Page 80 of Silver Sinner

What if I ran? Would I get far? Probably not. The parking area is filled with cars and men who would all use me as target practice.

I have no choice but to follow.

Inside the manor, a large foyer stretches out before us. Black-and-white tiles crisscross the floor, with dark stairs framed by black-and-gold railings, winding up to the upper floors. Several grotesque paintings hang near the doors and my blood runs cold. They depict several scenes of rape, one of a woman being torn apart in all directions by bulls, and one where a man sits on a chair of women with a glass in one hand, being filled by blood from another woman's throat.

I tighten my grip on Maddie and thankfully leave the foyer behind for a smaller room filled with bookcases, a piano, and a man.

A man with deep-set wrinkles weaving valleys across his face, thinning gray hair, and yellowing teeth that protrude slightly from his mouth.

"Father," Trik greets and he casts one loose arm toward me. "Happy?"

The man narrows his eyes at me and snorts wetly. "So, this is the whore who has caused me so much trouble?"

My hand on Maddie's head immediately slides over her ear. He isn't familiar to me, but he looks at me as if he's known me for years and it makes my skin crawl.

"Yup," Trik replies. "This is Layla."

"You fucked that?" The man's upper lip curls in disgust. "I thought you had taste."

"She didn't look like that when I fucked her, did she?" Trik retorts. "She was thin and beautiful back then."

I'd be upset if I weren't wound so tightly with horror that I'm even here in the first place. "Who are you?"

"This is my father, you ignorant cunt," Trik snaps with a lash of anger.

"You can call me Pavel," the elderly man states. "To think I have a whore walking these halls. Your mother will be turning in her grave."

"I'll happily leave," I grind out, my heart hammering fiercely in my chest.

"Leave?" Pavel lifts one gray brow. "No, leaving is not an option. You see, Trik should have killed you back then the moment he learned you were pregnant. Time and time again, I drilled into him the disgrace of illegitimate children, but back then we were fighting. So he paid you off instead."

My stomach tightens. That money was barely enough to get me room and board for a week, but I'd taken it because it finally freed me from that brothel. I'd been so grateful to leave that life behind and build something for my baby away from dangerous men and violence.

Naive, now that I look back.

"And now, it seems, Lady Luck has shown fit to decide that Trik's choice was the best thing that ever could have happened." Pavel's lips pull into a thin smile while Trik giggles eerily, both of them looking at me with the weight of something I can't decipher in their eyes.

"The best?" I repeat hoarsely.

"You have value," Pavel states. "More than you could ever imagine."

Value? What the hell is he talking about? Nothing in my life is valuable. I'm the same woman, almost, as I was back then. Nothing has changed in my life that makes me any more or less than I was when he kicked me to the curb.

I blink and suddenly two of Trik's guards are around me. One wrestles Maddie from my arms while the other wrestles with me, prying us apart like two unwilling magnets.

"No!" I scream, kicking out at the brute tearing my arms behind me.

"Mom!" Maddie screams and she reaches out for me with both hands. "Mommy!"

"Maddie!" His grip is like iron and he hauls me backward, then throws me into Trik who circles both arms around me and crushes me against his chest.

"Mommy!" Maddie's tearful, fear-filled face vanishes through the door.

I twist in Trik's hold, writhing left and right, but it's impossible to dislodge him while he laughs coldly in my ear.

"Relax," he hisses. "They're just going to put her to bed. And you better fucking calm down or I'll take you out back and kill you. You have value, but not as much as she does. Remember that."

His words still the frantic thrashing in my limbs and I sag forward, panting and teary. This can't be happening. This has to be some kind of nightmare. All those nights I ignored Trik's messages, growing bolder and bolder when he never acted on them. I grew complacent and safe thinking he was nothing more than a stain from my past.