CHAPTEREIGHT
Vivia
I’m lyingover his lap feeling helpless and furious and so aroused I could scream. It isn’t fair how quickly he strips me not only of my clothes but of my pride, my dignity. I have nothing to hide behind with every slap of his palm and stroke of his finger. Nothing.
"Now answer the question."
Part of me doesn’t want to answer the question because I’m embarrassed. Another part of me truly doesn’t have the answers, and further, I don’t want to tell him the full truth. I know I betrayed my family, even if ignorance was my biggest sin.
I can’t hide behind silence anymore. He will do everything in his power to make me tell him everything.
“Yes. Yes, fine. I saw the deposit. At first, I wasn't sure where it came from. I get an allowance from my brother, but it’s… less than that.” Not much less, but he doesn’t need to know that. “I didn’t think much of it because I have a credit card and all my expenses are met.”
He can’t hide the note of derision in his tone. “So twenty-five grand wasn't a blip on your radar for you then, was it, little princess?"
I grit my teeth, fully aware of the fact that he can and will punish me when I talk back, but I don’t care right now. “I hate it when you call me that."
That earns me three more searing smacks of his palm.
"No, it didn't bother me. I wasn't sure where it came from, and I didn't care. "
I didn't care because I was planning my escape. And I figured wherever that money came from, I would use it to get the hell out of Dodge. That plan went to shit, and I'm not telling him because it'll get back to my brother. And if I ever escape this, I'd be in indefinite lockdown for the rest of my life.
"So you didn't know that was a payoff for information directly related to Marialena?"
I tell him honestly, “No.”
"You didn't know that the information was sent from your phone with the information they retrieved?"
I squirm over his lap, scared of what can happen next, when he asks me something I can’t answer.
"No."
He strokes his palm over my sore ass, and I try to steel myself so I don’t feel, I don’t respond.
It doesn’t work.
"Did anything at all tip you off that the guy you were with was using you at any point?"
"Of course," I tell him. "But I didn't think much of that either, because every man I've ever been with was using me for one reason or another."
Truth. I gave him the truth.
Finally.
“Did you know that the man you were with was on another’s payroll? Did you know he was working for someone?”
I don’t know how to answer that either without implicating myself. I think about what to say, but apparently, I’m too slow, because the next thing I know he’s spanking me again, hard, and this time he really means business.
He’s lecturing me like he’s in charge of me, and it makes me want to punch him. “When I ask you a question, I expect an answer. No answer is disobedience. Hesitation is disobedience. You have five seconds to answer before your ass feels my belt.”
I freeze. At the threat of him taking his belt to me, I don’t know how to respond. I realize in a panic I don’t even remember the question.
He shifts, still holding me against him, and I feel him reach for his waist.
“No! Dario! Ask again!”
But he doesn’t listen. With one rapid tug, he holds his belt in his hand and slides it along my ass.