Claiming Vanessa: Breeding Contempt #1 by Raissa Donovan & Addison Wolf

Author:Raissa Donovan & Addison Wolf [Donovan, Raissa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

14

VANESSA

I don’t particularly want to eat. I never used to have issues with appetite, but now that I have nothing to do except dread Giulio, Damien, or Slayer’s visits, my stomach ties itself up in knots and threatens to expel any food. Every day is spent in anticipation of one of them showing up to drag me out of the room and force me to service them.

“I’m not hungry,” I tell whoever is at the door, curling myself toward the wall. I half-expect it to be one of the men, to have them tell me they don’t care, and despair sweeps over me. A few nights ago when that door had opened, it had been Giulio and Slayer, who had been intent on having me give them lap dances.

It might’ve been comical if it hadn’t been so humiliating.

“I’m coming in,” a female voice answers, completely ignoring me.

Not Stef, this time, but Elena. I glance at her briefly to see her carrying a tray with a full lunch on it. She walks over to the bed and sits down, placing the tray between us.

“You can’t simply starve yourself,” Elena says softly. “No matter how much you want to.”

I stare down at the tray. I’m torn between hunger and nausea, unsure of which is stronger. It smells good, but I don’t know if I can keep anything down, not with the stress and the constant fear. I shake my head. “I’ll eat later,” I say. “I’m really not hungry.”

For a few minutes, Elena doesn’t say anything. She picks at her fingers, hiding her face behind her hair. Hiding her scars, maybe, the strange, stretched out ones that I can only begin to guess how she received. In a fire, maybe, or somebody dumping scalding water on her.

“When I first… When I was first forced to work here,” Elena begins quietly. “I felt the same. I tried everything I could think of to kill myself. I tried starving myself. I tried cutting. I tried suffocating. I even once attempted to drown myself in that tiny sink.”

I look at her, horrified. No matter how bad the situation is, suicide hasn’t even crossed my mind. Would it now? Would I be tempted now that the thought’s been planted in my head, a way to escape?

No. Lucia needs me. I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but I’m going to get out of here, and I’m going to… My shoulders slump. I’m utterly helpless, and I know it. I can’t understand the level of despair Elena must’ve been going through when she’d first arrived here, and I’m grateful for that—even though the gratitude makes me feel guilty.

I want to say something powerful, meaningful, but I can’t think of anything. I bite my bottom lip then look down at the tray.

“They’ll force feed you if they think you’re starving yourself. It isn’t pleasant.” Elena spears some of the large noodles with the fork and holds it out to me. “Please. Things won’t get better if you have no energy at all.

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