“Your room is ready for you,” Raphael said behind me.“Unless you’d prefer to share the master bedroom.”
I turned.“My room will be fine.”
Something crossed his expression.Disappointment, maybe.Or relief that he wouldn’t have to pretend intimacy tonight.I couldn’t tell, and I didn’t care.
“I’ll have dinner sent up at seven.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You should eat.”
“I’m not.Hungry.”
A pause.A muscle worked in his jaw.Then he inclined his head, a gesture that might have been respect if it came from anyone else.
“As you wish.If you need anything, Alice will attend to it.”
He turned and walked away, those careful steps carrying him toward his study.I watched him go, that same stiffness still evident in his movements, the way he held himself rigid, favoring his left side.Like he was injured.
Good,I thought savagely.I hope it hurts forever.
I climbed the stairs to the second floor alone.The silence pressed in around me.My room was at the end of a long hallway, away from the master bedroom, away from him.Small mercies.
The door opened onto the sitting room I had grown familiar with during my contract months.Soft grays and blues, exactly as I had left it.Through an archway, the bedroom was visible.A four-poster bed made up with crisp white linens.My suitcases sat against one wall, already unpacked, my clothes hanging in the closet, my toiletries arranged on the bathroom counter in rows that weren’t quite how I would have done it.
He hadn’t lied.Everything I needed.Everything touched by hands I hadn’t authorized, arranged by people I didn’t trust.
I walked to the window and looked out at the mountains.The sun was setting now, painting the peaks in shades of gold and pink, achingly beautiful.I used to love this view.Used to stand at similar windows and feel the vastness of the world around me, the freedom of all that open space.
Now there was only the cage.
The ring was heavy on my finger.I looked down at it, this symbol of his ownership, and thought about ripping it off and throwing it into the nearest drawer.But that would be admitting it mattered.That would be giving him power he hadn’t earned.
Instead, I turned my hand so the diamonds caught the fading light.Studied the way they sparkled, cold and hard and permanent.A beautiful trap.The physical proof that Lena Hughes no longer existed.
Survive now.Destroy later.
Clara’s plan.I would play the role of wife just enough to protect the hotel, and I would use every moment of proximity to learn his weaknesses.
He thought he had won.He thought this marriage made me his.
He had no idea.
I stood at that window until the sun disappeared behind the mountains and the sky faded from gold to purple to black.Until the stars came out, indifferent and distant, witness to nothing.
Then I turned away, shed my battle dress piece by piece, and prepared to sleep in my new prison.
Tomorrow, the work would begin.
6
RAPHAEL
The study door closed behind me with a soft click that sounded like a cell door locking.
She was here.Settling into her room, as far from the master bedroom as the house would allow.As far from me as she could get while still being under my roof.
My wife.