Chapter 32
Ophelia
“Nightmare-Halsey”
Pain has a sound. I never understood it before today.
Not physical pain. Not bruises, broken ribs, or blood running down your face.
No.
Real pain sounds like Hayden screaming my name while they beat him to death in front of me.
It sounds like chains rattling roughly while I fight hard enough to tear skin from my wrists.
Like my throat shredding apart from begging. Like my own sobs echoing through this abandoned warehouse while Brayden Augustine stands beside me smiling like the fucking devil himself.
Hayden came for me.
Of course he did.
My stupid, violent, beautiful boy came crashing into Hell with bloodlust in his eyes and my name on his lips like he genuinely believed he could save me.
And for one terrible second…
When I heard gunshots outside and screaming, then men dropping around us… I thought he actually might.
Then they overpowered him.
Too many men. Too many guns. Too much rage slowing him down the second he saw what they’d done to me.
His face when he saw the bruises on my body will haunt me forever.
Pure fucking devastation.
Like somebody reached into his chest and ripped his heart out barehanded.
Now he’s on his knees in the middle of the warehouse floor while Brayden’s men circle him like animals. And they’re destroying him.
Blood pours from Hayden’s mouth every time another fist slams into his face. One of his ribs cracked twenty minutes ago. I heard it. Heard the wet choking sound he made trying to breathe afterward.
Still… he keeps getting back up.
Every fucking time.
“Stay down!" I scream through sobs. “Please, Hayden!”
Because Hayden Marks was born mean—violent and too stubborn to die quietly.
One man kicks him hard enough to send him crashing sideways across the concrete.
“STOP!” I scream, but nobody listens.
Brayden crouches beside me while Hayden coughs blood onto the floor, trying to push himself upright again.
“Why don’t you untie her,” Hayden growls hoarsely. “And fight me yourself like a fucking man.”
Brayden laughs.
“You still think you matter here,” he states, then looks at me with nothing but malice in his eyes.
“You really do inspire devotion,” Brayden muses calmly. “It’s almost romantic,” he says, and I spit directly in his face.
Wrong move.
He backhands me so hard my chair nearly tips sideways.
Pain explodes across my already bruised cheek while tears instantly fill my eyes.
“You don’t get to give me attitude anymore, sweetheart,” he spits.
Hayden sees it happen and loses his mind.
The sound that rips from his chest doesn’t even sound human.
Pure rage and murder.
He lunges toward Brayden despite barely being able to stand. Two men grab him instantly while another drives a baton violently into Hayden’s stomach hard enough to make him collapse again while another smashes the butt of a gun across the back of his skull.
Blood splatters across the concrete.
I think I stop breathing.
“No! No! No! No—” I scream hysterically. “Please stop hurting him,” I beg as Hayden spits blood onto the concrete, glaring at Brayden like he’s already imagining his death.
“I’m gonna fucking kill you,” Hayden growls hoarsely, causing Brayden to laugh.
“You know what’s funny?” he says, standing slowly before walking towards Hayden with terrifying calmness. “You still think she belongs to you.”
Hayden tries standing again, but another punch drops him immediately, then Brayden crouches in front of him.
“She’s my future wife.”
Rage flickers weakly through Hayden’s swollen face. “She’d rather die,” he spits.
“You’d know all about dying, wouldn’t you?” Brayden smirks cruelly. “Considering everyone thought you were already in the ground.”
Hayden jerks wildly against the men holding him. “Touch her again and I’ll—“
Brayden suddenly glances toward me smiling slowly. Then walks back over and places one hand against my stomach.
Everything stops.
“She’s carrying my child already anyway.”
Silence. Pure stunned silence.
My heart physically stops beating, and Hayden goes still then his face crumbles.
Not fear. Not violence. Heartbreak.
Oh God.
“No,” he whispers brokenly.
Then Brayden's smirk widens while rubbing my stomach possessively.
“Guess I got to her first.”
“HE’S LYING!” I scream. “Hayden, he’s fucking lying!”
But Brayden keeps talking anyway.
“She’ll marry me.” He shrugs casually. “Give me sons. Build a life.”
Hayden's entire body shakes violently now.
Not from fear. Grief.
The kind that kills people slowly from the inside out.
I start sobbing harder.”Please don’t listen to him!” I beg, but Brayden grabs my jaw roughly, forcing me to watch Hayden.
“Look at your boyfriend,” he whispers cruelly. “Look what loving you did to him.”
Another kick slams into Hayden’s ribs hard enough I hear something crack again. He chokes as blood spills down his chin while I completely lose my fucking mind screaming.
“PLEASE!”
Nobody cares.
Hayden still tries crawling toward me anyway.
Every movement leaves blood smeared across the concrete.
One eye swollen shut.
Mouth split open.
Breathing ragged and wet.
But he keeps dragging himself closer.
Toward me. Always toward me.
“Firefly…” He coughs painfully and my entire soul shatters hearing him say it that weakly.
“I’m here!” I sob. “Hayden, please stop getting up!”
He laughs once. Actually fucking laughs.
“Can’t,” he wheezes painfully. “Still gotta get you home.”
That destroys me completely, because even beaten nearly to death… he’s still trying to save me.
Brayden looks almost annoyed by it now. “You know what your problem is, Marks?”
Hayden spits blood at his shoes.
“You should’ve stayed dead,” he says calmly.
Hayden laughs weakly through blood leaking out of his mouth. “You should’ve kept your fucking hands off her.”
Wrong answer.
Brayden kicks him directly in the face.
I scream so loudly my chest hurts as I rock in this fucking chair, trying to set my self free. He needs my help. I need to get us out of here.
Hayden collapses hard onto his back while blood streaks beneath his head now. Too much blood. There’s too much fucking blood.
“Please…” I sob desperately. “Please, Brayden…”
He ignores me completely.
“You think loving her gives you ownership.”
Hayden groans, trying to get up once again. “She was mine before you even knew her fucking name.”
Brayden’s smile disappears instantly.
Then he grabs my chair, violently dragging me closer to Hayden.
“Look at him,” Brayden snarls at me. “Look what happens when trash forgets its place.”
Hayden’s breathing sounds wetter now.
Wrong.
His chest barely rises beneath all the bruising.
Oh my God.
They’re killing him.
Right in front of me.
One of the men grabs Hayden by the hair, forcing his head upward, while another punches him directly in the mouth hard enough his teeth scatter across the concrete beside him.
I vomit beside the chair immediately.
The warehouse spins around me through tears, panic, and horror.
Hayden groans weakly but still manages to look for me afterward.
“Don’t cry,” he whispers brokenly.
“How can you say that right now?!” I scream. “You’re fucking dying!”
He actually smiles. He smiles that crooked grin that completely fucking shatters me.
“Still pretty,” he whispers to me.
A broken sob tears from my chest so violently I nearly choke on it. Because Hayden is literally dying on the floor… and he’s still trying to comfort me.
Brayden looks disgusted now. Angry even.
Like he hates that Hayden still owns pieces of me he never will.
So, he grabs my hair hard enough to yank my head backward.
“You love him that much?” he hisses in my ear.
“Yes!” I scream instantly. “I love him! I’ll always fucking love him!”
The entire warehouse goes still for one terrifying second.
Then Brayden loses it.
He pulls a gun from his waistband before shoving it against Hayden’s forehead.
Everything inside me stops.
“No!” I scream as Hayden stares directly at me.
Not scared.
Not panicked.
Just heartbroken.
There are moments in life that split a person clean down the middle.
Moments where every lie, every secret, every ounce of hate, grief, and love crashes together all at once.
Where the world before and the world after can never exist the same again.
This is one of those moments.
Every fight.
Every kiss.
Every promise whispered beneath the stars.
Gone in the space between one heartbeat and the next.
And somewhere deep in my soul… I know whatever happens after this will change us forever. Because he knows exactly what this will do to me.
“Close your eyes, Firefly,” he whispers softly.
“No!” I thrash violently against the chains sobbing hysterically. “PLEASE, DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE!”
Brayden smirks cruelly. “Any last words?”
Hayden never looks away from me. Not once.
“I love you, Firefly” he says quietly. “In every lifetime.”
A sob rips violently from my chest.
“I love you always,” I cry brokenly. “My forever boy.”
The gun cocks.
BANG…