Love's Inferno

Chapter 3

Lilian

“Where is it?” I opened and slammed cabinet after monochrome cabinet looking for the damn fridge.

I'd moved into Daniel's palatial prison for a week and I could barely stand it. I had a birdseye view of

the whole city below. I'd sat by the ceiling to floor windows and watched people hurry about, mindingtheir business, crossing the busy streets, bumping into one another – a world I was familiar with, one

I'd love in all my life.

But up in his penthouse, modern and fancy and soulless, I felt like an imposter. No, more like a

prisoner.

All the cabinets looked the same, with their white, unlabeled doors.

It'd take opening almost all the doors before I found the fridge to make a damn sandwich.

Leaving was out of the question because I'd been accosted by reporters the moment I stepped out of

the building..

At least mom was comfortable. I dialled her number, hoping she was awake. I desperately needed

someone to talk to.

“Hello sweetheart,” she answered in her usual cheery voice.

“How are you feeling, mom?” I asked with a mouthful of butter sandwich.

“Lily, don't eat with your mouthful.” I would have rolled my eyes if she hadn't slipped into a bout of

hacking coughs.

My heart wrenched hearing her suffer, even more because I wasn't there with her.

“Here ma'am,” I heard Viv, the live-in nurse I'd hired say.

“Hello?”

“Hi, miss Anderson. She needs some rest. I'll–”

“Okay, let me just say goodbye.” I couldn't cry, not while she was on the phone. “Mom?” My voice

cracked.

“I'm fine sweetheart,” she said, her voice strained beyond recognition. “Just come see me when you

can, okay?”

“Okay mom. I promise.”

The line went dead and so did a small part of me. I wrapped my hands around my body. I should have

been rejoicing. Some random billionaire literally offered me the opportunity of a lifetime; be his

pretend wife and get paid a fortune. Why then did I feel like a caged animal?

“Why are all the cabinets opened?” I felt my spine go stiff. “And why is there a random slice of bread

on my counter?”

“I was hungry,” I mumbled, looking everywhere but at him. I couldn't let myself look at his face.He stayed silent for a while and I thought he had left. I looked up to see him staring at me with a

raised eyebrow. I swear he had makeup on or something because why was he so damn attractive?

“Jasper did make your first payment right?”

I nodded, laying my head on the kitchen counter.

“You do know you can order food right?” He c****d his head to the side.

“I know.”

He walked over to me and I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end; whether from fear or

something else, I couldn’t quite tell.

He grabbed my discarded sandwich, inspecting it as if it were an infectious specimen. “Why? You

know what, never mind.” He pulled out his phone and started typing. “Jasper will hire a chef to cook

your meals from now on.”

I was stunned. Why did he care if I ate or not? And to hire a chef for me… Could this human garbage

actually have a semblance of a heart?

He headed out of the kitchen and my own body decided to betray me. My stomach grumbled so loud

he stopped and sighed, bringing out his phone again.

“Jasper has ordered some food. It'll be here soon,” he said in an unnervingly calm voice. “Oh, and

we'll be going on a date later today. Here.” He handed me a black card that felt cold to the touch.

There he went making decisions for me again. I stared at it not knowing what was in my hand. “What

am I…”

He shook his head. “It’s a credit card. You pay for things with it. Get something nice to wear.”

I gawked at the card in my hand. Was this some kind of test? Was he expecting me to run away with

it?

“You know how to use a credit card right?” His booming voice snapped my wandering mind back to

reality. “Or do I have to get Jasper to get you a dress?”

“No, no, no. I'm just… Nothing.”

“Okay. If you need anything, call Jasper.”

Stunned would be an understatement for the storm of emotions I was feeling. The front door slammed

behind him and I remembered I first interaction. And then the second.

He might seem nice now but he'd threatened to kill mother and I if I didn't sign his pretend wife

contract.Scum of the earth. That I what he will always be.

But why did he make my heart flutter?

I was alone and the place felt even bigger and emptier. I glanced at the black card in my hand,

determined to escape my beautiful cage.

***

“I, um… thanks for dinner. It was nice.”

“Sure,” he mumbled, furiously typing away at his phone.

He’d taken me to the most exclusive restaurant in town and on short notice too. If it weren't for the

contract, I'd have sworn he was trying to get in my pants.

With how charming and gentlemanly he acted, I'm not sure I would have been able to keep him out of

For the first time in all my twenty five years, a man truly made me feel like I was the only girl in the

world..

Too bad it was all an act.

“Do you… are you busy tonight? Maybe we could hang–”

“Logans, coming over. So…”

Of course. Logan, his best friend.

Over the course of the week I'd been here, he'd come over almost everyday and almost everyday, he'd

given me a withering look as if my mere presence was an insult to him.

“Okay, goodnight.” I don't know what I asked in the first place, the alcohol must have been clouding

my judgement.

As I trudged up to my room I thought about the situation. I'd never met someone so protective of their

best friend like Logan was. He'd hang around Daniel like a jealous girlfriend fending off threats.

I got to my room, tossed my purse off somewhere and slipped off my shoes, thinking about how I'd

see him do weird things like whisper in Daniel's ear. Probably things about me. I should have been

worried but hey, I was making a fortune being a pretend wife..

I was too tired to strip out of the finicky dress I'd bought. I slumped onto my bed spread eagle, staring

at the ceiling as if it held answers to questions I didn't know to ask.

My thoughts weighed on my mind and eyelids got heavy. I started to drift off to dreamland when a

buzzing sound jared me awake.Too exhausted to move, I laid awake listening to my phone buzz until it stopped. But no sooner did it

start again.

I groaned as I dragged myself off my cozy bed in search of my purse.

The caller ID showed it was my mom. My heart sank a little. I'd been off having fun all night that I

didn't even think to check in on her.

“Hello?”

“Hey Viv. Is my mom–”

“Oh god. I'm so sorry, I don't–”

My heart lurched in my chest. “Viv, what's going on.”

“It's your mom, she–she wouldn't wake up. I–”

“Where is she?”

“We're at Saint Anne. She in surgery. I'm so sorry Lili–”

Adrenaline pumped in my veins as I darted down the stair, Daniel's rules be damned. My vision was

blurred with each step I took.

Mom, please be okay.

“Daniel, please I–”

They scrambled apart, looking everywhere but at me. I could have sworn I saw theit lips touching but

I had more pressing matters on my mind.

Daniel sprang to his feet closing the distance between us, his face a mask of pure rage.

“I told you to stay in your room, did I not,” he growled, reaching to grab me to do god knows what.

I staggered back, my eyes brimming with tears. “It's my mom, she's in the hospital. I don't know

what's wrong. Please let me go.”

The anger on his face dissolved into a look of concern. For the first time since I'd known him, he

looked stumped. Too bad I couldn't appreciate it.

“Oh uhm, what do you–I’ll get my driver. Come on.”

***

Numbness. That was all I could feel. I knew I should have cried but the tears wouldn't flow.“There's nothing we could do,” the doctor had said.

I couldn't be mad at him. I couldn't do anything either. I wasn't there when she'd needed me the most.

Daniel had been there the whole time. Guiding me around with his had at the small of my back. At

least I could feel that.

The dam finally broke when I saw her lifeless body.

Everything after that was a blur. I couldn't think, couldn't see through the tears. I couldn't hear

anything.

I felt arms around me dragging me away. Someone was screaming. Was it me?

Then it all went black.

I woke up in a room, feeling too weak to even move my limbs. Daniel was there, staring at me

worriedly.

“I'm fine now,” I said.

“You're not. You need rest.”

“Oh,” I sat up. “you suddenly care about me?”

“Get some rest, okay?”

I scoffed. “Great answer. I guess I don't need this job anymore,” I mused.

He didn't say anything.

“You need re–”

“I'm fine. I want to leave,” I yelled.

“You signed a contract,” he said, rising to his feet.

“So? You can't threaten me with my mother anymore and I don't care what you do to me.” A

sickening thought popped into my head. “Are you scared I'll tell the world about your boyfriend?”

His eyes narrowed into slits and his jaws clenched. I'd managed to break the false image of niceness

he was wearing.

“I don't care about all that. Just let me go.”

“Get some rest.” He left the room and I heard a click.I wanted to pull my hair out. The walls started closing in on me. I needed air. I got off the bed and ran

for the door. Locked.

“Daniel, open the door.” My throat felt like it was closing with each unsuccessful attempt to open the

door. “Daniel, I swear if you don't let me go I'll tell. I'll tell everyone. Daniel!”

Hot, angry tears rolled down my face as I banged on the door over and over again.

What had my life become? How did I lose my mother and become some psychos prisoner all in the

same night.

Mr Kohen's warning rang in my head like a tune from a mockingbird.

I should have run.