“Niall,” I whisper his name, feeling tears well up in my eyes, but I don’t try to go to him. He lifts his head and looks at me, and I can’t fathom what he’s feeling. I can’t read the expression on his face. I don’t see hatred there, but I can’t imagine how it could be anything but.
All of this, all of it, is my fault.
When he looks away purposefully, I feel as if my heart is splitting in two.
Diego looks immeasurably pleased, and it makes me want to fly at him and scratch his eyes out. I bite my lip hard enough to taste blood as Diego stands, crossing the room to me.
“Say it one more time, Isabella, for everyone to hear—including your precious Niall.” Diego sneers at me. “Will you be my good and obedient wife, pleasure me as I demand, provide me with children and submit to me in all things?”
I can feel the shattered pieces of my heart carving deeper into my chest like I’m bleeding from the inside out. I don’t want Niall to hear this, to see it. Diego is looking at me like I’m prey, like he’s going to devour me and eat my bones clean, and I shudder as I choke out the one word I know he wants to hear.
“Yes.”
A shudder goes through Niall, even as he still won’t look at me. I can’t help but see it.
“Then let’s see if my first instructions for my bride-to-be were obeyed. Remember, the punishment will be taken out on him and not on you,” Diego reminds me silkily as he pushes up my skirt. I know what he’s going to do before he even reaches between my thighs.
His fingers slide over my bare flesh, and he lets out a groan of pleasure as he discovers I’m shaved bare for him, as demanded. His fingers push inside of me, ever so briefly, curling, and my teeth sink deeper into my lower lip.
“Very good.” Diego pulls his fingers free, the tips glistening and holds them up. “An obedient wife-to-be, as promised.” Still smirking, he crosses towards Niall, shoving his fingers coated in my pussy towards Niall’s face. “Remember this?”
This time, what I see in Niall’s face is undeniable hate.
Diego grins, shoving his fingers into his own mouth and licking them clean. I feel sick, my face flaming with humiliation as I watch Diego lick the taste of me off of his hand, staring at Niall all the while. “The only man who tastes her pussy now is me,hijo de puta.Think of my fat cock stretching her on our wedding night, when you go back to her father a failure.”
Not a word comes from Niall’s lips as tears fill my eyes, but I can see the murderous look in his. I know if he could, he’d strangle the life out of Diego.
I wish, more than anything, that could be the outcome of today.
Diego turns to the doctor. “Well? The test results?”
The doctor clears his throat, looking uncomfortable. “According to the blood test, the girl is pregnant,señor.”
His words feel like a physical blow. It takes a moment for me to take in the reactions of anyone else in the room, because all I can think of are the emotions swamping me in that instant. There’s one brief flare of joy before it sinks in, the realization that I’m carrying Niall’s child, and then a wave of grief and fear so strong that it would have sent me to my knees if not for the guards holding onto me.
“No!” I gasp out, but no one is listening to me. Javier is watching Diego warily, as Diego’s face reddens and then purples, his eyes growing even smaller as fury washes over his face. I don’t even get a chance to see Niall’s reaction as Diego stalks towards me, his bulk blocking my sight of the other man as his hand cracks across my cheek hard enough to send my head sideways. The heel of his hand hits the bruised part of my jaw, but the pain from the blow is nothing compared to the pain filling me at this very moment, grief so great that it feels as if it will crack me open.
Diego hasn’t said what he’s going to do yet, but I don’t need to hear it. I already know.
“Whore,” Diego hisses out. “Filthywhore. Letting thatbastardofill you up with his seed and put a baby in you? It wasn’t enough to spread your legs for him; you had to take his cum as well? Where else did you take it, you little slut?” He grabs my chin, shaking me like a rag doll. “Youbitch!”
Everywhere,I want to scream at him, spitting in his face.In my pussy and mouth and ass, all over my face and my breasts, anywhere he wanted to give it to me, again and again.But I don’t. I feel my lip bleeding into my mouth, shredded from my biting it and Diego’s slap, but I don’t care. It’s nothing compared to the pain in my chest, threatening to drive me mad.
Diego steps back, panting, and it’s only then that I see Niall’s face—or a glimpse of it at least. He’s turned his head away from me, refusing to meet my eyes, but I can see how hard his jaw is clenched, the way he’s breathing harder, as if he’s trying to keep himself under control. I can see the hint of pain etched on his features, which only makes mine all the harder to bear.
Slowly, Diego takes a deep breath, as if steadying himself. “Well,” he says, his voice thick with anger. “At least I can punish you both by taking care of this here and now. You have the pills?” he asks, glancing at the doctor, who hesitates, but nods.
“Others might say it’s a sin,” Diego continues, grinning evilly as he looks between Niall and me. “But the sin was yours first, wasn’t it? The sin of a whore and a thief, a wanton girl who spread her legs for another man, and a man who stole what was rightfully mine. I’m merely washing away the results of it. It would be a greater sin to make me raise a child not of my blood. So we will do away with it, here and now.” He jerks his head towards the doctor. “Give her the pills.”
The doctor looks reluctant, but takes a bottle out of his pocket. He starts to walk toward me, and in that instant, something inside of me snaps.
Torn between obedience and Niall’s life, or disobedience and a chance for my child’s life, my body chooses for me. It feels almost primal, instinctive, the way I thrash in the guards’ hold as I wrench away from the approaching doctor, an animal scream coming from my lips.
“No!” I shriek. “No, you can’t do this! No! No, no, no—”
I keep screaming it as Diego stalks forwards, grabbing my jaw. In the same instant, I see Javier pull out a gun as if on command, stepping towards Niall and pressing the barrel of the pistol against Niall’s temple.
He doesn’t flinch or move, every muscle in his body already rigid, but I’m still flailing in Diego’s grasp, screaming unintelligibly around his grip on my face. “Give her the pills,” Diego orders, trying to pry my mouth open. “She can swallow them dry. Isabella! You take them, or I shoot him in front of you.” He jerks my head to one side, so I can see Javier’s finger on the trigger, and at that moment, I can feel something inside of me die.
There’s no way to save my baby. No matter how I fight, no matter if I let them kill Niall, they’ll win in the end. There’s no other outcome to this.
“Okay,” I whisper, my eyes filling with helpless tears. “Just don’t kill him.”
As Diego’s hand wrenches open my jaw, the rattle of pills in a bottle reaching my ears as the doctor shakes them out, I see Niall’s eyes meet mine at last.
And at that moment, all I see in them is the most terrifying rage.