She's Yours Now

Alice

Silver eyes hold on my face for several seconds as I attempt to remind myself to breathe. Mr. Severin stands in the doorway next to Henry, unmoving. I cannot pull my gaze away from his face, not only because he is the most stunningly beautiful man I’ve ever seen, but because there is something mystical about him. Something… haunting.

“This is she,” Henry says, laughing nervously. “Right over here.” My stepfather is making a sound low in the back of his throat, and when my eyes finally flicker to him, I see that he is gesturing angrily for me to stand.

I’d like to. In fact, I’d like to stand and run out the door, but they’re blocking it–and I don’t think it would do me much good anyway. Instead, I manage to inhale a quivering breath and push up off the sofa. My knees wobble noticeably as I steady myself, my hands shooting out to keep my balance.

Mr. Severin takes a step toward me, as if he is afraid I might fall and should like to help me, but when I recover on my own, he pauses, turning to look at Henry. “This is your daughter?”

“STEP-daughter,” he corrects again. “Yes. Alice.” He moves as quickly as his pudgy body will allow to my side and wraps an arm around my shoulders, pretending as if he cares for me. “Isn’t she lovely?”

Mr. Severin’s eyes wander over my face, dropping down to my torso and lower for only a moment before that silver gaze locks back on my eyes, and I can’t help but bite my bottom lip and look away. Though I know I do resemble my beautiful mother more than I do my father, no one other than she has told me I am lovely in quite some time.

Not that I see many people these days…

“Your name is Alice.” His voice is so deep, it rumbles around in my ears for a moment. It’s not a question. He knows my name already as Henry has just told him, probably more than once.

Still, I nod. “Y-yes, sir.”

“See what fine manners she has? And she’ll be fully capable of doing whatever you’d like-from cooking to cleaning to warming your bed. I know she looks young and inexperienced, but she is a fast learner, and her mother was always compliant.”

As Henry continues to discuss my mother’s habits in the bedroom, assuming I shall likewise do as instructed, I feel my knees grow weak again. I might swoon, but Henry’s grasp on my shoulder is quite tight.

“Enough.” Mr. Severin cuts him off before he can go into graphic detail. “No need, Mr. Voss.”

“Oh, yes.” Henry clears his throat. I’ve never seen him grow complacent quite so quickly. “At any rate, I know it’s not the money you had promised, but I assure you, she will be of great value to you.”

Mr. Severin’s eyes flicker from Henry’s face to mine again and then back before he says, “Two million is quite a lot of debt to forgive, but then, someone desperate enough to sell their own child is not the sort of man I like to do business with anyway.”

Two million?

I start to topple again, the enormous weight of what Henry is placing on my shoulders sinking in. I’m meant to pay off a debt of two million dollars to this man?

Henry leans so close to my ear, I can feel the spittle and taste the alcohol on his breath as he says, “Do not ruin this for me, you ungrateful little bitch!”

My eyes widen as fear pulses through me. I’m about to say something in return, the routine, “Yes, Stepfather,” when Mr. Severin is suddenly right in front of us. How he got here so quickly, I do not know, but an instant later, it’s his arm I’m leaning on.

“Do not speak to her that way.” His tone is measured, and I see the fear prickling behind Henry’s dark eyes. How in the world did he hear such a faint whisper so far away?

“Oh, I apologize,” Henry says, holding up both hands and lowering his head. “I was only telling her that she would be quite happy with you, sir.”

“It is beneath your station to tell such invented tales.” Mr. Severin, who smells like sharpened metal and fire, releases the tight grip he used to pull me away from Henry but keeps me at his side.

Henry has nothing left to say, so he only stands there with his head bowed. I consider hazarding a look at Mr. Severin, but I do not. I cannot.

“Where are her belongings?” His voice is still low and gravelly.

“She has none,” Henry says with a shrug. “Only a few gowns. The rest I’ve had to sell to pay off our debt.”

“Your debt,” Mr. Severin corrects. With a sigh, he says, “Very well. Let us go.”

But Henry is wrong. I do have a few possessions I’d like to take with me. As Mr. Severin moves to the door, I find myself tugging on his arm. “Please–might I rush back to my room for just a moment, sir?”

He turns and looks at me, his brow crinkled as if he thinks I might try to jump out the window, to escape and run or to plummet to my death. A single nod is all I’m granted, and I take off before Henry can interject.

Taking the stairs as quickly as I can, I hurry to my room. There, between my mattress and box springs, I pull out the photo of my mother I managed to hide from Henry. Beneath my dresser, I pull out a hairpin of hers in the shape of a butterfly and a dried flower we picked together on the last day we went walking in the garden.

That’s it–that’s all I have in this world that means anything to me at all. I quickly grab a bag from the closet and shove the items inside.

When I return, Mr. Severin waits at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at me. I can no longer see Henry, and that’s fine. Though this new man scares me, and I’m afraid of what he might demand of me, I’d rather be anywhere in the world than here.

My knees buckle a few times as I make it down the stairs. Saying nothing, Mr. Severin turns and walks toward the door. I follow.

We pass Henry in the foyer, and he sounds absolutely disgusting the way he’s thanking Mr. Severin for taking me instead of the money he cannot pay.

I do not even turn my head to look at him as we walk out the door to a long black limousine. With a deep breath, I follow Mr. Severin inside, praying he’s not spiriting me away to my doom.