Sapphire's POV

I’d barely made it to the side gates when I saw them.

Two guards, dressed in black, talking quietly and blocking the only exit. I froze behind the tall hedge, my bag clutched to my chest, heart thudding in my ears. My phone buzzed in my jacket pocket. Ray.

I didn’t answer.

If they saw me now, they’d drag me back inside like a prisoner. So I pulled out my phone and put it on silent. That could be the only giveaway they'd get of me if I don't do that.

I inhaled sharply. No. I had to get out.

My eyes scanned the property, calculating.

To the east was the stables. That side was less monitored. There were no cameras, just a few workers. If I cut through the side yard, slipped between the hedges, and used the emergency exit behind the gardener’s shed…

I broke into a sprint.

Mud splashed my boots. Thorns clawed at my coat. I ducked behind trees, moving fast but quiet, adrenaline pushing every step. I didn’t stop until I reached the rusted metal gate hidden behind the white roses.

I pulled. It creaked, loud enough to make me flinch.

Someone shouted behind me.

“Hey! Stop!”

I didn’t look back. I shoved through the gap and bolted down the slope toward the woods behind the estate.

Footsteps pounded behind me. Voices shouted. My lungs burned, my legs screamed, but I didn’t stop, not until I hit the tree line and the mansion disappeared behind me.

I was free.

I hailed the next taxi I saw and jumped in.

“Take me to the furtherest hotel from here. I'd pay you any amount you want.”

The man nodded and stepped on the gas driving far away from the mansion that I had barely spent a week in but thought me my worth more than I had ever known.

My phone beeped again, it was a text from Ray.

I'd be there soon.

I texted that I had left the mansion and would be at the fatherest hotel I could find.

“what is the name of the most distant hotel from here?” I asked the driver.

“Mama's Bed motel.” he replied in a gruff voice and I nodded, typing away on my phone the address to Ray.

—

We got there in about an hour. I was glad that we were pretty far away from the mansion.

I got out and gave the money I had to the driver. I picked up my bags and walked into the motel. From the he outside it didn't seem that bad but as I stepped in, the motel was as shitty as I expected.

“Welcome to Mama’s bear.” an old woman smoking said to me. I scrunched my nose as the smoke went into my nose.

“I'd like to pay for a night. I'm waiting for someone.”

“Ah, yes. You want to elope with your lover.” she chuckled.

“we get that a lot around here.”

She ransacked the shelves and gave me a key.

“That'll be fifty dollars.” she wrote into the register as she spoke to me.

I gave the money to her and collected the key from her. Picked up back my bag and walking up the creaky stairs to the room on the card

Stepping into the room seemed like waling into the 1950’s. The room looked extremely old, even the furnitures too.

Peeling wallpaper. Carpet that smelled like old beer. A buzzing fridge in the corner that sounded like it was dying. But the door locked, and the window had a curtain, and for the first time in hours, I let myself breathe.

I dropped my bag on the bed and collapsed beside it.

Ray hadn’t called again. Maybe he gave up. Maybe he thought I chickened out again.

Maybe that was better for a while till I calmed down enough to reach out to him.

I didn’t know what I wanted from him. I just wanted to be far away from Darnell and his smug, lying mouth, from his empty bed, his cameras, his press conferences.

I curled into a ball and pulled the scratchy blanket over my head.

Maybe in the morning, I’d think it all over again and reach out to Ray.

---

Night.

There was a knock.

Three sharp raps.

I sat up, heart hammering. I slid off the bed and crept toward the door.

“Ray?” I called quietly, pressing my ear to the wooden door.

Silence.

I unlocked it slowly, hand trembling, and opened the door—

Darnell stayed there.

Wearing all black. With his hair slicked back and in his chair. That same cold, unreadable stare in his eyes.

I stumbled backward, stunned.

“You, what the hell, how did you find me?”

He wheeled himself inside like he owned the place. Like he didn’t just track down his runaway wife in a dingy motel hours from his estate.

“You thought I wouldn’t?” he asked. “You thought I’d just let you go?”

I shut the door behind him, more to keep the screaming inside than anything.

“How dare you?” I hissed. “You humiliated me, lied about me on live television, and now you think you can just... just show up here like nothing happened?”

He stared at me.

Then said, calm as ever, “You left without my permission.”

I laughed bitterly.

“Oh, I didn’t realize I needed a permission slip to escape my billionaire husband who uses me like a fuck toy and then denies I even exist.”

His jaw tensed. Just slightly.

“You’re my wife,” he said.

“Then what was last night?” I snapped. “A pity fuck? Something to keep me from leaving? And don’t say it wasn’t, because the moment you zipped up your suit this morning, you told the whole damn world I didn’t matter.”

His lips parted like he might explain.

I didn’t give him the chance.

“I’m not yours, Darnell,” I said, my voice cracking. “I don’t care what the contract says. I’m not some doll you can pull off the shelf when you feel like it.”

He got up from his wheelchair and crossed the room in two strides.

Suddenly he was inches from me, close enough to feel the heat radiating off his body.

“I never said you were a doll,” he murmured. “But you are mine.”

“I’m not your sex toy.”

“No,” he said darkly. “You’re whatever I want you to be.”

I slapped him.

The slap sounded across the room. His head turned slightly, his cheek red from the impact.

He didn’t move or flinch.

Just stared at me with that maddening calm. His breathing grew heavier, but he didn’t touch me. Not yet.

Tears burned my eyes. “Why do you even want me, Darnell?

He walked up to me and pulled closer to him, my heart raced and all my walls fell as his mouth brushed my ear. “I came to take you home.”

And with that, he lifted me.

I kicked. Shoved. Punched his shoulder. “Put me down! You can’t just—!”

He carried me to the bed and dropped me onto the mattress. I scrambled up, but he blocked my path.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said. “Not again.”

“Watch me,” I spat.

He grabbed my chin. Tilted my face up.

His voice dropped to a whisper. “Run all you want, Sapphire. But no matter where you go, no matter how far you crawl… I will always find you.”

I froze.

The truth in his eyes hit harder than any threat.

“I hate you,” I whispered.

He leaned closer. “You hate what you make me feel.”

A long pause.

Then he turned, walked to the door, and opened it.

“Let’s go.”

“I’m not leaving with you.”

“Yes, you are.” He glanced back but I didn’t move.

He stepped out, waited.

And somehow, some goddamn part of me followed.

The woman from earlier looked at me sympathetically as she put the wads of dollars in her bra.

She gave me up? Really? What happened to being a girl's girl?

Darenell’s guards came up to us. Darenell’s was on his wheelchair again. I still didn't understand why he did that.

One of the guards came nuo to us and wheeled the chair away towards the door of the motel and I followed.

Inside the car, I stared out the window as the car drove by the buildings.

“Sapphire.” Darenell’s called out to me but I didn't listen to him.

“Give me your phone.” he said but I refused to answer him.

Suddenly, hmmy hand was pulled roughly and I fell on him. He titled my head up and held my chin in a firm grasp that hurt.

“When I speak to you, you answer me. You do all that I tell you. Do you hear me?”

“I will not do as you say.”

He chuckled darkly and held my chin tighter, making it hurt the more and me wince.

“You see, you don't know where you're wrong Sapphire. I own you.”