chapter fifteen

lydia watched tatum as he stirred around in the pan in front of him. even though she had told him that she was not hungry, tatum knew that he was always going to cook for her. he needed her to know that she needed him. even for small things, tatum needed her to think that she was nothing without him. he knew he would always provide, and that's all he's ever wanted to do. he needed someone to need him. he waited and waited, and then his lydia arrived. just when he needed her.

lydia was nervous to do almost anything, fearing that he would find a way to be upset with her about something that she had done. after he had allowed her to go out of the bedroom and down the hallway into the living room, she didn't quite know what to do with herself. she found herself looking at tatum after she made any type of movements just to be sure he wasn't upset with her. eventually, after about two minutes of her shifting her body around, she placed herself at the kitchen island.

tatum watched as she did this, content that he made it known to her that he was always watching, always examining, always paying extreme attention to absolutely everything that involved his little.

"no." he stated as he started walking towards her. she was confused, what could she possibly have done wrong?

"too close. the stove is going to get hot, little. and i don't want you near it when it does." he said to her, gently picking her up from underneath her armpits and carrying her almost like a small child over to the dining room table.

so, not wanting to cause an argument, she said nothing. she did not struggle in his grip, either. she was questioning why he was treating her this way, but of course she would never ask. lydia sat still at the dining room table as she thought she was supposed to do. she watched him add different things into different pans, admiring him almost. he was beautiful, and she would never deny that. he looked so peaceful while cooking for them, and she could tell that it was something that calmed him down and made him happy. she loved this, because that meant that he got angry at her less.

as she was watching him, she noticed a small light emitting from the pocket of a jacket that was set on the dining room table. she grew curious as to what was causing this, as she often grew curious to almost everything. she glanced up to look at tatum and was pleased to see that he was still very occupied in his cooking. lydia debated for a moment.

she had noticed that every two or three minutes tatum would occasionally look in her direction, which she assumed was to make sure that she wasn't going anywhere. he hadn't said anything to her since he had set her down at the table, so she knew that he was probably occupied inside of his head with other things as well. lydia sat and waited for him to do his routine glance at her, and when he did, she took the next two minutes that she had to get to the bottom of the dim light.

quickly but quietly, she reached across the table and into the jacket. the jacket was a zip up hoodie, and she was thankful for this as it had not made a sound while she was making her devious moves. slipping her hand into the pocket of the jacket, she was met with a cell phone. her eyes widened as she pulled the device out and made the connection that it was her phone. when she had first woken up from her drugged state, all she could think about was her phone. and when she couldn't find it she had assumed that she had simply left it in tatums car. but of course, she was wrong.

she quickly made the immediate connection that she was in real danger now. she knew that she was before, yes, but this confirmed her suspicions, frightening her even more. tatum didn't want her to communicate with anyone besides himself, but of course, she was naive and hadn't made this connection just yet. before making an entire production of leaving this house, she shoved the phone in between her legs while she sat still on her chair.

and just like clock work, tatum looked up at her right when she had done so. tatum noticed nothing suspicious, and continued to do whatever was keeping his hands busy in the kitchen. the girl sighed a breath of relief when she knew that he didn't notice anything that she had done. she was still nervous, though. instead of immediately going onto the phone after he turned away from her, she waited a minute. she wanted to play it safe with him, because she knew he was smart. but of course, she thought she was smarter.

after being sure that he didn't catch anything, she slipped her hand in between her thighs to latch onto her phone. she immediately went to touch her thumb to the thumb pad to unlock it, but was met with the "fingerprint not recognized" notification. this confused her as she had never had the problem of being unable to unlock her phone with her thumb before. after multiple tries, she settled with the fact that if she wanted into her phone she would need to manually enter her passcode.

"aw, my little lydia. you were being so good for me baby. you thought i wouldn't change the password?" tatums voice boomed from behind her.

she gasped, immediately throwing the phone back onto the table in front of her. she quickly stood up from her seat, but once again, as she turned she was met with the angry expression of tatum. he was much taller than lydia, so he towered over her as she began to profusely stutter out an apology.

"i- i- i'm sorry i- i didn't mean to-" she stopped herself mid sentence.

as she was speaking, she looked down to the ground out of fear of looking him in the eye, and laid her eyes upon the rather large knife that was previously being used by tatum as he cooked. he gripped it tightly in his hand, which was now turning pale. he noticed her stare, and used her obvious fear to his advantage. he was enraged that she was already wanting to leave him, when he hadn't even hurt her yet. he planned for a nice dinner that he would prepare for the two, and then a simple night of him watching her. he didn't care if she was asleep, he just wanted to watch her. constantly.

with one hand he grabbed her hair extremely rough, and with the other he held the knife toward her.

"why can't you just fucking listen?" he growled in her face, pulling her closer towards him with the grip of her hair.

lydia said nothing, but instead began to shake in fear. she had never been put in such a situation before, and she would have never predicted that she would've been that scared in her entire life.

"fuck" he said through gritted teeth as he clenched his jaw once more.

"stop fucking shaking!" he boomed, causing her to start crying. she didn't know that he enjoyed seeing her so fragile and fearful, so she couldn't stop herself from acting those ways even if she wanted to. seeing her be so afraid made tatum feel absolutely nothing but lust for her, and she had no idea.

when she didn't respond to his demands, he had decided that he had enough. keeping his grip on her hair, he dragged her to his brothers old room. he needed her to think about what she had done, and he needed her to be punished. so without another word, he tossed her into the dark room and locked the door.

tatum has so many issues lol i'm so excited that u guys are finally starting to see some character development from him :) as u keep reading u will either hate him or love him hehehe