Chapter 2 #3
“I loved you,” I weep, the words mangled and wet against the crushing pressure of his hand. “I gave you all of me. My trust, my body, my heart. You were the first to have that. You were the only one I ever let in!” Tears choke me as I force the rest out. “You promised I could rely on you, Law!
Law’s lips curl into a slow, vicious sneer, his eyes glittering with disdain.
“No… it’s the money, isn’t it?” His voice drops into a mocking leer that makes my stomach coil. “Or maybe you just love playing the victim so you can run off and give yourself to anyone who’ll pity-fuck you. Yeah, that’s it, right?”
His hand pinches my jaw harder until I wince.
“Tonight you defied me, Blaire And now it all makes sense. You’re eager for any scrap of attention, and another man’s cock. Once an easy cunt always an easy cunt.”
I stare at him, the gaslighting wrapping around my throat.
“Every single day,” he continues, voice calm and cutting, “you beg to be punished. Every day you find new ways to disobey me. Every day you make my life a little more fucking annoying with your clingy bullshit.”
Rage explodes through the hurt, and surges up my spine before fear can stop me.
My arm swings hard, and my palm cracks across his cheek in a sharp, satisfying slap that booms through the room.
For one fleeting second, sweet defiance tastes like victory.
But then, his hand mirrors mine—only far worse. His knuckles slam into my nose with the force of a hammer, and pain detonates across my face as my head snaps back, white dots bursting behind my eyes.
As blood swarms my mouth and throat, my knees buckle, and I crash sideways into the edge of the tub, the brutal impact knocking the wind right out of me.
My head drops as warm crimson pours down my chin, pattering on the marble below.
After gaining enough strength to push my shaking body up, I barely have time to draw a single breath before my hair is viciously wrenched back.
My scalp cries in agony as Law yanks me upright and smashes me against the cold tiles with ruthless force, the impact shaking my bones, a groan tearing free.
His hands instantly clamp around my throat, fingers digging deep into the already bruised flesh, and he lifts me easily, my feet kicking uselessly above the floor.
I claw frantically at his wrists, nails scraping, leaving angry scratches, but it’s no use. All I can do is stare into his dead, furious eyes as mine bulge.
“You still want a divorce, Blaire?” His tone is eerily calm, like he isn’t slowly choking the life out of me, and this is just some random lover’s tiff.
The scream I want to unleash burns like acid in my crushed throat, but I can’t draw enough air to speak. I can barely think.
“FUCKING ANSWER ME!”
His roar explodes through the room, and my whole body jerks in terror. All I can manage is a weak, pathetic wheeze and the tiniest shake of my head.
“Good,” he hisses through clenched teeth, squeezing even harder. “That will never be an option.”
My face swells and purples, eyes ready to burst from the pressure, my lungs desperate for the oxygen that doesn’t come.
“Because if I can’t have you…” he leans in closer, lips brushing my tingling ones with taunting intimacy, “no one else ever will. And once I’m finished, no one else will want you anyway.”
With that, he finally releases me, and my body slumps to the floor like a discarded rag doll. I gasp and choke, urgently dragging air into my lungs while he towers over me.
As I sit up, my weak body crashes into the tiles behind me, my head hitting the surface. Law squats calmly in front of me, but I can’t meet his eyes. I keep them low, my traumatized body vibrating with aftershocks.
“I do this for your own good, wife,” he says, reaching out to stroke my hair softly. “Please don’t make me send you back to where you came from. That would be a mighty shame… for you at least.”
My tear-streaked gaze snaps upward and latches onto his, giving him nothing but a numb, soulless stare.
But inside, a savage inferno burns through my bloodstream, scorching every memory I’ve ever had with him with it.
He is ash and ruin wearing my husband’s face, and I want to watch him burn.
His blood-slick fingers rise and dig into my jaw as he forces my face up to his.
“Tell me you love me, Blaire,” he commands, eyes boring straight into mine like he’s trying to excavate whatever’s left of me.
My chest heaves with painful gasps, and every instinct yells at me to obey, to give him what he wants just to make this stop. But the thought of saying those words to him now feels like absorbing shards of glass.
I’d rather die in this house.
After a long second, I seal my fate and weakly shake my head.
“No,” I say, tone blank and flat.
His smug expression vanishes instantly, jaw clenching so tightly I hear the grind of his teeth. But the silence that follows is harder than any blow he’s ever given me.
As we stare at each other, the quiet stretches until it becomes suffocating, and I brace for his outburst.
But, instead, he does something far worse.
Without another word, Law drops his hand from my jaw, rises and walks out, the soft click of the door closing behind him booming through me like a death sentence.
A whimper leaves me, and with a trembling, frantic hand, I reach up and twist the lock into place.