obsessively mine

CH#19 HIM

It's been over two weeks, and every day feels like I'm being pulled into her orbit, like she's a magnet I can't escape. The more I try to resist, the more I realize that I'm falling for her, and the thought terrifies me. It's both thrilling and dangerous, especially knowing that she's a world apart from me—wrapped in secrets I don't fully understand.

Each morning, Stacey leaves for her office, leaving me alone in her grand, empty mansion. The silence that fills the halls is deafening, amplifying the thoughts I'm trying so hard to suppress. Today, as I wrestled with my feelings, Alfred's voice cut through the quiet, pulling me from my reverie.

"Still thinking about her?" he asked, a knowing smile tugging at his lips as he appeared beside me.

I looked up, still caught in the tangled web of my thoughts. "You could say that. Who was that man last night?"

Alfred's expression tightened, the casual ease in his face replaced by something more guarded as he cleared the table. "He's someone Stacey avoids talking about—like her parents."

Confusion gnawed at me. "But I heard him say he was her husband. Is Stacey married?" The disbelief in my voice hung heavy between us. The idea seemed impossible, like something out of a bad dream.

Alfred shook his head slowly, his eyes clouded with something between concern and disapproval. "No, she's not married. Not in any real sense. It's complicated. She needed help securing Kevin's custody, and to do that, she had to make a deal with the Bratva."

My heart skipped a beat. The Bratva. Of course, it had to be them. "So, she married Alexander... to get Kevin's custody? From whom?" My voice was a mix of confusion and disbelief.

Alfred's gaze turned somber. "Not exactly. Alexander isn't Kevin's father—at least, not biologically. Stacey isn't his mother either. Kevin is the son of Stacey's best friend, who passed away. She's raising him out of loyalty to a promise she made. But to protect him, Stacey had no choice but to turn to Alexander. The Bratva demanded their price for securing Kevin's future—and that price was her."

The weight of his words hit me like a punch to the gut. Stacey's life was far more complex, and more heartbreaking than I'd ever imagined. Her "marriage" to Alexander wasn't born of love or affection but necessity—an exchange to ensure Kevin's safety, to uphold the promise she had made to a dying friend.

The mansion, once a symbol of wealth and privilege, now felt like a gilded cage—a place steeped in pain, secrets, and obligations too heavy to bear alone. My feelings for Stacey were no longer just infatuation; they had deepened into something far more dangerous. Empathy, admiration—sorrow for the price she had to pay.

Alfred's eyes met mine, filled with a quiet sadness. "Stacey's life is nothing like what it seems. She's sacrificed everything to keep Kevin safe, to honor her friend. She's caught in a web of choices that were never really choices."

The revelation left me reeling. Stacey wasn't just a woman I was drawn to—she was someone who had given up her freedom, her future, to protect the boy she loved like her own. The path ahead of me wasn't just about my feelings for her; it was about navigating a world I had barely scratched the surface of—a world of dangerous loyalties and impossible sacrifices.

As I stood there, grappling with the reality of Stacey's life, I realized that falling for her was only the beginning. What lay ahead was far more complicated—and far more treacherous—than I had ever imagined.