6. This face isn’t yours!

Aelia’s POV

The silence between us was razor-thin. I took slow, measured steps, keeping the jade hairpin pointed at my own face, a desperate gamble to keep him at bay. Pedro’s gaze followed my every move, sharp and unreadable, his muscles coiled as if he were waiting for the exact moment to strike.

I just needed to get around him. Just a few more steps, and—

My eyes flickered to the locked door for a fraction of a second.

A mistake.

He moved like the wind, so fast my brain couldn’t catch up before he was on me. The hairpin was ripped from my grasp, clattering uselessly to the floor. A breath later, my back hit the bed, and before I could react, he was on top of me, pinning me down with a force that made my lungs feel caged.

His hands gripped my wrists, his eyes wild with rage.

“This face isn’t yours!” he thundered, his voice thick with something I couldn’t name. “You have no right to harm it!”

The sheer intensity in his voice paralyzed me.

I wanted to fight, to push him off, to scream but I couldn’t move. My body refused to listen. Instead, a suffocating terror swallowed me whole, a feeling I hadn’t felt in years.

This wasn’t the first time I had been pinned down like this.

Memories of the past slammed into me like a tidal wave, the dark room, the hands clawing at me, the sickening sound of a belt unbuckling. Twice before, I had escaped the unthinkable. But this time… this time, I was trapped under the weight of a man who could crush me without a second thought.

I trembled, violently. Not by choice. Not by will. My body simply remembered, even if my mind fought to forget.

Pedro’s grip slackened.

His expression shifted, anger melting into something else, something unsure. His eyes trailed down to my face, and he saw it. The single tear that slipped down my cheek.

For a moment, he just stared.

Then, he let go.

He stood up, his jaw clenched so tightly I thought his teeth might shatter. Without another word, he turned and walked out, leaving only one cold command in his wake:

“The maids will get you ready. We’re going out.”

—

I barely had time to catch my breath before the maids entered.

They worked swiftly, their faces blank and professional, as if this were nothing unusual. As if they had done this a thousand times before.

They didn’t hesitate. Didn’t ask questions. Didn’t so much as exchange a glance at one another as they pulled me up and began their work.

But I hesitated.

These weren’t just any maids. They were hers. The wife’s.

And yet, there was no malice in the way they combed my hair, no whispered threats as they powdered my skin. No sign that they resented tending to the woman their mistress probably wanted dead.

What kind of marriage was this?

When they finished, I turned to the mirror only to feel my stomach drop.

The dress was barely a dress at all.

It clung to my body like a second skin, made of glittering, silver mesh that left little to the imagination. The back was bare, the hem scandalously short, the thin straps draping loosely over my shoulders as if one wrong move would send the whole thing slipping off.

My arms shot up to cover myself. “I can’t wear this.”

“The master’s orders,” one of them replied without emotion.

I let out a frustrated breath. “Then tell your master that I refuse.”

They didn’t argue. They simply told me where to find him.

So I went to find him myself.

—

I reached the door they directed me to and, without thinking, pushed it open.

And immediately wished I hadn’t.

The scene before me made my blood curdle.

Pedro was half-dressed, sitting in a chair, his shirt unbuttoned, revealing the hard lines of his torso. A woman straddled his lap, her hands tangled in his dark hair, her lips moving hungrily over his neck. Her dress was hiked up, her bare legs hooked around his waist, and Pedro—

He was letting it happen.

My stomach twisted.

A violent, ugly wave of emotions crashed into me all at once, disgust, fury, something else I didn’t want to name. I didn’t understand why it burned so much, why the sight of him with her made my chest feel tight.

But I didn’t stick around to figure it out.

I turned and ran, heart pounding, bile rising in my throat.

And behind me, I felt Pedro’s eyes on my back.