Week 94 – One day at a time…One step at a time. That’s how we will take things

She was grabbed roughly around the bicep and dragged out of the trunk of the car.

Astor Valentine swung her free hand at the man who held her, but he reacted quickly, blocking the blow and slapping her hard across the face.

Why couldn’t she learn her lesson?

Fighting back didn’t do any good.

It hadn’t stopped her from being drugged and abducted at a party. It hadn’t stopped her being locked in a cage for the last month. It hadn’t stopped her being dressed up and paraded around at an auction. And it hadn’t stopped her being sold.

Sold to the man who was standing just behind the man who still had hold of her. He was handsome, in a villainy kind of way. He had hair as black as night and eyes to match, she could see his muscles rippling beneath clothes.

There was something different about him.

He didn’t feel the same as the others. The men who had abducted her, the men who had beaten her, and raped her, who had taunted her and mocked her, they had felt evil. But this man didn’t. She knew he was the same, he had been at the auction after all, he had paid money for her, but when he had looked her over at the auction she hadn’t been afraid, she had almost felt safe.

“No need to be so rough with our new guest,” he said, his tone smooth and almost melodic. He stepped up and took hold of her hand. “One day at a time…One step at a time. That’s how we will take things, and one day you will learn how to be happy living here.”

Here was a huge mansion that looked like something out of a gothic movie, set in the middle of what looked like acres of perfectly manicured grounds and wild, untamed woods.

She would never be happy here.

Not until she killed the handsome man who thought he owned her.