I had known she didn’t like me but I never thought she would support an arrangement like this and literally fucking destroy my life. Did she really hate me that much?
The only thing I knew about that witch was that she loved her son dearly and would do anything for his happiness. I internally scoffed, at least she loved something.
Some part of me, a part I chose to ignore, insistently kept telling me that this was something personal… she was not doing her brother a favour, she cared for him but not enough to go this far.
I shook my head, it wasn’t going to do me any good to form conspiracy theories.
As I put on the dress Benjamin had chosen for me, I almost banged my head against one of the mirrors, revolted by how it looked on me. The cleavage went down to my fucking stomach and revealed most of my chest if not all of it.
A bang sounded at the door, almost making my soul jolt out of my own body.
“How long does it take to put on one dress?”, I heard his voice through the door, wanting to yell back some very unsavoury words at him.
“I’ll be out in a minute”, I replied, trying to sound as compliant as possible. He must’ve been appeased because his voice took on that smug lilt again as he spoke to me,” I’ll be waiting.” I tried to shake off the terrifying chills that raced up and down my body.
It was so much worse when he acted ‘nice’.
I was disgusted… by the image that stared back at me…. by the vile man sitting outside who I would be walking down the aisle for.
There was no way in hell I could wear this in public. I would be fucking humiliated.
But, what if he threatened me with destroying my family’s lives again… if that wasn’t bad enough, what if he actually followed through with his threat….. no, I could not risk that.
I almost lost my stepping, grabbing onto the dresser table for support as I squeezed my eyes tight shut. Wishing that I would open them and everything would be back to normal.
A stupid fucking wish for a stupid fucking girl!
A stupid, useless thought comes unbidden to my mind, that Daniel would probably make some juvenile joke about me wearing this in the privacy of our bedroom…. only for him.
I felt my stomach drop painfully hard when I realized that Daniel would never ever make me wear this in public, in front of thousands of people. As much as I hated him, as much as I despised him, I knew he would never try to hurt or humiliate me…. for his own pleasure, the sadistic bastard would… but never for anyone else.
I dug my nails into my palm, trying to distract myself from thoughts of my fiance’s nephew…. thoughts that made my heart ache in a way it never had before. Thoughts that held no meaning or consequence except causing me unrelenting pain that I did not understand the cause of… or did not want to.
I tried to empty my brain. Zipping up the back of the dress, I simultaneously tried to adjust the front, trying to make it seem as modest as I possibly could. If looking like a modest hooker was the mission, I probably succeeded.
I was just about to drop to the floor and crumple into a ball and bawl my fucking eyes out.
But just then a knock sounded on the door. I sucked in a desperate breath when I realized that Benjamin had probably run out of patience. Oh God!
“Ayesha? You in there?”, a familiar voice sounded. I couldn’t believe my ears.
Was I daydreaming?
“Daniel…. I..is that you?”, I hesitantly asked, sauntering over to the door, hoping against hope.
“Yeah. Open the door, will you?” And for what might be the first time in my life, I was outright delighted to hear that grumpy, impatient voice.
I lifted the latch and internally yelled out my thanks to the lord, meaning it with every fibre of my being.
Daniel pushed open the door before I could pull it open, making me lose my footing as he collided with me.
He caught me by the waist, letting out a repressed,” Fuck!”
I gasped out loud, catching my breath as he let me stand, locking the door behind himself.
He didn’t let go of my waist and I did not protest, taking in his dishevelled hair, so unruly and sexy. His half-closed eyes widened at me as his lips thinned in scrutiny.
“Well, this is a sight to behold so early in the morning”, he suggestively looked me up and down, getting over his shock as his mouth curved up into a delicious smirk, giving rise to dimples on his gloriously carved cheekbones that made my mouth go dry.