Taming of the beast - Completed.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

After a restless night, not leaving her room or eating, not wanting to face anyone, Callie rose early. Showered, and finished packing, ready to leave, when her mother entered the room, chair back where it belonged.

"You seriously can't be thinking of going back. Do you honestly expect us to believe you married a complete stranger, a foreigner at that? A very rich one. I expected better of you, Callie than being a kept woman."

Really, how insulting can she be? "I'm not a kept woman," she snarled, removing the packed case from the bed. "I also manage my husband's estate."

"Don't be silly," her mother dismissed with a wave of a hand. "You don't have the skills."

"Well, Riyad thinks I do, we have plans. Gigantic plans. I'm going to see it through."

"Callie, don't be ridiculous. Daniel Mitchell is better suited to someone like you."

"Well, that's never going to happen!" she dragged her case from the room. Not her room, never her room, because she'd never belonged.

Martha Carson trotted behind her, her heels clicking on the polished wooden floors. Callie's runners a soft tread. "You walk out that door, you won't be welcome back then where would you be?"

"Happy," she lifted the case in both hands and went down the stairs towards the front door.

Martha gasped behind her. "You always were an ungrateful child."

"And you don't own me," Callie charged towards the front door and opened it. The Uber would be here soon enough.

"But you owe us, after all, we are family," she hissed. Stopping Callie in her tracks, she glanced back over her shoulder, blanching.

"We were never a family, mother. I was never really a part of it. At least with Riyad, I felt a part of an actual family."

"You walk out the door, we're done. Once you cross that door threshold, you aren't my concern anymore."

"I never was," she said sadly,  stepped through the door opening, and outside. To a new life. One without them. Yet her heart ached at the thought of Susan. Just as she expected, as she legged-it down the steep driveway, as a car pulled up outside the locked gate. The Uber, striding towards the gate, slowing down as apprehension slivered through her, coming to a standstill as a familiar man uncurled from the driver's seat.

Startled, Callie looked behind her, watching frozen to the spot as her mother stepped back inside the house, closing the door. Daniel Mitchell in front of her as she turned slowly back, blocking her exit, arms crossed. Her fingers curled around the case handle tighter, shoulders back, mouth pinched.

"I'm not going anywhere with you. I'm not marrying you. I'm already married to a wonderful man. He leaves you for dead." Cold, hard eyes of disgust raked over him. Her skin crawled just by looking at him, even shuddered.

"Ah, yes, your so-called husband. Where is he, by the way? A man of his culture and who he is would never let his beloved wife travel alone, yet here you are." Triumph gleamed in his eyes. "I just want to talk to you Callie and when we're done, you are free to go. It's all about you."

Callie eyeballed him, not trusting him an inch, lowering her case at her feet. Leaving well before her flight departed, she had some time up her sleeve, and if it got him off her back, all the better. "Go ahead, I'm listening, but no matter what you've got to say, it won't stop me from leaving this hellhole." She should've never had left her safe haven. Hopefully, she would get back soon.

"I won't discuss anything out here in public," his arm swung towards the car.

"That's not going to happen." His jaw clenched, and something deadly and dark flashed through his eyes. The darkness she had seen before, when she had denied him, pushed him. No one said no to the likes of Daniel Mitchell in his very expensive suit, stylish haircut, and perfect white teeth, all a facade hiding a soulless man. She did, always. And her family had sold her off to him!