He Canceled Our Wedding Ninety-Nine Times, So I Joined His Enemy novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: The Rule of the House

Ines fed me before she let me work.

She sat me at the kitchen table at seven with a bowl of white beans and sausage and stood over me until the bowl was empty.

"Too thin," she said. "He doesn't eat either. Two of you at one table, I'll go crazy."

"Aunt," Gabriele said from the doorway.

"I'm talking to the girl."

"I'm twenty-nine," I said.

"Then you're old enough to eat a second bowl."

I ate a second bowl.

Gabriele leaned in the doorframe with his jacket off and his sleeves rolled to the forearm, and he watched me finish with an expression I couldn't read.

It was the first time in five years anyone had told me to eat.

Afterward he took me to his study.

It was a square room full of books and ledgers, with a fire going and a leather couch under the window.

"Your back," he said. "Sit."

"Ines already checked it."

"Ines checked it this morning. Sit."

I sat sideways on the couch and undid the top three buttons of my shirt.

He knelt on the carpet behind me and lifted the gauze.

I felt his breath first, and then his fingers.

They traced the edge of the longest welt, one inch at a time.

"It's closing," he said. "The third one is deepest."

"The third one was the hardest."

His hand stopped.

"He used his full strength on the third," I said. "I counted."

← Chapter 6 · All chapters · Chapter 8 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend