*Omario POV*
Abi is exhausted and drifts off to sleep immediately after her bath. I would be exhausted too if I had to do all the chores she did today. One thing is clear, Titan was right that I need to get her out of here. I tried my best but I can’t protect her. There are just too many people to look out for now and I can’t be with her every minute of the day. I also can’t keep her in my chambers like a prisoner. There’s also the part of me that seems to have a brain of its own. Like how the fuck did I end up bathing her? What happened to the self control I prided myself of?
I watch her sleep, so thin, persecuted, yet so peaceful.
I am so glad that we have talked and the weird pain on my chest is gone. I, however can’t explain a lot of things anymore. I don’t even know what I know now. I need to speak to my mother about the mate bond, but first I need to set Oli straight.
She and Loyd are sitting in the balcony when I arrive.
“Rio. I am sorry for the way I reacted earlier. I..” Oli tries to explain but I cut her short.
“You tried to kill her.”
I still can’t believe that she could be so cruel.
“I didn’t!”
Her denial is making me question a lot of things about her. This is the second time she is lying to me about Abi today.
“You hit her on her forehead with a vase and sent her to bathe your aunt’s killer dogs. That’s trying to kill her.”
She frantically shakes her head. “She is lying. Don’t you see that she is trying to destroy us?” she says with misty eyes, acting all wronged.
I have known her all my life. A few days ago I would have believed everything she says. I would have sworn on my life that I knew everything about her. It scares me to say I don’t know this person in front of me right now. I don’t know my childhood friend and fiancé.
“I do not take kindly to being lied to and someone making a fool of me. You gave her a list of chores. I have seen it and know your handwriting. Are you making a fool of me, Olivia?”
I approach her and she starts trembling. She can tell that I have had it with her. I really love her, but I can’t take her conniving. She has crossed a line and is becoming a lot like her aunt. I am not sure that I want to be associated with the person she is becoming.
Loyd jumps in between us before I get to her. They both know the implications of what she did.
“Are you challenging me, Loyd?”
He frantically shakes his head. That would be stupid and deadly on his part.
“Rio, please. Jealousy made her do stupid things. I beg you, please let me talk to her. It won’t happen again,” Loyd desperately pleads.
“It better not,” I say and leave them there and head to my mother’s wing.
Mother is surprised to see me when she opens the door. I have not come here in over a month because we have not been getting along lately.
“Omario?”
“Mother.”
I don’t wait for the invitation that might not come but walk in and leave her still standing at the door.
“To what do I owe this honour?” she asks, looking suspiciously at me.
It hurts that we have become so formal with each other. She and I used to be very close but that’s my fault. One I hope to mend one day.
“I would like to know more about the mate bond,”I get straight to the point.
She lifts up her eyebrow and sits next to me on the couch.
“Please tell me about the pains, Mother.”
“Pains?”
“Do you feel any when you and dad argue?”
I desperately need to know. She and dad are the only couple I know who still feel their bond.
“Trouble in paradise? Did you and Oli fight about that servant you won’t leave alone?”her disappointed tone always breaks my heart. I wish I could just come clean with her, but for Abi’s sake, I can’t.
“I’m not here to talk about that, Mother.”
“Dull, aching pain only he can evoke and only he can mend,”she says with sadness evident in her voice, sadness I can’t protect her from.
“I am sorry.”
“It’s okay. I have gotten used to that one. It’s the infidelity one that’s really bad. It’s like all your insides are pulled out and twisted. It’s the worst pain I have ever felt. I feel it so often yet I can’t get used to it.”
My jaw drops and my heart breaks for my mother. Dad has multiple sexual partners and I can’t imagine how she feels.
“I am so sorry, Mother.”
I wish there was something I could do, but she is married to my indestructible dad. I now believe that she will never leave him because of their mate bond and he will never divorce her because of the same thing.
“Now you understand why I don’t approve of your relationship with that servant. I don’t wish for anyone what your father puts me through.”
I nod my head. “My relationship with Abi is complicated, Mother. Leaving her alone is handing her over to Blake. I can’t do it.”
She looks really hard at me before laughing in disbelief and kissing my cheek.
“You are not ‘fucking her’ as you boldly put it before. It’s all a show to her off the lustrous bastards. I should have known!”
I open and close my mouth. I don’t know how much I can tell my mother because her disapproval is critical for my claim of Abi to be believable.
“Don’t worry, I will maintain my reactions,” she says and winks at me.
“I never lost my sweet, kind boy after all,” she adds excitedly and hugs me very tight.
“Mom.”
She can’t look this pleased with me, then everyone will know.
“Relax, we are in private,” she reassures me but I am worried about her.
“Are you going to be okay?”
It can’t be easy on her, especially now with Brenda as dad’s full-time mistress.
She waves her hand dismissively at me. “I have decided to give your dad a taste of his own medicine.”
“Mother, you can’t.”
I know that I sound like a hypocrite but dad will definitely kill any man who comes close to my mother. He sleeps around but is very jealous and possessive of her. His friends and even guards know to never dare look at her too long because dad does not hesitate to kill anyone he views as a threat.
Mother laughs at me before pulling me to her bedroom.
“I need you to put batteries on this thing,” she says, passing me a box and batteries.
“Mom!” I exclaim and throw the dildo on her bed.
“Don’t be such a caveman. This is my revenge on your promiscuous dad without risking anyone’s life. Fix it,”she insists.
I am for anything that will punish my dad while ensuring everyone’s safety.
“Okay, but don’t tell him that I was involved in this.”
“Chicken. Are you done?”
Mom is really excited about this. I finish putting the batteries in, turn on the switch and alive it becomes. I can’t believe that I am fixing a dildo for my own mother!
“Here, take it.”
There’s just something weird about touching an electronic dick.
“Great! Now go watch your father squirm,” she says excitedly and I can’t help but be looking forward to seeing of how this bond works. It takes me two minutes to get to Brenda’s wing and find dad on the lounge fondling with Brenda’s partially covered breasts.
“Here to make up with Olivia?” the obnoxious woman asks.
“Here for both of you actually.”
They both look at me and o get to the point. “Abi won’t be serving you anymore,” I say and take a seat.
Dad gives me a sharp look but I’m not deterred. “Are you defying me?” he asks.
I expected his reaction but he does not scare me because I know that this will go my way.
“She ended up in the dog’s kennel when she was here,” I tell him and he curses under his breath. He knows very well what the implications of that are. He knows that Brenda’s dogs are killing machines who seem to have a preference for servants. He knows that according to the prophecy, if Abi dies, so does he.
“Do we need to allocate guards to make sure that she does not try something stupid?”
I shake my head. He is making the same assumption I made earlier and ended up upsetting Abi. I give him the paper with the list of Abi’s chores.
“We just need to keep your mistress and my fiancé away from her.”
Brenda peeps at the paper and shakes her head. “I did not write that. I swear I did not know about it.”
Dad might be fucking her but he won’t take kindly to anyone risking his life.
“Devious and evil. Off course you did, but Omario is right. Choose any other slave you want, not her,” he says decisively. Mission accomplished.