Redemption: (Dark Desires Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

anymore.

 
    Vladimir was losing his mind
when it came to Valerie. She was sinking further and further into herself, and
he couldn't do anything about it. They were sharing the same bed but, it didn't
feel that way. They might as well have been on two different planets. He was
asleep for a few hours before he woke with a start in a cold sweat. Every night
since he had learnt of her rape, he relived the same nightmare, and it managed
to shake him to the core. He was bound to a chair while Keyaan taunted him.
He'd rip open her clothes and push himself into her. Valerie would beg him to
stop and then cry out for Vlad, yet he was helpless to move. He was bound and
gagged; unable to do anything but watch.
    Tonight had been a different
nightmare. They were at the beach house where he'd woken up and left Valerie in
bed, as had become the norm. He went down to his office to make a call. Upon
his return, he heard the sound of running water. She was in the bathroom. As he
walked closer to the door, he noticed that the carpet was soaked with water
leaking from the bathroom.
    He
called out to her, but she didn't reply. He broke down the door only to find
her lifeless body floating in the deep claw foot tub; the blood from the cuts
on her wrist spilling along the white porcelain.
    Valerie was often restless in
her sleep. She would mumble and sometimes whimper. In these moments, he held
her until she quietened down. They were bittersweet moments. He knew that she
wouldn't allow him to touch her if she were awake.
    It was wrong for him to violate
the barrier she put up between them while she was unconscious, but he couldn't
help it. He kissed her cheek, thankful that she was still alive. He hated that
this is how things were between them now. However, he couldn’t imagine being
anywhere else or with anyone else. He was bound to her.
    *****
    Natasha could no longer keep
what Valerie had said in confidence. She couldn't force her to see a
psychologist, but the next best thing was Macy. She already had her undergrad
and was currently in her honour’s year.
    On Friday, all three showed up
to the beach house. Toni knew something was up. She had tried to give Valerie
her space and that was going nowhere seeing that they hadn't spoken since her
return. When Tash and Macy became secretive around her, she decided to confront
them, and that is how she found out the truth. Vlad let them in, and Natasha
led the way to her bedroom. She knocked on the door and entered to find Valerie
curled up in a foetal position.
    “Baby girl,” Macy said as she
went over to the other side of the bed and sat on its edge facing Valerie.
    “I couldn’t let you do this
anymore,” Natasha said climbing into bed behind her.
    “We love you and will always be
here for you, no matter what,” Toni added.
    Valerie couldn't say that she was
surprised that they were all here. They were thick as thieves, and if one of
them was in trouble, the others took the burden upon themselves until
everything was resolved. "I don’t know what to say. I was kidnapped, but I
wasn't mistreated. Keyaan would come to visit me sometimes, but I never
encouraged any kind of friendliness. Should I have been hostile towards him?
Did my cordial behaviour give him the wrong message? I’ve been replaying the
interactions we had over and over again and if I had stayed calm, if I hadn’t
lost touch with reality that day, then this wouldn’t have happened.”
    “There are so many variables in
what you've just said, Val. You can't blame yourself for someone else's
actions. If his intention was to hurt you then there is nothing you could have
done to stop it," said Macy.
    “You don’t understand,” her
voice broke. “I-I let him put his hands on me. I should have known when he
started bathing me that I had let him cross the line, but my mind wasn’t there
anymore. I didn’t care anymore. And when he was inside me… it’s like my mind
and body belonged to two different people. I had an