Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96714 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 484(@200wpm)___ 387(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Ivan stared at me. He did this a lot. Ever since they’d kidnapped me, Ivan would come see me and stare at me. I was pretty sure he was assessing me, trying to figure out what to do with me, but I could be wrong. I had no idea what he thought about.
“You don’t know how to play, do you?” Ivan asked.
“I know how to play,” I mumbled the words so it didn’t sound like a complete lie.
“Then pick a game and we’ll compete.”
I looked around the room and nibbled my lip. “I’m feeling very tired. I think I should go to bed.”
“He didn’t allow you to play, did he? Your father, I mean. You weren’t allowed to have fun and I’ve got a feeling if you even showed any signs of fun, he’d beat you.”
I stared at Ivan. What the fuck was I supposed to say? I felt frozen. “It’s not a bad thing not knowing how to play games.”
“You’ve never had a real chance at being a kid,” Ivan said.
Staring at Ivan, I didn’t like how accurate he was when he talked about my past. I was not someone to be pitied. “Neither did you,” I said.
“Very true but the difference is, as I got older and I took back what was taken from me, I learned how to play.” He moved toward the pool table. “With pool there are obviously ways of playing and doing the right moves, but while we’re just getting used to this, I think it makes sense for us to simply enjoy hitting the balls.” He picked up one of the sticks, moved the triangle off the balls, and then took aim and shot at the balls. They went everywhere. I expected them to come flying off the table but they didn’t. They hit the sides, some of them going down the holes. “Ah, now that is satisfying.” He held out the stick to me. “Would you like a chance?”
I reached out but then hesitated.
“You don’t get to have fun. You don’t get to play. You’re nothing. Trash is nothing. You’re fucking nothing.”
“He’s dead, Charlotte. He’s not going to come and take this from you. You can have fun. I won’t allow, nor will your husband allow anyone to stop you having fun.”
My hand shook as I took the stick from him. I kept expecting the pain to radiate through my body, but it didn’t. There was no pain.
Ivan took the cup from my hand and then I turned to the table.
“What do I do?” I asked, hating the slight quiver I heard in my voice. This wasn’t fair.
“Eye a ball, take aim, and shoot. We’re not playing an actual game of pool tonight. You can just aim at the balls.”
I stared at the balls and then leaned forward with the stick in hand, copying what I saw Ivan do, and what I’d seen on television. Taking aim and hitting a ball was hard. I missed three times, and then finally hit a ball.
Ivan took the stick from me and sunk a ball. Then it was my turn again. We worked our way around the table. Ivan sunk every single ball and I just hit them. Some I managed to do with a little more force than others. It was a lot of fun.
I expected us to go to bed after that, but Ivan must have had trouble sleeping as I did.
We moved onto the air hockey. Now with this game, my heart raced and I couldn’t help but laugh as Ivan shot the hockey puck across the table toward my goal. I was useless but knew I was so going to get Hubert to play with me. I preferred this game to the pool table. I did get a few pucks into goal, but not a lot.
My drink was long finished, and we ended up playing on two of the arcade games. One was a fighting game, and another was being chased by something that ate you—I don’t exactly know what they were. Then, one glance at the clock and I saw it was a little after three in the morning. Crap. With Ive home, this wasn’t good. I had to be awake and alert around him.
“I’ll walk you to your bedroom,” Ivan said.
Did he know me and Ive had separate bedrooms?
“It’s okay, Ive is a heavy sleeper.”
“You and Ive are not sharing a bedroom, Charlotte. You do not have to lie to me. Do you enjoy being married?”
“I, er, yeah, it’s been fun.”
“Because your husband is never home. You are not truly married. Tell me, Charlotte, would you like a large family?”
I open my mouth then close it. How do I answer that? Is there a right or wrong answer? I didn’t know what to do or say.
Ivan smiled. “I want you to think about it.”