Captivation Want Nothing But You by Adolf Dunne
Ivan was quite surprised by Victor’s request. He looked up at him in the rearview mirror and said, “Did
you leave something there, Mr. Sullivan?” “No.” Victor’s expression darkened at Ivan’s question. “Cancel
all my appointments for this afternoon as well,” he said. Ivan glanced down at the time on his phone. He
pursed his lips in surprise. It was still early afternoon. On a Wednesday. A working day. Victor wanted to
cancel his appointments on a work day.
He must have heard wrong. Surely Victor wouldn’t want to cancel all his appointments for the day, just to
go back to Sue Garden? He looked up at Victor in the rearview mirror again. He just couldn’t believe his
ears. This was the first time in the two years he’d been working for Victor that something like this had
happened.
“Yes, sir,” Ivan answered in as neutral a tone as possible, considering how excited and surprised he was.
With all the appointments for the day cancelled, that meant Ivan also had the rest of the day off. How
could he not be excited about that? Victor sat quietly in the backseat, tapping his fingers rhythmically
against his thigh. His eyes were narrowed and he kept his gaze studiously out the window. The drive to
Sue Garden was only an hour long, and soon, the Maybach pulled up in the open space near the front
garden.
Today was the first time he’d come here at this time. Lukas was just coming down from Rachel’s room
with a pile of plates. He was quite surprised when he saw Victor walking into the building. “Victor?” he
said, barely managing to contain his surprise. Victor nodded in greeting. His eyes darted to the plates
Lukas was carrying.
The corners of his mouth tipped down in a frown at the sight of them. It wasn’t because there were many
plates, but because most of the food on them seemed untouched. It looked like Rachel had just taken a
few bites out of them. Lukas looked from Victor down at the plates. “Miss Bennet told me to bring the
food up to her later.
She didn’t feel like eating now,” he explained. “Has she tried to escape?” Victor asked. He’d been
sleeping at the company since that day. He didn’t want to come back here, just so she could look at him
with so much hate… He would never forget that look… And he didn’t ever want to see it again. It was the
first time in years that he was avoiding a situation instead of facing it head on.
“No. Miss Bennet has been staying obediently in her room for the past three days,” Lukas replied. Victor
gritted his jaw and narrowed his eyes. For some reason, that thought put him more on edge than it
should. He started towards the stairs but then stopped and turned to Lukas. “Tell her to come
downstairs.”
At first, Lukas froze in surprise. Then he hurried to do as he’d been told. He was scared that if he hung
around for too long Victor would suddenly change his mind. Upstairs, Rachel was in her room writing in a
notebook. For now, she was completely oblivious to Victor’s impromptu visit. So far in the book she’d
compiled a short list: 1. Bennet Group’s shares. 2. Wallace, Tara. 3. Abby.
The tip of her pen hovered near the number for a long while. She almost seemed to have gone into some
type of trance. The sudden knock on the door brought her back to reality. “Miss Bennet, Mr. Sullivan is
here,” Lukas called through the door. Rachel looked down at her hand hovering above the paper and
noticed that the ink had already dried.
The list of things she’d written down was everything she needed to look into and sort out before she left.
However, it was going to be difficult to accomplish anything while she was locked in this room all the
time. She had briefly entertained the thought of jumping off the balcony. It really wasn’t that big of a jump;
two floors would be quite easy for her.
But she wouldn’t risk something like that now, not while she was pregnant. She had to think about her
baby as well. Even if she did jump though, she would still have to evade the servants before she could
escape Sue Garden. If she was caught, her next escape attempt would be much harder.
The safest, though not the easiest way out, was to get Victor to change his mind. She had to keep his
suspicions off her, at least until Abby was free. Rachel’s eyes unfocused on the paper as her mind
whirled with all these thoughts. She had to come up with a plan. And the best one at the moment was not
to quarrel with Victor, for now.
If she could just tolerate him for these few days, she was sure she could come up with a better plan.
There would be plenty of time for revenge later. “Miss Bennet?” Lukas called again. He’d been waiting for
long enough for a response to become concerned.
“Yes, I’m here,”
Rachel said as she tore the paper out the notebook and ripped it to pieces. She scrunched all the shreds
into a ball and threw it in the trash can. Then she went and opened the door. “Yes, Lukas?” “Miss Bennet,
Mr. Sullivan wants to see you downstairs,” Lukas said. What a coincidence; that was exactly what she
wanted.
“Just let me change my clothes,” Rachel said with a smile. Lukas waited outside her bedroom door while
she changed her clothes, then he followed her downstairs. Just before she stepped into the living room,
Lukas suddenly stopped her. “Miss Bennet, wait!”
Rachel turned to look at him.
Lukas felt his cheeks warm slightly. He hesitated before he said slowly, “I just wanted to give you a bit of
advice, Miss Bennet. Don’t be as stubborn with Mr. Sullivan as you were before. Just… Talk to him
reasonably and calmly. Maybe he will change his mind and let you out.” “I… Okay.” “I know Mr. Sullivan
sometimes doesn’t care about other’s feelings, but he is a reasonable man. Just talk to him.”
Reasonable?
Rachel nearly burst out laughing at this. If Mr. Sullivan was a reasonable man, then perhaps the sun
would start rising in the west and setting in the east. That was how preposterous such a statement
sounded.
She knew Lukas was only saying this for her own good. While she didn’t agree with what he said, she
didn’t dispute his good intentions. She just gave a warm smile and said, “Don’t worry, Lukas. I know. I’m
not going to argue with him anymore.” 1 She nodded at Lukas, then turned and walked into the living
room.
Rachel saw Victor the moment she entered the room. He was sitting on the sofa with the ankle of one leg
resting on the opposite knee. The position made his trouser legs pull up a little, and exposed his black
socks. He had his usual noble, cold air about him. Almost like he was the prince of an ice castle.
Victor took one look at her and his expression darkened. “Go and change your clothes,” he said when he
saw her outfit.
Rachel was speechless. She was so surprised she couldn’t speak for a moment. Change her clothes?
She looked at herself to see what was so wrong with what she was wearing. But she just couldn’t
understand. It was a casual dress; there was nothing unseemly or strange about it. She gritted her teeth
in irritation. Why was her dress offending him? Her immediate reaction was to argue with him and defend
her point of view. But as she raised her chin in defiance, she saw Lukas wink at her out the corner of her
eye He was reminding her not to cause a scene. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tried to
calm herself.
‘Let it go. Don’t get angry. Anger is the devil’s work. Let it go, and be the bigger person.’ She just had to
put up with him for a little longer. In a calm voice she said, “Alright, just give me a moment to change.”
She left the living room and went back up to her room. Victor noticed her sudden change in attitude. He
noticed how she had been about to get angry, but had then somehow suppressed it. He narrowed his
eyes at the doorway after she’d walked out.
Rachel didn’t take long to change. In no time at all, she was back downstairs in a different outfit.
“Change,” Victor said, after hardly sparing her a glance. Rachel wanted to argue, but she just said,
“Okay.” ‘Just a little while longer,’ she thought to herself. Victor made her change her outfit several more
times. Each time she went upstairs, she got more and more impatient and irritated. She had promised
Lukas she wouldn’t argue with Victor, but she hadn’t expected him to test her patience so soon. It made
her wonder if he was doing this on purpose.
When she came downstairs again and Victor told her to change without even looking at her, her temper
finally broke. “Are you doing this on purpose?” she snapped. She felt two pairs of eyes land on her at the
same time. Victor just gazed at her expressionlessly and said nothing. The other set of eyes belonged to
Lukas. He was standing behind the sofa, sighing and touching his forehead after what she’d said.
Rachel immediately calmed herself down. She sat elegantly down on the sofa and faced Victor. “You
keep telling me to change my clothes, but you never tell me what I must change into. So tell me, what do
you want me to wear? I know the doctor told me to exercise more, but I’m pregnant.
And all this walking back and forth is starting to make me tired. I don’t mind going to change, but you
need to tell me what you want me to wear first.” Victor stared at her and said nothing. Rachel couldn’t tell
whether he was angry or not, but before she got the chance, Victor stood up and walked out.
Rachel stared after him, watching him until he’d walked out the room. Then he came back a few
moments later and stopped in the doorway. “You asked me to tell you what to wear. Aren’t you coming?”
Rachel raised her eyebrows and blinked in response. What on earth was he up to now? Lukas cleared
his throat when Rachel didn’t move, and said in a low voice, “Miss Bennet, Mr. Sullivan is waiting for
you.” “Oh,” Rachel said and shook her head. She quickly returned to her senses and stood up to follow
Victor
People often said that a woman’s heart was complicated, but it now seemed that the saying was true for
a man as well.
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