Abby 2: Abigail

Chapter 17

My fingers brushed the fresh, springy blades of grass as I lay on the verdant back lawn of Eden's estate. The heat of the sun warmed me as my body sank into the earth's cool surface, the golden light painting the insides of my closed eyelids with shades of red and orange. But the serenity of the mid-afternoon sun did little to soothe the anxiety that secretly gnawed at me. It seemed that with every passing hour, Madeleine's offer echoed louder in my mind.

I had tried to focus on other things for the last few days, spending more time than usual at the club and mingling with the guests and regulars. I had even offered myself to Elizabeth if she needed a submissive for a training session. Yet the distraction was fleeting. The siren call of the offer tempted me every moment I wasn't distracted.

But every time my thoughts were allowed to drift, another voice, an unshakable imprint from my past, rose from deep within me. It was the voice of my father, reciting Sunday parables about the damnation that awaited girls who succumbed to the sins of the flesh. That voice was a venomous fixture in my skull, preserved there like a spider encased in amber.

I had spent so much of my childhood and adolescence at war with that voice. Now, as a grown woman lying on a billionaire's lawn in a designer sun dress, engaged to be married, that voice somehow screamed even louder. It was as if every step I took toward freedom only redoubled its efforts to reel me back into its paralyzing grip.

"Take over the club... become a Dominatrix," I thought, replaying Madeleine's words as if they might somehow lose their pull the more I repeated them. I said it again, softer this time, but still silent, the grass tickling my arm as I did.

"Dominatrix." I let my tongue curl around both the absurdity and power of the word. What would it even mean to take over Fleur-de-lis? To step into Madeleine's stilettos, so to speak?

A deep sigh escaped my lips as I gazed across the sprawling expanse of manicured lawns and sculpted hedges that stretched out before me. I understood the allure of this place for Eden. The structured beauty and the controlled elegance were a reflection of him. But for me, it was like admiring a painting: exquisite to behold yet lacking in realness. More than I cared to admit, despite my love for Eden, my home had become the dimly lit corners and velvet-draped walls of the Fleur-de-lis. The one place where I felt accepted without judgment.

"Eden," I sighed absently. The name ignited a bloom of love and hunger in my chest. I traced the outline of the ring he'd given me with my other hand, the metal warm against my skin from the sun. I pictured myself on his arm at some New Year's gala or a charity ball. The type of society event where all the guests wore tuxedos and gowns, and nobody ever once raised their voice. What would I be? A beloved ornament? A fixture in Eden's story haunted by the realization that I would never be my own person?

Through the noise, Madeleine's words came back to me. "But perhaps there is still a middle ground that can be found. After all, that's what relationships are all about, are they not?" Was that really the answer? Could my life with Eden and my life at the club actually coexist?

The sun was beginning to dip towards the horizon, casting longer shadows across the yard, when the distant crunch of gravel pulled me from my thoughts. I turned my head just as Eden's silhouette materialized in the golden light, his form framed by the grand archway that led to the side of the mansion. The familiar warmth that always accompanied his presence began to spread through me, making me forget all about my turmoil even before he spoke.

"Miss Abby," Eden said with his signature smirk. He looked part bad boy and part movie star as he strolled across the lawn toward me. Wearing linen pants and a white button-down, collar open, sleeves rolled to the elbow, his look reeked of generational wealth and male confidence. His shadow reached me before he did, eclipsing the sun and cooling my skin in a way that sent a pleasurable wave down my spine.