Read Online Colour Series Box Set by Ashleigh Giannoccaro - Free Book Online

think about trying to escape almost all afternoon checking the windows and doors again like they may have magically opened. They didn’t. I eventually give up and take a bath. It’s like I am back in my old life I cannot escape, the only difference is Renzo isn’t here to inflict pain on me.
    I lie in the bath forever, well until there is no hot water left in the tap. Fuck him if he wants a shower, I used it all. I’m acting like a child now and I know it. I should be used to being a prisoner by now I have been locked away enough times before in way worse places than this one. At least this is home. And there aren’t any monsters here. Well one, but he is not my monster and I don’t believe he would hurt me.
    My fingers trace some of the burn scars on my thighs as I lay in the nice warm bath water. Some are still raw and the latest burn is still a big nasty blister. Burning was Renzo’s favourite way to hurt me the scars were the worst but I would welcome the physical torture over the mental abuse and isolation any day of the week. There are other scars marring my body from the eight years that it belonged to Renzo. The one that I hate the most is on my left shoulder where he stabbed me with a pair of scissors and just left it to heal without having stitched. It is still purple and raised and ugly. Ugly like me.
    I think that once I am let out of this Rowan jail and I’m actually free really free of Renzo, I want to get some of them covered in tattoos. They will certainly be prettier than the scars themselves are. Anything is prettier than the scars he has left on me and in me. A scar is something that can never be gone, only hidden away. I should know, I hide mine all the time. They remind of what I am, weak, worthless and the whipping girl for my father’s wrong doings.
    I hear the car pulling in and check my watch - it’s after six already. The days seem to take an eternity when you have nothing to but think. I look out the window in the dusky light of early evening and see him park his sleek black Range Rover that is covered in dust and mud. I wonder where he went. No I don’t. He went to work. He gets out wearing a black suit, his tie has been loosened and he looks a bit rough around the edges. I see he’s holding a take away bag, thank you god for the food he didn’t cook. He looks dark and dangerous and yet that makes my heart beat a little faster than it was. I see the back of his broad shoulders disappear towards the front door. I wonder what those look like naked. Shit stupid brain. No I don’t. But I actually do. But I don’t want to.
    Please let that food be for me. I’m so hungry for something with taste.
    It seems to take ages before I hear sounds coming from the rest of the house. Water first, shame he is shit out of luck if he thought he was getting a hot shower. I smile thinking of him having a nice icy shower next door. I have gathered he resides in the room next to mine, the old guest room. I hear the water switch off rather fast and actually laugh a little to myself.
    Minutes later my door opens, he doesn’t come in instead he just calls to me from the hall way. “You can come out and eat if you want too.” His voice is calm and flat gives no clue of what part of Rowan I will meet out there.
    Then he walks back down the hall towards the kitchen I can hear the muffled footsteps moving away. I’m so stunned I don’t actually move for a minute of two at first but then walk rather briskly after him. He plops the take out bag on the counter and begins to unpack it. I notice his hair is wet and he is in sweat pants and a snug V-neck T-shirt that kisses his muscular chest in all the right places. His feet are bare and he seems more relaxed than he was outside my window, maybe he needed a cold shower after all. I smile again.
    “Something funny, Little One?” His words wipe the smile right off my face in seconds. Little One . The words turn my blood ice cold. Renzo called me that, never my