The Billion-Dollar Marriage Contract(38)

“I never lied to you, Nikos. Ever. You chose to believe my grandfather but not me. Tell me why everything is my fault?” His mouth opened to reply but she continued, “I fancied myself in love with you, remember? You were my whole world...” She looked straight into his eyes.

“...why would I lie to the man I thought I loved?”



The lights were switched on and the boy who brought their meals came in.

He opened the door slightly and pushed the tray of their food inside. Cassia gasped when she saw that his left eye was purple and swollen shut. His cheek was also bruised and his lip was cut.

“What happened to you?” she asked.

“None of your business, lady.”

Nikos accepted the tray and sat near the bars of the cell. “You can tell us anything. If you need to vent your anger or talk about it, you can tell me. I have nothing better to do with my time,” Nikos whispered.

The boy sighed and Cassia was surprised when he sat down.

“I failed them. They ordered me to go to a bar with them and deliver cocaine to a buyer. I did everything they told me except checking the money. All of it wasfake.” He sighed and banged his head against the bars.

“I really needed that money,” the boy added.

“How much was the cocaine?”

“About twenty thousand euros.”

Cassia’s gasped at the amount and her eyes widened when Nikos took off his gold, diamond-studded Rolex watch and handed it to the boy.

“Sell that and you’ll be able to repay them. There will still be extra for whatever you need the money for.”

The boy’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened as Nikos’ closed his hand over the watch. “No! I can’t take this!”

“You can and you will. Use it for what you need. I only hope that it’s for a good cause.” Then, Nikos stood up and returned to the corner of the cell. Cassia watched as the boy sat there stunned. He never took his eyes off the watch even as tears filled his eyes. After a few minutes, he hastily wiped away his tears and got up and left without another word.





The next morning, Nikos woke up screaming again.

Cassia shook him frantically and he saw the relief in her eyes once he finally became alert. He then realized that something was different. The lights were on and he was able to see everything in the cell.

He felt as though something bad was going to happen.

That was when he saw them.

The men were in front of their cell and they were looking at him with evil gleams in their eyes. Without thinking, he shoved Cassia behind him again just as the men opened the door to their cell.

“Trying to cause a disturbance, were you? Trying to scream for help? No one can hear you in this island,” the leader leered.

“No! He was having a nightmare! That’s all it was!” Cassia answered.

The men laughed and looked at Nikos like he was too weak and beneath their notice.

“Usually, in situations like this, it’s the lady that screams and the guy acts all brave,” one of the other men said.

The other howled with laughter and Cassia realized that they were drunk. Her fear for their safety increased. She knew drunk men tended to do impulsive and stupid things. She was proved correct when the men entered their cell and hauled Nikos to his feet. She was yanked along with him for they were chained together.

One of them retrieved the keys to their handcuffs and removed it. She rubbed at her sore wrist as she glared at them.

“Where are you taking him?!”

“We’re just going to teach him how to be quiet. Maybe pound some sense into him. Maybe even discipline him for disturbing us,” their leader answered.

Nikos struggled and tried to kick those who were holding him but one of them punched him hard in the stomach. He uttered a groan of pain and then fell limp.

“No! Please don’t hurt him!” Cassia recalled Nikos’ nightmares and her heart ached for him.

But there was nothing she could do. The men closed the door and switched off the lights.

“I hate rich men. Don’t you, Kristoff? I hate how they just had to be born and the world was already laid at their feet,” one of the men told their leader.

Cassia memorized every inch of his face and his name.

“Nikos! No! Please let him go!”

“Shut up, lady or we’ll take you too. I know the boss instructed us not to touch you but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him right?” Kristoff, told her. Then he added to the men, “I want my turn with her first,”

“Sure. Then we can pass her around. That would be one hell of a night.”

She heard their captors’ lewd jokes along with their footsteps getting louder.

“No!” she shouted and ran to the corner of her cell.

“Don’t touch her!” Nikos shouted.

He rammed his shoulder into the man on his left, whose head hit the wall. When he had space to move Nikos extended his leg and aimed a powerful kick to the one on his right. He hit the man’s stomach who then doubled over with pain.

“Son of a bitch!”Kristoff shouted.

He pulled his gun out and aimed it at Nikos’ head. “One more move and you’re dead.”

“Nikos!” she called out after him but the only response she got was the men’s laughter.

Nikos stilled. When he was held at gunpoint before, his life flashed before his eyes. Now, all he felt was sheer determination to live. He couldn’t leave Cassia defenseless at the mercy of these men.

Cassia moved towards the bars of her cell when she heard the sudden silence. She trembled in fear when she saw Nikos kneeling on the ground with a gun pointed directly at his head.

“No! Please! Don’t hurt him!” she shouted.

Cassia kept on shouting in the hope that she would be able to distract them from hurting Nikos. Or that maybe she could plead enough. They ignored her and picked Nikos up. They dragged him away from her, and with every step they took, her fear for him increased.

She couldn’t see anything anymore and the only thing she heard were their footsteps. It was followed by grunts and the sound of rattling chains.

After a few more minutes, the torture ensued. Nikos grunts of pain along with their captor’s maniacal laughter rang across the empty corridors. She recalled his nightmares and bile rose in her throat. There was just something different now, though. He didn’t scream for mercy. He didn’t beg. He shouted out in pain and cursed but he never gave in.

Tears fell from Cassia’s eyes as she was forced to listen. She huddled in the corner of their cell and covered her ears with her hands for she couldn’t take it anymore. After a few hours, she fell asleep still crying.

Cassia woke up when she heard the doors to their cell being opened. She stood, just in time to catch Nikos as they threw him inside. He groaned in pain as she dragged him to their pallet. Their handcuffs were placed back and the leader aimed another kick at Nikos before he left. It hit him on the back of his leg and his knees crumbled.

She knelt beside him and looked at him before the lights were switched off.

Nikos' left eye was swollen shut, his face marred with bruises and there was a cut across his left brow that still bled. He was also taking shallow breaths which meant that there could also be an injury to his ribs. Cassia lifted the shirt he wore and ran her fingers down his chest gently.

Nothing seemed to be broken but there were several large bruises and small cuts. She cringed when she saw one bruise that was in the shape of a foot. When they escaped from this place, she would make sure that those who were responsible for this would suffer for what they did.

She continued her examination until she ran across a large scar in his side. The skin there looked whiter and shiny. It was raised and smooth and Cassia knew this was a scar caused by a burn. She had several small cigarette burns from one of her foster families who punished her by turning her into an ash tray when she did something wrong.

She had nightmares as a child because of that. But looking at Nikos’ scar, it was bigger therefore it was more painful than what she experienced.

Could this be the one that caused all his nightmares?



This was not the time to think about those things. She stood up and reached as far as the handcuffs would allow without disturbing Nikos. He was unconscious, and that was a welcome relief from his pain.

She gathered water using one of their drinking cups and tore a strip from their thin blanket. She washed it clean to the best of her abilities using only one hand. She used that to clean Nikos’ wounds. He groaned and flinched but did not wake up and Cassia thanked all her lucky stars for that. She did her best to clean him and wipe away all blood and dirt.

When she was finished, she sighed and sat back against the wall beside her husband.

She wished that their escape would come soon. She couldn’t take it if anything more happened to Nikos.

And one of these days, she could be next.



During the last two days, both of them spoke to the boy who brought their food. Nikos spoke to him more and threw out subtle hints about several injustices. He also made the boy feel as if he truly understood him. He agreed with whatever the boy shared with them about his life here and Nikos made him feel as if he mattered.

She waited for the next time their meals would be brought. Since their cell was dark and windowless, that was the only thing she could use to tell the time. The next meal that would be brought to them would be their breakfast and Cassia would make sure that their plans to escape would already be fulfilled.