just for a bloody contract | Roman Godfrey au

ch. 7 • you're a what?

On the other side, there was a middle-aged man in dirty clothes and a knotty hair lying on the ground, with a large pool of blood surrounding him. Upon a closer look, I could see there was a large and deep wound to the side of his neck. I shifted my eyes from there to my husband, whose back was facing me.

Did he kill someone? Bad business deal? Oh I wish it was.

"Pryce, what took you-" Roman turned around, and my jaw fell open. His shirt was drenched in blood, but moreover, so was his mouth. He just spit something that I was 90% sure was a part of that man's carotid artery. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to run. But I froze. My heart started to beat, and I knew I was getting sick. The stench wasn't helping either.

Pryce stood beside me. He looked at me and at Roman. "I presumed she knew. She is your wife. Roman, have you been keeping secrets from the woman you are going to spend your life with? It is a lengthy one. Go change and get out of here. I will clean this up, and you both can talk. Leave!"

Roman took off his bloody shirt right then, took a plastic water bottle that sat near where I was standing, and gargled with half the water and cleaned his mouth and neck with the other half. He then went into some other room, and came out pretty fast, wearing a clean black shirt. If this was a normal situation, I probably would have internally had somersaults seeing him shirtless and then put on a fitted black shirt all in the same five minutes, but I couldn't process anything.

"Meet me in my office 10 minutes after I go in. On the clock," Roman said as he walked away.

That's it. That's all? I just saw a corpse that he supposedly fed on, and I was just about to forget all of that? I was so confused my head started to pound. Not even hurt- straight up hammer. I winced in pain. 

My side of the contract. It was the first time to uphold my side of the contract. No ifs or buts. I groaned. That bloody contract is making my entire life a big, big mess. I was supposed to pretend to love an actual monster. I slowly walked along, trying to navigate back to where the elevator was since Pryce was still cleaning up. I figured by the time I even knew how to get to Roman's office again, 10 minutes would easily pass. And it did.

I found my way to the door that said "Godfrey" on a gold plate and knocked on the door. A "come in" sounded from the other side. I did not know what to expect, but I had to play along. I shuddered at the thought of even being close to him, but I had to. I took a deep breath and went in. 

"Hi baby," Roman smiled at, then glanced at the two men sitting on the couch in Roman's room. Roman got up and put his arm around my waist and pulled me for a side hug. He called me 'baby'. Yes it was fake. But I couldn't lie and say I didn't sort of like that he called me that. 

"How was your test?" he asked.

"It went well," I smiled. Then I remembered he had just killed someone. The fluttery feelings were quick to leave. I still kept that smile up.

"Liana, meet Mr. Fields and Mr. Nguyen. They are our trusted partners here at the institute."

I greeted the men and started talking with them. They seemed to be impressed with me.

Roman let go of me, gave me a kiss on the side of my head, and went to his desk to get some files. He gave the files to the men, shook their hands, and walked them out. He was very professional, something I hadn't expected. I got sad knowing the pretense was over. He was going to be mean again. Actually, more than that, this time I feared he was going to kill me. Prior to an hour ago, I just thought they were empty threats, but now I learned he was a cannibal. I mentally slapped myself for even enjoying the positive attention he gave me. He was not someone I should seek any validation at all from.