just for a bloody contract | Roman Godfrey au

ch. 3 • compensation

It was a week of being married to Roman. Nothing really happened in that one week. Olivia was gone. I barely saw Roman. PA school took up 80% of my day. There was so much studying to do. I was half way done and couldn't wait to graduate and actually work at a hospital. 

At the end of the week, I decided it would be fun if Shelley and I went out. I was not really that familiar with Hemlock Grove and needed to go somewhere beside school and the mansion.  

"Come on Shelley, what's the harm?" I asked. 

"You don't understand, Liana. The people outside are scared of me, of my face, of how I walk, of..." Shelley's voice began to shake. I held her tight. 

"Shelley, those people are blind. They don't see how gentle, how beautiful, and how important you are. Their loss. Don't care about them. Come with me." I insisted. 

"But mother?" Shelley asked.

I unwrapped my arms from Shelley and looked at her. "Olivia has spies here?" I asked back.

"No, but she'll get mad when she finds out." 

I shook my head. "She's not going to know. And if she does, it's on me. The important thing right now is we both calm down and have some fun for once."

"If that is the case, may I, may I bring Letha too?" Shelley asked.

"Is that your friend? Of course you can bring her. Your friends are always invited," I smiled. 

Shelley and I went to an ice cream parlor. Hemlock Grove was a pretty abandoned steel factory town. The only reason people started coming back was because of the Godfrey Institute of Biomedical Technologies. Roman was basically the prince of the town, but that meant Shelley was the princess. Yet people treated her like dirt. 

We ordered our ice cream when a beautiful, blonde-haired girl with big eyes approached out table. Shelley got up to give her a hug. I followed. 

"I'm Letha, nice to meet you," she told me. "I was at the wedding but couldn't stay for the reception. I'm Roman and Shelley's cousin, by the way". 

"That's alright. it wasn't really eventful anyway," I said, stopping myself from saying it was a circus. Roman's cousin? Also this sweet? Unbelievable. Letha, Shelley, and I ate ice cream and talked for the next hour or so. People gave us weird stares but I ignored them. 

It was around 6pm when we were done. When we left the parlor, a group of boys came and started to tease Shelley. Letha stood in front of her. 

"Stop!" Letha said. "Leave her alone." 

"Oh yeah? What are you going to do, pretty girl? Hit me?" mocked one of the boys.

"No because I'm not like you. Leave," Letha said as she tried guiding Shelley the other way, but the boys surrounded us. 

"Okay enough!" I shouted and grabbed the by the collar. "Stop it or I'll call the police." 

The other boys then started getting more and more excited and started to taunt Shelley, Letha, and me. I grabbed my phone to call the police, but one of the boys took it and threw it against the pavement. 

"Okay, that'll be it," Roman's voice echoed from being us. The boys stood there. Pretty daring if you asked me. Roman just looked at the main guy, and the guy started to slap himself. All the other boys looked freaked out. They started to leave. Roman started to wipe some blood off his nose. How'd that happen?

"Wait," I said. You forgot this," I gritted my teeth as I slapped that main guy too. "Don't ever come near Letha or Shelley again or I'll break your bones." 

Shelley was whimpering on the side of the sidewalk, with Letha rubbing her back to soothe her. Roman bent down and stroked Shelley's head and gave her a kiss.

"Get in my car, all of you," he said, glaring at me with anger. 

Letha and Shelley had already taken over the backseat, which meant I had to sit in the passenger seat beside Roman. Great. Shelley had calmed down and dozed off in the back. Letha was on her phone texting someone, from what I could see in the rear-view mirror. Roman gazed ahead and drove. 

"Letha, where are you going?" Roman asked. 

Letha clicked her tongue and looked out the window. "Peter's."

Roman halted his car right there and looked back. "Really? You're going to see him?" 

"Roman please. I don't want to talk about it. If you don't want to drop me, I can go home and drive myself."

"No, I wouldn't trust that road at night. I'll drive you there. And make sure he drops you at your place. And if he's not man enough to do it, call me, okay?" 

"Letha, call me, okay?" Roman said loudly. 

"Okay. Calm down. I'll be safe," Letha reassured her cousin. 

I looked to the window side of the car and smiled. So he did care about some people. Maybe he isn't as heartless as I thought. 

It was almost completely dark when we got to what I assumed was Peter's place. Roman turned the headlights on and in front was a man with brown hair, a beard, and a leather jacket and jeans. Letha and Roman got out and started talking to the man. That was probably Peter. From the looks of it, Roman didn't seem to hate Peter, contrary to my thoughts. Ah, he was protective of Letha, just like he was of Shelley. I smiled again. 

The trip home was silent. I had moved to the backseat where Shelley was still asleep. I was a little tired myself. When we got home, Shelley woke up and trotted upstairs. I wanted to follow her when Roman asked me to follow him instead to the study. 

As soon as we got in, he locked the door and yelled. "Who told you to take Shelley out? I said, WHO TOLD YOU TO TAKE SHELLEY OUT?!" I trembled at how angry his voice was. Roman put his hand around my neck. "Don't ever decide what you want or don't want to do with my sister without my permission. She's not yours. She doesn't belong to you. Nothing and no one in this house does. Is that clear?"

I tried to release his hand from my neck. I was pretty sure it left marks by now. "Couldn't you see how happy she was?" I talked back. I didn't care. No one was going to treat me like this. "Why are you trying to imprison her? She deserves to go out and have fun like anyone else."

Roman closed his eyes and let out a huff. He gritted his teeth, but he let go of me. "Did you see how hurt she was when they were mocking her? Did you fucking try to understand what she feels like. No, you didn't. It's been a week since you've come here, and you're already started ruining things. But gold-diggers like you won't understand. You're here for my money. And that's all you care about. You don't care about my sister or her feelings. Whatever you do, don't ever hurt her again or I promise I'll kill you. Stay out of my sister's sight and out of mine," Roman said as he opened the door and slammed it behind him, leaving me all alone in the study. 

I opened the door and ran across the hall to my room, closed my door, and started crying. It's been a week, and everything went wrong. With a growling stomach and tears still coming, I started to study to get my mind off things. It didn't work. So I went to bed, cold, hungry, upset, and alone. 

I didn't realize I had slept through the night. The alarm clock rang, and I realized I had to go to school. I face-palmed myself when I realized I didn't have a phone. Shoot. Never mind that, I got dressed, packed my bag, and opened the door, hoping I would see no one else except Comway. I looked below and there was a box. Who could this be from. I opened the box to find a brand new phone set. Compensation.