Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
TYRANT
My wife.
My fucking wife.
It wasn’t all that long ago that I stood before the throne and the legion and was told of my fate. That Danielle would be my bride. That she and I would endure a life together of fake happiness. We would be given a location to settle into it. I would be given my permanent job. Danielle’s job would be to obey every command of mine and then have as many children as I wanted.
She was then taken from me and handed over to someone to be broken.
Claimed by Destroy.
I had no choice but to accept that. It was how things went around here. Chosen by the legion. Claimed by Des. Then offered up to me as a broken woman at which point we’d be married and I would have the image needed to participate in society’s feeble rules and appearances.
It just got messy from there. Danielle constantly coming to me, telling me that Des was being too violent. There was nothing I could fucking do to help her. She begged me. She pleaded with me.
It was the only time I ever fucking slipped up. I took Danielle as my own. I fucked her. I took her from her ace .
She hid in my bed for a long weekend, which ended with us leaving the compound and getting a fancy hotel for one more night. She wanted to run away. I knew it was a bad idea. I saw the evidence on her body of what Des had been doing to her.
On that last night, we ended up drinking and Danielle wanted to try something more. To this day I have no fucking clue why I let it happen. It looked like small cuts of a piece of paper. She placed one on her tongue, one on mine. What started as us getting fucked up, then flirting, touching and grabbing ended with her piercing my nipple and by morning, we were legally married.
(At least in terms of the society we did not actually believe in.)
Danielle was nothing but a fucking mess. Complicated. A manipulative whore. A truly awful person.
Des and I were pulled in for a meeting in front of the legion , where we were told of Danielle’s fate. She had run off with some drug dealer and was found dead. Just like that, she was gone. Des no longer had his claimed . I no longer had my wife. Or wife-to-be, depending on how you looked at it.
So imagine my fucking surprise to hear Des confess that Danielle wasn’t dead. That Danielle was part of a plan to attack and kill Serafina. Imagine my fucking surprise when Des confessed about a secret, safe room in Serafina’s father’s mansion, which was where I kicked down the fucking door, my body writhing in pain, and I saw Danielle standing there…
I cradle Serafina’s head carefully as the last of my thoughts fade out. There’s no more time for that. I’ve given Serafina a healthy dose of a sedative that will keep her out while I conduct my business.
Behind me, Demo, Vic, and Peri have secured both Danielle and Bridgette.
I gently stroke Serafina’s left cheek and then I stand up. I remove my mask and my robe. This is me. The real me.
Danielle’s eyes grow wide when she sees me. Bridgette starts to cry.
“You’re not dead,” I say to Danielle.
“I missed my husband too much,” she says.
I walk toward her. Then I stop and turn and look at Bridgette.
“Please,” she says. “No.”
“Too late,” I tell her. “Look at what you’ve done. Look at what you’ve fucking caused.”
“Do you know what he was worth when he died?” Bridgette asks. “And what he gave me? And what he left behind for his daughter? His daughter? A child! I was his wife!”
“And you waited as long as you could, huh?” I ask.
“We all did,” Danielle says. “Your father lied to you about me, Tyrant. Didn’t he? I’m alive and well. I was just sent away. Punished for being a bad girl. But I could not stay away forever. No fucking way.”
“How?” I ask. “How the fuck did this all come together?”
“A scorned wife and a mother’s love,” Danielle says.
“She’s first,” I say out loud.
Vic and Peri grab Danielle. One of them places a hand to Danielle’s mouth to keep her screams from being heard. Demo wraps an arm around Bridgette’s neck.
I walk over to Serafina and scoop her up off the floor. Her body is completely lifeless. Just the way I need it right now.
She doesn’t need to see what’s going to happen next.
Danielle is on the edge of the diving board. She’s tied up and we’ve gone a little old school here with a rope around her neck and a cinderblock at the other end. I stand at the edge of the pool, sort of behind her.
“Tyrant, please,” she whispers.
“This is the part where you confess everything,” I say. “But you know I’m going to kill you no matter what. You attacked the woman I love. More than once. I already know this was nothing but revenge. Des hated what happened between you and me. I allowed it. I broke the rules. I deserve punishment for it, not Serafina. You saw an opportunity and took it. I have plenty to deal with right now, but some useless whore like you? You’re last on my list. You’ve been nothing this entire time. You’ll always be nothing.”
I reach up under my shirt and wrestle the nipple piercing Danielle gave me away. I no longer need any reminders of this cunt. Her fucking hell that she brings with her. The fact that she attacked Serafina. Stabbed me in the back. I guess I’m lucky the knife she used wasn’t long enough to actually cause much damage. Or the fact that she probably thought she was stabbing me in the heart, but when I turned, my heart was on the other side.
None of it matters.
I take the metal bar that’s been through my nipple for a long time and I grab Danielle’s mouth and squeeze as hard as I have to. Her mouth opens and I drop the metal bar into her mouth.
“Just so you know, Des sold you out really quick,” I whisper to her. “He told us everything. He ensured his life would be safe. That’s how much he really thinks of you. He would never die for you. All he wanted to do was get back at me for fucking you. Let that be your last thought.”
Danielle tries to scream but Demo hands me a roll of tape and I tape her mouth shut, then push her into the pool.
There’s a brief splash of her body and the cinderblock hitting. Then it’s quiet. The cinderblock drags her down into the water and I turn away. She’s had enough of my attention.
Let her die alone, suffering at the bottom of a pool, panicking, begging for her death to come. Which it will. Soon.
I’ve given the orders to Demo, Vic, and Peri on what to do next with Danielle’s body. They’ll handle the outside cleanup so there will be zero evidence of what just happened.
Inside the house, Bridgette sits in a large chair at the large formal dining room table. I can’t imagine many thoughtful meals have been had at this table since Serafina’s father died. Serafina is on the table. Hands folded at her belly. She looks…
“Dead,” I whisper into Bridgette’s left ear. “Look what you did to her. You got what you wanted, right? She’s dead.”
“No,” Bridgette says. “No… it can’t…”
“She’s a fucking liability,” I say. “That’s what you’ve done to her. You wanted this, right? You wanted her out of the house. You wanted her tortured. You wanted her dead.”
Bridgette weeps. A defeated woman. Her plans all fucked up. The reality of her own pending death tickling the back of her neck. She shakes her head.
I grab her by the throat and make her look up at me.
“Tell me,” I growl. “Or I will fucking torture you. I’ll keep you in this chair and make you watch as your stepdaughter’s body rots day by day. I’ll cut off a body part each day. Toes. Fingers. Up to the first knuckle. Then I’ll do it again and again. I’ll keep you alive though. For weeks. Maybe longer.”
“I needed to see the files,” Bridgette says.
“What files?” I growl.
“Her father was supposed to be part of your thing. I needed proof of it.”
“What thing ?”
“You know what I mean, Tyrant. The masks. The robes. The secret rooms. The meetings. All of it. I know. I saw stuff. What’s it called… legion …? Right?”
Every muscle in my body flexes.
“He was supposed to be part of it,” Bridgette says. “He gave it up for a woman though. A true love story, right? Sound familiar to you?”
“Watch your fucking tone or I will cut your tongue out,” I warn.
“He fell in love and left it all. For a woman. He went out and made his own life. He gave up a life of power for love. And how did it work out? She gave birth to Serafina. Then she ended up dying.”
I curl my lip.
“I heard rumors about that place. I knew someone who went there. She was taken in the middle of the night and I never got to see her again. There were rumors. That the place is like some military camp or something. That you’re changed somehow. I wanted to know everything about it. I wanted in. I wanted power. Okay? Serafina’s father was easy to win over. A grieving man with a daughter? Almost too easy. He was a decent guy. Too honest for power, I could see that. I thought I could figure it out. Sway him into going back or something. Money is nothing without power. I did not want to be some useless housewife…”
She shakes her head and looks at Serafina.
“Then her father died,” Bridgette continues. “That hit home for me for a while. It hurt to lose him. Made me realize I cared about him. Then suddenly I was a single mother. A stepmother. Alone. With a kid that wasn’t mine. The money has been nice. But it’s not enough.”
“You really did want to get rid of her,” I say.
“Opportunities became available,” she says.
I grab her throat harder. I push, really fucking hard. She gags and tries to scream but has no air. I release my hold and she coughs. Cries some more.
“What do you want from me?” Bridgette screams. “It’s done. It’s over. Look at what happened?!”
“What you fucking caused,” I say. “You sent her to Sinners Academy . You paid them all off, didn’t you? That’s how she got in. She sets a fire at home and you used that. Along with her father’s money and prestige. You fucking cunt. And all this time, Des and Danielle had been waiting for a chance to get back at me. Fuck.”
“Now what?” Bridgette asks. “You know everything. What are you going to do? Did you kill Danielle? If you did, she can’t tell anyone a thing. Same with me. Same with… Serafina…”
Bridgette suddenly looks so tired and weak. See, some people think they want power and think they can handle it. In reality power isn’t an easy thing to hold.
“I guess this is your lasting image, Bridgette,” I say. “Staring at your dead stepdaughter. Knowing you’re the reason she’s gone. Jealous over money. And power. Of course her father left her more than you. That drove you crazy. And crazy wants power. But crazy can’t handle power. This is what happens.”
“No,” Bridgette says. “No! Nnnnoooooo! ”
Oh, she’s freaking the fuck out right now. Another part of having power is understanding eventually you will lose it. And when that time does come, you face it with a sense of pride and acceptance. You stare death right in its fucking eyes and whisper, Do it .
Bridgette screams and thrashes. She’s useless to me now. She thinks Serafina is dead.
The cinderblock tied around Danielle’s neck? That wasn’t the only cinderblock I found. I reach for the one I brought inside and hold it high in the air. It only seems fitting I give Bridgette the same attention she gave to her stepdaughter.
I bring the cinderblock down as hard as I can against the side of Bridgette’s head.
That shuts her the fuck up.