Owned By Silence: The Forbidden Affair

Chapter Three

I gasped in shock, my eyes widening as I pushed myself against the chair. "What? No. No, I can't—"

"You can and you will." She reached across the table and grabbed my wrist. "Because the alternative is those loan sharks finding you. Do you know what they do to people who can't pay, Hannah? Do you want me to describe it in detail?"

I tried to pull my hand away, but her grip was like iron. "I won't kill anyone. I'm not a murderer."

"You don't have to kill him yourself." Her smile was terrifying. "But you... I need you to get close to Adrian Cole. Understood?"

"Get close to him? How? I'm nobody. I work in the administrative pool. He doesn't even know I exist."

"He will." She released my wrist and sat back. "After today, after he saved your life, he'll remember you. You'll find ways to interact with him. Deliver documents personally. Create opportunities."

"For what?"

"To make him trust you. To make him want you. To get him alone where I can finish what I started five years ago."

My stomach churned. "You want me to seduce my…boss? From killing to seducing?!"

"Calm down. It's not like you have a choice.I want you to survive, Hannah. I really do have your best interest at heart.”

“Yeah right. Tell that to a two year old. Not me.”

I was about to stand up qhen she said, “You might think I am bluffing. But I'm not. If you don't help me, you'll be dead within the week. The loan sharks, the fake identity, the money laundering, I have enough evidence to destroy you ten times over."

She pulled out her phone and showed me a photo. It was me, three years ago, coming out of the strip club in Queens. I looked desperate, broken, nothing like the woman I'd tried to become.

"This goes to your HR department if you refuse. Along with documentation of every law you've broken to create your new identity."

Tears stung my eyes. "Why are you doing this to me? I never hurt you."

"Because you're useful. Because you're expendable. Because you have no choice."

"There has to be another way—"

"There isn't." She stood up, leaving money on the table for the coffee. "You have until tomorrow morning to decide. Get close to Adrian Cole, or face the consequences."

"And if I do this? If I help you destroy him?"

"Then you get to keep your little life. Your job, your apartment, your precious routine that keeps you from thinking about your dead fiancé."

The cruelty in her voice made me flinch. "How long?"

"However long it takes. Adrian Cole is careful, paranoid. It might take months to get close enough to finish this."

Months of pretending to seduce a man I barely knew. Months of lying, manipulating, setting him up for whatever Elena had planned.

How had my life changed within a few hours?

"I need time to think. Tomorrow morning is a bit too far-fetched.”

"No, It's not." She leaned down, her face inches from mine. "You need to understand that thinking time is a luxury you don't have. Those loan sharks aren't patient people, Hannah. Neither am I."

She straightened up, adjusting her expensive coat. "I'll be in touch tomorrow. And Hannah? Don't even think about running. I'll find you wherever you go and trust me, you won't like how that ends."