Traded for Love

TRADED FOR LOVE
Copyright 2015 Michelle Hughes and Dahlia Salvatore

First Edition
All rights reserved as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976. No part of these publications may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the Author. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover and Formatting by
ShoutLines Design

This book is dedicated to all the readers of the Jack series.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Dear readers,

Dahlia here! I can't tell you how excited I am to give you this book. I was inspired from the moment I picked up
Bought for Love
, to write this continuation of Jack and Emily's story. I have received an unprecedented amount of support, love and questions from all of you. I can't tell you how much of a crazy ride this has been. I needed every single one of my wonderful cheerleaders and betas, and you have all been so fantastic and without your support, I couldn't have finished
Traded
. This book has put me through the ringer. Both Michelle and I are ecstatic that this book has been finished. It is personally the
longest
book I've ever written.

I honestly could not have done this without any of you, and I expecially couldn't have done it without Michelle being there to coach me and help me through the process.
Thank you, Michelle!
You've been an invaluable asset while I added onto the world you lovingly crafted in book one.

I know not all of you will love this book. Some of you may have mixed feelings or even hate it. If you intend on flaming it, please keep in mind that I did everything I could to do right by the characters according to who they are and what each went through in book one. This is the first time I've ever picked up a story from someone else's world and tried to add on to it. I'm not Michelle, but I did have her stamp of approval on everything. She loved it, and I hope you will love it, too.

So, again, thank you; thank you; thank you, from the bottom of my heart!

Knowing Jack

(Emily)

You don’t know Jack. If you ever want to find out the truth, write me back.
-Julia

I stared down at my laptop screen, as I'd done every day for a week. What could she have meant? I didn't know my own husband? Since when? And who was this
Julia
person, the mere mention of whose name made Jack fly into a rage?

Deciding it was better to answer the message than to let it sit, I typed out a short response.

Julia,
I don't know who you are, and I'm pretty sure you don't know who I am. Kindly lose my email address and next time you decide to meddle in someone else's relationship, do it elsewhere.

I didn't bother signing it before I hit send. Salutations weren't required when it came to jokers like her. Still, her words burned into my retinas. I couldn't stop staring at them.

Three days later the pictures came in the mail.

Jack was gone, and I was alone. It was late when I opened the brown paper envelope.

The first picture scared me. Jack was standing naked behind a woman who was bent over a metal table. Her wrists were cuffed behind her back. There was a ball-gag in her mouth and she had several red welts over her ass.

This has to be a mistake
, I thought.

But the more I stared at the man's face, the less I could deny that it
was
Jack.

My stomach turned somersaults, then began twisting into knots. Fortunately, I'd lit a fire that night. I was too sickened by what I'd seen to enjoy the gas-fueled blaze crawling pleasantly over the fake logs in the stone hearth in front of me.

Impassioned, and averting my eyes from the rest of the stack, I hurled it into the hungry flames. Bile crept up my esophagus and I pressed my hand over my mouth to suppress my urge to vomit.

My eyes turned to the envelope. All it said was
From: Julia
,
To: Emily
.

I threw the package into the fire with the pictures and watched as the fire ate the paper.

Lies, I thought.
Those have to be old
.
Jack loves me
.
He would never … never …
Hell, I couldn't even finish the thought. It was too much to even
think
of.

I'd dismissed it, but another envelope arrived two weeks later. This time a red heart had been drawn on the lower right-hand corner of the package. This one immediately went into the trash. I didn't even open it.

I didn't want to see. I didn't want to feel the rush of sick doubt and worry about the sanctity and safety of my marriage.

Six months passed. The frequency of the packages I received slowed to a trickle. Julia must have finally figured out that I wasn't looking at the pictures or reading anything she had to say. Even though I'd never met her, the
idea
of her festered in my head like a disease. The mere formation of the letters that made up her name incensed me.

My life changed soon after that six-month mark. Things changed, and I could no longer turn a blind eye to the situation.

One night, as I sat up surfing on my laptop, I heard Katherine start crying in the nursery. I knew the nanny, Donna, had gone home for the night, so I went in to calm the baby myself.

I was surprised to see Jack standing there, looking down into the dark-wood crib. He had a strange look on his face, as if he was deep in thought. The baby was looking up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks, her pudgy little hands reaching up for him. He showed no signs of wanting to answer her pleas.