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Please continue reading if you’ve read the story starter – a very long Chapter 1 – and you’re ready to dive into the story with me.

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About the story: (short description. Click here for longer)

“Let Me Love You” is a tale of love and sacrifice and a poignant story of self-discovery, celebrating the human capacity to find love in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Please enjoy the current WIP of Iris and El. This will be published freely up to a point, like in the old days, and then the entire book will be posted for full download. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. And don’t forget to check out the companion stories. (Wicked Chances, Dreams of Reality, The Convenient Wife, The Other Side of Love, She Works Hard for the Money & Ravenous)

Enjoy, Your Author, Sylvia Hubbard

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Read more: Let Me Love You – Chapter 69✍🏾📚❤️ #SylLit #WIP #livestory 📖💓 #marriedwife #demandedconsensual #darkromance

Author’s Note: If you don’t understand Blaque’s mission, read the incident in the hospital with Salacious, where he semi-explains what’s going on. This also pertains to the New York situation in which El is keeping his lips sealed. You’re going to find out what happened in New York and if El can be saved by getting a statement from the parties that ruined his life in the next couple of chapters.

In this chapter, you will become semi-familiar with Pendulyn, a character you should meet in BabyDoll. I know you won’t like me, but stand in line because Blaque’s on a serious mission – patricide is not for the faint of heart.

Happy Reading. Your Author, Sylvia Hubbard

“I’m not pregnant!” Iris shouted but calmed down as Blaque straddled her chair again.

“We’ll see in nine months. And El will never know because I won’t tell him. He works better alone and doesn’t need the distractions.”

Iris surmised Blaque would say anything to irritate her. There wasn’t any way Iris was pregnant and relegated to this woman, causing her mental anguish. “Or you want him all to yourself?” Iris surmised, trying to push back on Blaque’s false accusation. 

“Possibly.” The woman took a blade out of nowhere and cleaned her nails with the tip. 

Iris was shocked at how delicately Blaque could handle the weapon without cutting herself. It was as if the woman had been born with a blade in her hand. 

“Daddy said I cut my mother’s front inside out,” Blaque said proudly. “Almost split her in half, and she bled out. She died screaming at how much she hated me.”

“That’s nothing to be proud of.”

“It’s why I thought I needed to take a baby instead of have one, but that didn’t turn out how I wanted it to. And I also wanted to hurt the mother I took that baby from but in the end…” Her voice trailed off, and she looked into a nowhere that sucked up the rest of the warmth in the room. “I should have taken the father at the time instead. Hurt the father, not her and the baby. Thank you, Iris, for helping me figure that one out.”

Iris didn’t understand what Blaque was referring to, but she shivered as a cold lay over heavy in the air.

“Do you wish your baby lived and you died?” Blaque asked suddenly.

Again, Iris was unprepared for the question, which hurt to the bone. 

Iris avoided answering the question by stating, “Could we get this exchange over with? Just take me to my father.”

“I bet you are eager to get bent. You love it. El likes that you love it. What are you hiding from me, Iris?” Blaque questioned with that darkened look again that chilled the entire room. 

“I just don’t wish to talk about that baby.”

“So much so you want to get turned over to your father sooner than later?” Blaque tsked disappointedly. “You’re no fun.”

“This verbal battle you’re trying to play with me is silly.”

An alert went off, and Blaque reached inside the front of her front bodice and pulled out a small phone. “Speak of the devil. He’s ready to meet.”

“You’ve already negotiated me for the formula?”

“Yes. I can’t be in Detroit for long without stirring up the wind, so I made the arrangements while in Chicago.” Blaque arose and went over to a bag in the corner where she had gotten the clothes for her. When she came over to Iris, she was holding a jacket. “Do I have to tie you up again and put you back in the box, or can you walk out of here like you have some sense? And I don’t need to threaten you if you even think about escaping.”

“I’d rather face my father than sit down here and talk to you about my baby, so I think I’ll have enough sense to make it to the car.” 

“Good. Bring all your stuff and that box you were in at the top of the stairs to the car behind this house. I added some holes for you.” She said this as if she were doing Iris a favor. “And if you’re good, I might add some snacks before giving the box to your father. As I said, he might keep in there for a little while.” 

Iris fought not to roll her eyes at this exasperating woman. “Thank you,” she said facetiously. 

Blaque bounded up the dilapidated stairs without making a sound. Iris quickly tore a piece off the wedding dress and hid it out of sight under the stairs. If El was using his resources, they could have discovered this before Blaque found out what Iris had done. 

After putting on the jacket, Iris walked up the stairs, unable to avoid each board, which squeaked and squawked like she was torturing the wood with her weight. 

At the top of the stairs was a thick black plastic with a red lid that looked like a child’s coffin. Had Blaque stuffed her in there? Is that why her body was still sore?

Thin holes had been put in at the top, and Iris grimaced, wondering when Blaque would make her climb in there again. 

The box was cumbersome, but she could lift it to the back of the house, where a small black Toyota SUV was parked and started. There was a large old gate around the entire backyard of the property, so if Iris had any ideas of trying to escape, she would have had to run past the vehicle with Blaque leaning against the driver’s door. Not knowing how many blades that woman had on her body, Iris was sure one would end up in her spine before she made the alley. The liftgate in the rear opened, and Iris knew that was where Blaque wanted the box.

“Come sit up here,” Blaque instructed as she entered the driver’s seat. We have to make a stop before meeting your old man.”

Why did the woman sound like an old girlfriend just hanging out? And why did Iris feel that whatever this stop was wasn’t good? 

Iris hoped they could make an extra stop to get real food because she was hungry. No amount of snacks in a box would sate her appetite, but she wasn’t hungry.

Hoping Blaque didn’t want to talk anymore, Iris was glad the unpleasant woman drove silently. Every once in a while, Iris would hear a click or shuffle while they went, but she refused to look Blaque’s way until they arrived at a residential street and parked at a party store on the corner. 

It was midday, and she could hear a heavy liquor truck backing into the alley of the party store to make a delivery, but hardly any citizens were around. Iris would guesstimate they were on the west side of Detroit, and this was a more middle-class environment, although, with Detroit’s change of wealth, it was hard to determine. The houses had at least three bedrooms and nice-sized backyards. 

Iris was itching to ask why they were parked backward, but she didn’t want to extract anything from Blaque because she felt anything she got from this woman would disintegrate a piece of her soul. 

“Can I make a deal with you?” Blaque asked, suddenly holding a thick bullet with a red tip.

NO! Her brain immediately said. “Will it involve removing any piece of organ from my body?” Iris questioned.

Blaque sniggered again, pushing the bullet into the magazine, loading the long black handgun, and checking the chamber like she was born to do it. “I see why El likes you. Do you let that part of yourself out of the box for him? You must be a delight to his soul.”

That was a compliment? An expressive appreciation?

Iris gasped as she looked over at Blaque, who was screwing a silencer on the tip of the gun. “Are you going to use that on me? Is that the favor? I allow you to kill me and leave my body in the middle of the parking lot in the middle of Detroit?”

“Killing you won’t help me. Your father said he needed you alive and healthy, although he didn’t say how alive you needed to be.” She sniggered again as if she had made the funniest joke. “You didn’t answer my question, Iris.” 

Not finding anything funny, Iris said, “About a deal? What deal?”

Without looking at the gun, Blaque mounted a sniper scope on top, but her eyes were intently on a house down the street from the store, and then every once in a while, she would look in the mirror to monitor the liquor truck. “I’ve got to kill someone, and I don’t need you distracting me or screaming like a bitch.”

Her conversational tone was starting to piss Iris off. The woman was talking about killing someone like they were discussing the migrating patterns of zebras in Africa.

Iris moaned dejectedly, “I don’t want to be here.”

“I could put you in the box now.”

Cursing under her breath, Iris looked the other way. “Can I ask why this person has to die?”

“My cousin Sheriff is bopping this biddy, and they’re about to get married. He doesn’t know it, but she’s pregnant. Pendulyn doesn’t want to tell my cousin because she’s also about to stop her cancer treatments, and she knows he won’t approve. I think it’s sweet how she wants to have his baby and wants to sacrifice her life-“

“Stop talking,” Iris said, starting to feel sick. “What’s the deal if I shut up?”

“I might send Salacious over to check on you in a year or so.” She covered the gun with a ripped-out book cover and then rested her elbow on the open window to prop the gun on her arm. It looked like she was casually leaning out the window to anyone. “Two months max, I promise, and maybe you can swindle yourself away from your lecherous old man, but I make no guarantees about your nephew. Your father wants that boy as much as you.” That hideous amusement in her voice was starting to gyrate on Iris’s nerves. 

“Why do you find my life so funny?”

After checking her scope, Blaque stated, without looking at Iris, “Because I can’t believe El found some poor subordinate like you? There was no way your lives should have ever crossed. Never in my life would I have imagined you just plopping in his lap. The rich stupid wives I thought would be enough to quench that sick man’s appetite, but you’re like a whole perfect meal. The fucked up part is that if I kill you, I’ll lose him as a friend, and right now, I think he’s probably the only friend I have.” 

“I think once he finds out you’ve kidnapped me and turned me over to my father, he’s not going to want to be friends with you anymore.”

“That man thinks your old man took you.”

“And then he’ll find me faster.”

“Nah,” Blaque said quickly. “Nice try, but I told your old man about that, and he’s already got a good hiding place for you. It’s a nice, warm, dark place where you can simmer until El gives up. You might not like the smell, but you’ll get used to the place in a couple of months or so. I give it about a good three months – out of sight, out of mind, and they’ll assume you’re dead, and then things can go back to normal between El and I. He gets over things real quickly.”

Iris turned away, not wanting to be in the vehicle with the odious woman anymore. Yet, it was what Blaque said. El would get over missing her quickly. His words before the wedding told her that this was true. He’d show the marriage certificate to ensure his business wasn’t taken, and people would make a feeble attempt to find her but would give up. And her life of misery would start all over again.

End of This Chapter | Post your thoughts in the comment | Let the author know what’s going on in your head

Let Me Love You (c) 2025 Sylvia Hubbard All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
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