Sofia’s pov
“Why aren’t you eating?”
As the question washed over me, I couldn’t stop myself from flinching. Weakly lifting my head up till I was staring at Ryan, I hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“I’m not hungry, thank you.” I whispered and then I glanced away to stare at a spot on the wall which I’ve been staring at for days.
It’s been two days since I got kidnapped by Ryan, and so far, it didn’t seem like I was gonna get rescued anytime soon.
The sound of him coming close to me made me pull my legs closer to my chest and wrap my arms tightly around myself, as if that was enough to protect myself from him.
He crouched at the side of the bed once he got close and I hastily averted my gaze before it could meet his. His hand shot out and prevented that form completely happening, leaving me to stare into his ones. A pair of eyes which I once used to find comfort in, but now, it did nothing but scare and repulse me to the core.
He cleared his throat and his fingers stroked my jaw for a moment. “It’s been two days and you’ve not tasted anything,” He paused for a moment.
“You’ve not tasted anything so far, why is that? Do you wanna hurt yourself?” He asked, voice soft band soothing and once again, I couldn’t believe I let myself trust him, couldn’t believe I didn’t pick out those signs which had definitely been there for a while. If I had picked them out and gone to Luca about them, then nothing would have happened, then I won’t be here right now.
“I just wanna go home.” I whispered, tears rolling down my cheeks as the words left my mouth. If that response angered him, he was quick to hide it. I watched as he exhaled sharply through his mouth as if mad, then he waited a bit before starting to speak once again.
“You need to eat, lest you hurt yourself and that’s the last thing I want to happen to you, you know that, right?”
“You’re hurting me this way, you’re keeping me here against my will, that’s hurting me so much because I once trusted you with my entire life.” I explained through my tears, and this time, I got to his feet and began to pace for a few moments.
“I’m not hurting you, Sofia. This is the best thing that I’m doing for you. With time, you’d understand and you’d come thank me.” He started to speak while facing away from me. I pursed my lips, wishing there was a way I could stab him and escape. When he crouched beside the bed once again, he had the food in his hand once again.
“Will you eat for me please, princess?”
I almost retched this time. “Don’t call me that!” I called out loudly and then I shoved the tray off the bed. The tray fell with a loud clang and somehow, that left me with a slight satisfied feeling.
When I glanced at Ryan’s face, his face was filled with so much furiousness that I didn’t notice his hand coming up till it connected with my cheek in a loud slap. My head whip to the side from the force of the contact and more tears spilled down my cheeks at once. I cradled my cheek in my palm just as I felt Ryan’s arms wrap around me as he tugged me in his arms and began to shush me.
“Oh my god, princess, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it, I just lost it for a moment, I’m so sorry, hm? You gonna forgive me? Please forgive me, princess. I’d never hurt you on purpose, you know that, right?” As those words left his mouth, his hand didn’t cease their movement in my hair as he held me against his chest while I cried, feeling extremely drained and sick to my stomach.
I continued to cry, not knowing what to do, or say.
I fell silent after a while. As Ryan massaged a balm into my cheek, I tried to remain motionless. I wanted to throw a tantrum, wanted to make things more difficult for him, but the fear of him doing something much worse to me than a slap, sat heavily at the top of my throat in the form of a large lump.
The woman who came by to clean of the mess didn’t look me in the eye, which I was glad about. The door didn’t get locked after she left, like it hadn’t been since I got situated in here. Ryan had claimed I couldn’t do any harm anyway so there was no point in treating me like a prisoner. He had said I was free to walk around in the house seeing as this is my new home. The thought of this prison being my new home made me sick to my stomach.
My cheek feel swollen and would definitely bruise tomorrow. The fact that he had actually hit me, proved how sick he was, and once again, I wonder how I was unable to notice it till it actually played out.
When I asked him how many people he had killed because of him, he claimed to have lost count. Clearly, he has some sort of sick obsession with me, and I hate that I had unknowingly fed into it till it grew to its current size.
When Ryan returned with a new tray of food that night, I opened my mouth for him to slip the food in after hesitating for a moment.
“Good girl.” He murmured as he held a glass of water for me and bile rose to my throat at those words, which I hastily chased down with water.
“See now, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” He mused as he fed me another forkful of food. As I slowly chewed, tears fell down my cheeks, which caused him to frown at me for a moment before he wiped them away.
“There’s no need to cry, princess. Look at you cooperating now, which means things will continue to go smoothly between us, and that means there’s no other reason for you to cry, huh?” He continued and more tears continued to slip out.
He groaned in frustration for a moment. “This is taking me down memory lane of that night Luca hurt you and you had to check yourself into an hotel, that fucking bastard.” He scowled as he spoke and I flinched.
“Is this about the slap? That was just because I lost my temper, I’m so sorry, hm?” He held a forkful of food up. “But hey, that helped seeing as you’re now cooperating with me now, don’t you think so too?”