Chapter 2
On the other end of the line, Milo went silent. A few seconds later, he stammered, "P-Professor White?"
Daniel's voice remained steady, carrying a hint of a polite smile. "It's me. Milo, if I remember right, I'm your thesis advisor.
"Your project on 'The Role of Mirror Neurons in Empathy Responses' is pretty interesting.
"So, drop by my office at eight tomorrow morning. Let's dig into it. And don't forget to bring all your experiment data and drafts."
On the other end, Milo sucked in a sharp breath.
Damn, Daniel, that was brutal. For a grad student, this was worse than getting punched in the face.
Milo's voice was on the verge of tears. "Professor White, I'm sorry. I'm a broke grad student. Audrey said she wanted to snap a pic to mess with you. We're totally innocent, seriously. Nothing happened between us."
"Oh?" Daniel drawled. His gaze settled on me, like he was watching a helpless creature caught in a snare. "Innocent, huh?"
Then he hung up, handed me his phone, and Milo's latest message popped up on the screen. It was a flood of bowing and apologizing stickers.
Milo: [Audrey, help me. Your husband's a total monster. I don't want to flunk out.]
Milo: [Audrey, I'm begging you, please clear things up with Professor White for me. I beg you.]
Daniel took his phone back, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses. "Looks like your buddy ratted you out."
I set my jaw stubbornly, refusing to admit defeat. "He's a wuss. Seriously, I slept with him, I swear."
"Is that so?" Instead of getting angry, Daniel smirked.
He stood up, walked over to his desk, and opened his laptop. His fingers flew across the keyboard.
Soon, he turned the screen around to face me. On the screen was a live feed of my living room.
There were six picture-in-picture feeds, each showing a different angle of the room. The footage was crystal clear, covering every inch of the room.
"I had these installed a week ago, for your safety," Daniel said and pointed at one of the feeds. "This is when you brought that guy in. It's 2:15 PM. And this is when he left. It's 2:45 PM.
"Thirty minutes, all in. Take out the time you spent getting changed, striking poses, snapping pics, and the couple of minutes you sent him money?"
He pushed up his glasses, sounding completely detached, like he was reciting numbers. "Audrey, you think there was even enough time left for you two to get up to anything?"
I was completely dumbfounded. Damn it. This control freak actually set up surveillance at home. Was I really divorcing a guy who tore our place like a high-tech prison?
I opened my mouth, but I couldn't get a single word out.
He walked over, bent down, and met my gaze.
"So, you didn't cheat on me. You want to leave me." His voice was soft, but it slammed into me like a hammer, making my heart ache. "Why?"
There was a darkness swirling in his eyes, like the ocean before a storm, something I couldn't understand.
"Is it because I couldn't satisfy you?" Daniel asked.
I didn't answer. I didn't know how to respond.
Was I really supposed to blurt out, "Yeah, I'm desperate. You never want it, and you can't satisfy me."
There was no way I could actually say that.
To Daniel, my silence was basically confirmation.
The tension around him dropped to freezing in an instant. "I see."
He straightened up, towering over me like I was some unruly student causing trouble. "Since this is my issue, it's my duty to 'solve' it for you."
With that, he turned and walked out of the bedroom. He even made sure to close the door behind him gently.
The ankle chain was long enough for me to reach the en suite bathroom. But I couldn't get out of this room. I was nothing but a caged pet now.
Was that bastard really planning to keep me locked up here until I died?
Hugging my knees to my chest on the bed, I was angry, scared, and, deep down, there was this subtle, inexplicable longing I couldn't put into words.
For the next two days, Daniel acted like I didn't even exist.
He went to school for his classes, all suited up and looking polished, like he was playing the part of a respectable professor.
Three times a day, he'd drop off my meals at the bedroom door, set them on the floor, knock, and leave without saying a word. It was like I was some misbehaving pet he had to feed.
I could hear him in the living room, on the phone, having intense academic discussions. I could hear him typing away in his study.
The more he acted like everything was normal, the more it freaked me out. Seriously, what kind of scheme was that bastard cooking up?
It wasn't until the evening of the third day. The door was open. Daniel finally walked in, holding a tray.
He set the tray on the nightstand, then pulled a small black velvet box out of his pocket.
It wasn't the metal box from that day. This one was smaller, fancier. It looked like a ring box.
Was he seriously thinking about proposing? After all this? Had he completely lost it?
He opened the box. It wasn't a ring. Inside was a tiny silver thing with a clasp. An earring? I wondered.
Wait, no, it wasn't an earring. Its shape was strange, almost futuristic, and there was something about it, some kind of unspoken hint.
"What is that?" I asked warily.
"A little teaching prop." Daniel took out the earring and rolled it between his fingers, toying with it. "It's the latest neural pulse stimulator. It uses microcurrents to precisely target certain nerves, making your senses way more intense."
He fixed his gaze on my ears. "Take hearing, for instance."
Instinctively, I covered my ears. "Daniel, don't you dare do anything weird."
He smiled, "Don't be scared. I want you to hear things more clearly. So you can hear yourself begging me not to stop."
His voice was like a devil's whisper, laced with deadly temptation and a madness I couldn't resist.
He closed in on me, step by step. I had nowhere left to run.