A Love That Feels Like A Trap
621 Words
Chapter Six: A Love That Feels Like a Trap
(Anna's POV)
I couldn't breathe. My hands trembled as I gripped the paper, my mind spinning. Williams Levi Alex.
Alex. My stepbrother.
The boy from my past. The boy I had tried so hard to forget.
I staggered backward, my legs trembling, holding onto the rim of Levi's desk to prevent myself from falling. My chest constricted as memories I had suppressed for years flooded back.
My dad had left, promising he would return but never did. And once he was away, my stepmother made life miserable for me. She starved me, beat me, and let me understand that I wasn't needed. She had Alex—her sweet son. She didn't require me.
She abandoned me one day. She simply ceased picking me up from school.
I had waited for days, my heart shattering a little more with each passing hour. But no one came.
It was my teacher who found me, starving and desperate, huddled beside the school gate. She took me in, nourished me, and helped me survive.
And now, all these years on, Alex—no, Levi—was standing before me. Pretending to love me. Holding me close. Whispering sweet deceptions in my ear.
This was not an accident. This was on purpose.
I was sick. My hands were balled up into fists. Why was he here? Why now?
Had my dad even known what had happened to me? Or had my stepmom said something else to him—something that kept him away from me? Had he abandoned me, or had I been removed from him?
I didn't know. But one thing was for sure—Levi hadn't come for love.
I had fallen right into his trap. And now I was in it.
The Act Begins
A knock on the door startled me. I quickly put back the document in which I'd found it and made a quick dash to the mirror, adjusting my face back to normal. Levi couldn't even suspect that I'd found out. Not yet.
I arrived in the living room calm by the time I got there. Or at least, I looked calm. My heart was pounding and my stomach was twisting itself into a million tiny knots.
Levi remained there, standing in his standard dark suit, powerful and sure of himself. The man that I thought that I loved. The man I was afraid of.
But not tonight.
He was smiling—a softer, more genuine smile than I'd ever witnessed. And he had in his hand a small velvet box.
I stiffened. No. No, no, no.
He took a step forward, and another. And before I could react, he was on his knee.
The world became indistinct around me.
"Anna," he whispered, lifting the lid to reveal a diamond ring. "I don't want to lose any more time. I love you. I want to spend my life with you."
His words were golden, gentle—a deception clothed in silk.
I gazed at him, my breath shallow. My head shouted at me to run, to deny, to strip him bare. But I couldn't. Not yet.
If I said no, he'd be suspicious. If I called him on it then, I'd not be prepared for whatever game he was playing.
So I did the only thing I could.
I smiled.
A forced, dead smile. And in a voice that didn't quite sound like mine, I breathed, "Yes."
His eyes glinted, and he slid the ring on to my shaking finger, binding me further into his web.
When he stood up and drew me to his arms, I felt as if my heart broke.
I had just pledged to marry my stepbrother.
- Writer
