I don’t know what the plan is for me once we leave this place, but if Viktor doesn’t keep me, I can’t imagine I’ll have much more time left on this earth.
He and Mira will wait until everything is official then kill me in the same barbaric fashion they murdered Dad. Then most likely return to Boston to continue their normal lives.
I’ll join the dead and become another secret. At least in some ways, I’ll be with my husband.
Desmier… when I woke this morning in his arms, I didn’t know it would be the last time. I didn’t know I’d be in the breath of day and night staring at the waning sun through this window, and he’d be gone.
Dead.
I physically can’t cry anymore. All the tears inside me have dried up like a thousand-year-old well, and the void has swallowed everything else.
The wooden door opens, and Viktor walks inside with a smug smile on his face.
I can’t believe I ever had any kind of feelings for this man, or that I spent weeks in confusion trying to stay true to him when I knew in my soul that I wasn’t in love with him.
He moves closer and stops a breath away, glaring down at me.
“Get up.”
“Fuck you.” I don’t care what I say anymore. I have no fight left in me. I’ve lost everything, and I’m just waiting for him to take my baby.
Viktor smiles, uncanny and unfazed. In one swift movement, he reaches down, grabs my arm, and yanks me up from the floor.
I shriek from the pain that races up my arm, but he doesn’t care. He shoves me into the wall, and that smile of his widens.
“You stupid bitch. You think you can just talk to me like that?” He grabs my face and leans closer. “This was how it was always supposed to be. You and me. You get to determine how long it will beyou and meif you play nice, because my feelings for you are the only thing keeping you alive.”
“Feelings? Don’t make me vomit. You never had any kind of feelings for me. You were always a fucking cheating bastard.”
“All men cheat, Anastasia.”
“No, they don’t. My husband would have never cheated on me.” The hollow inside me grows when I think of Desmier, and my soul continues to weep.
“You’re not that special. Eventually, he would have.”
“No. He wouldn’t have. He wouldn’t have needed to because he truly loved me and I was enough for him.” I’ve lost everything but my belief in the true love I shared with Desmier. And Viktor doesn’t like my answer one bit. “He wasn’t you.”
“No. He wasn’t. He was a parasite, just like the thing you carry in your belly.” His poisonous words have the desired effect.
They hurt my heart. But they also ignite the last shred of fire left in me to fight. I ball my hand into a fist and punch him straight in the side of his face, making him shout.
Viktor never saw my attack coming because of the angle he’s holding me.
The shock on his face is classic, and worth the pain I feel when he slaps me back. With a savage growl, Viktor lifts me by my throat and carries me just like that across the room. He throws me onto the bed and slaps my face again and again and again until I see stars and taste blood.
I scream and cry as the pain shreds me to pieces, and I’m sure death is close. It has to be with such pain burning through my body.
“Fucking bitch.” He delivers one last slap to my face. “Fucking whore. The doctors are on their way to remove it and fix you so you will never have children. That way, we won’t have to worry about your whoring ways and having any other accidents.”
“You evil asshole.”
“It doesn’t matter what you say. You are mine now.” Another slap brings black dots before my eyes, and I scream again.
“I will never be yours.” I can hardly talk, but my words are my only attack. “I will never love you. Never!”
“Then you will just be something to fuck until I’m ready to throw you away. Why don’t I start now?”
He holds me down and pushes the tunic up my hips. When he tears off my panties, I kick my legs, trying to get him off me.