Leona Grant scoffed, then reached out and stripped off her clothes. He took everything off, not even leaving her underwear.
Then he took off his own clothes and thrust into her forcefully. His eyes were unfocused as he said, "Stop dreaming. The only way I'll let you go is if I die."
Annabelle Linton wept but said nothing in reply.
Leona Grant kept at it until the middle of the night. By the time he stopped, Annabelle Linton had long since passed out.
She had been silent the whole time, enduring it, suppressing everything.
He gazed deeply at her. 'I wish this was all just a joke,' he thought, 'that there was a reason for all of this.'
But that seemed laughable. 'The price of self-deception is just self-inflicted humiliation, isn't it?'
He couldn't find a single reason for her change of heart.
