Dom Vadim's Vow

Tracking

“Why are you like this?”

“What? Scary?” He mocked her. “I am only living up to your imagination.”

“You were scary when I was a kid. Now you’re just a giant prick.”

“And you grew up to shoot your pretty mouth off instead of hiding behind a book or a bush in the garden. Maybe Australia did you a bit of good after all. Learning to stand on your own and be responsible for yourself has given you a bit of a backbone. Don’t worry. I don’t mind.” He shot back patronizingly. He tapped on the window separating them from the front and it rolled down. A hand extended out and a black velvet box was passed to Vadim. “Give me your hand.”

She looked out the window and shook her head. “I don’t want to wear any jewelry of yours, thank you, very much.” She folded her hands on her lap, clenching her jaw furiously.

“Your hand now.”

“No.”

“I swear you are trying my patience in the most difficult of ways.”

“You want my hand?” She turned to face him. She held her left hand up and extended her middle finger. “There you have it.”

She gave a shriek when he grabbed her arm and then jabbed her forearm with a needle. “Bloody hell! What the hell was that? Did you drug me?”

He sneered at her. “For what purpose would I drug you? I don’t need drugs to subdue you, Essence. It’s a tracking device in case you do something stupid like run off again.”

She frantically began rubbing at her arm, “no. Why? Why would you do such a thing?”

“Because you are my wife and I’m tired of wasting resources to find you. I invested a quarter billion dollars in the last several years developing the technology simply to be able to keep track of you once I caught up to you. Once we have a son, he will also be fitted with this tracking. It will be helpful in case of abduction attempts.” He shot her a sideways glance, “you should know your mother was convinced for a solid year you were kidnapped. She couldn’t believe for the life of her you would run out and leave her and your sisters to suffer the punishments your grandfather threatened. She really thought the best of you. The only reason she stopped believing you were kidnapped was the fact there was no ransom demand ever. She is quite disappointed in you. I fully expect she will tell you off when she sees you next.”

“I was disappointed in her. I can’t believe she expected me to give up my life and my child to appease an old man’s psychotic wants.”

“An old man who loves you. He did this for you.”

“He did this for him. His ego demands his company be run by a boy who shares his DNA.”

“He wouldn’t mind if it was a girl but none of you were interested in running the company.”

“Why do you keep saying a son then?”

“Because my family rarely has girls. He knows I’m unlikely to spurt out two XX’s instead of an XY.”

She was dumbfounded. In all the time she’d known Vadim Tudor this was more conversation than she ever engaged in with him, and it was far more sordid than she could have dreamed. He was not who she thought he was. Not only was he rude and obnoxious but he was not holding back on his anger either.

She was rubbing her forehead frantically. “This isn’t happening.”

“Oh, it is.”

“I hate you.”

“So, you’ve said.”

“Why does it need to be you?” She asked suddenly. “Why can’t one of us marry who we want and give him an heir. Why you?”

“He doesn’t trust anyone but me to run his company until your child is of age. I hate your sister Eliska. He doesn’t want Eulalie’s child to be an heir. Between them they don’t have the brain power of a snail. I will guide the child the way he guided me. I will do for our son what your grandfather did for me. However, having a child with one of your sisters will diminish the brain power necessary for the running of an organization such as his. Insipid women create insipid children.”

“They are both smart.” Even she heard the doubt in her voice despite the way her chin lifted defiantly.

“No. They are not,” he snorted. “Why do you think Eliska needs to make money on her back or Eulalie can’t function without her mother’s coaxing? Eliska barely completed her required education, and she probably blew half the faculty to make it happen. The girl was trading on her looks long before it was legal for her to do so. Eulalie has a panic attack taking a piss and most of the time it’s because she can’t find her way out of a well-lit room with one door.”

“Mental health is not a joke, Vadim.”

“No. I agree, it is not but your mother contributes and adds to your sister’s ailments it borders Munchausen by Proxy. Your mother has made it so Eulalie cannot thrive without her. I think it is because she is the last tether to your father. Your sister does look most like him than you or Eliska.”

“Eulalie needs my mother.”

“Your mother needs a shrink more than Eulalie does and your grandfather even to this day has a nanny for your mother. Did you know,” he turned his full attention back to her, looking at her with curiosity, “she offered herself?”

“What?”

“She offered to let me breed her.”

“Eulalie?”

“No, your mother.”

She pulled her lips back in disgust. “She did not.”

“Mm. Willie was so worried your grandfather would demand Eulalie take your place, she came to his office, dropped on her knees and offered herself.” He gave a disgusted shudder, “not even through a clinical procedure would I consider such a thing. Your grandfather was revolted. He threw her out and told her if she ever suggested such a thing again, he’d have her locked up in a sanitorium.” He made a noise which bordered a chuckle, “I had to look up what a sanitorium was. It means looney bin in case you didn’t know.”

“Did you just laugh?” She never in all of her life ever heard him laugh. Not even as a child.

He frowned. “What?”

“I swear you just laughed. It was odd.”

“Odd? How so?”

“You don’t laugh.”

“I laugh.”

“No, you don’t.” she denied it emphatically. “I have known you my entire life. You do not laugh.”

He narrowed his gaze at her, and then shocked her to the core by telling her a story. “Do you know I’ve legitimately known you since you were born? Your mother and father brought you to the house to introduce you to him. I was eight, nearly nine and visiting with my grandfather and father. Your sister was five and she kept trying to hold my hand and I pushed her into the fountain. I was punished and told I had to sit by the baby and not move a muscle. It wasn’t an awful punishment as far as punishments go. You were a quiet baby. You had tiny little fingers you kept wrapped around my big finger.”

She was surprised by the storytelling. She’d never heard this before and the thought of him sitting and holding her fingers seemed odd and she wondered if he wasn’t lying. His next words were astonishing.

“Then your sister didn’t like how I was giving you attention, so she pinched you. You weren’t a couple of days old, and she pinched you so hard it made you cry, leaving a bruise on your cheek. I slapped her across the face and my father brought me home. I was beaten with a paddle across the arse, but it was worth it. I learned that day not to give you any kind of attention if your sister was around lest she hurt you for it. She always was a bit off.”

“You slapped her?”

He gave a wicked grin with the memory, and she was alarmed at the sight of it. “First time I ever hit a girl out of anger. I got punished for hitting a girl and was told to never hit a woman out of anger. Since then, I never have struck another one for such a reason however to this day, it remains one of my favorite memories. I’d love to smack her again, this time with a closed fist.”

“You’re sick.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked out the window.

“Why? Because I enjoyed hitting her?”

“Yes.”

“She pinched a brand-new baby, and your parents were too busy asking your grandfather for spending money they didn’t even notice what she was doing. She pinched your arm first, then your leg and when you didn’t respond to either, she grabbed your cheek and twisted it hard. f**k your mother for not taking better care of you.” He gave her an annoyed glare, “I hope you will be more attentive to our child.”

“I am not having your child.”

“I heard you tell Monty you expect your period to come in the next couple of days. It will clear you out, along with whatever residual s**t he’s left in you. We will get an STD panel done as well considering I noted he went bareback today.”

“I am on birth control. I cannot get pregnant.”

“I have your medical records. You are to start your next packet of pills next week. You won’t be taking them.”

“I’m not having your baby.”

“We’ll see.” He didn’t even look in her direction. “For now, though, lets simply get you home so you can face your grandfather, sisters and mother.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Again, nobody is asking you if you do.”

“I don’t owe him anything!” she yelled suddenly, tears welling up again. How much more could she cry? “The man has never paid me an ounce of attention in his entire life and suddenly I’m asked to give up everything for him?”

“Are you kidding me right now? You’re supposed to be the smartest of the three of you and yet you’re dangerously bordering on stupid. He hired you the best tutors and spared no expense on making sure you were comfortable away from your slutty sister and your absentee mother. When you would come home for summer, he would send your sisters and mother away, so you weren’t forced to be subjected to Eliska’s debauchery or your mother’s negligence.”

She was stunned. Essence was barely breathing, “why?”

“You look exactly like your grandmother, Essence and you are as clever as she was. He sees you in her and he has only ever wanted you to be safe. He loves you deeply. You’re simply too dense to see it.”