Chapter 56
“For the love of…” Dorran moves away from me and turns to look at Mom when she pushes the cabinet yet again.
I glare at her, but she keeps her gaze locked on him.
“Can’t you see your daughter happy for one fucking minute?” he questions, then scoffs at what he’s said. “Of course you can’t. It’s one of the reasons why you’re gonna die tonight. Are you fucking excited about it? Because I sure as hell am.”
I glance at Toby, and at the thick stream of blood that’s surrounding him, and imagine my mom in his place. It wouldn’t be wrong of me to say that I’m eagerly looking forward to watching her bleed out, but more than that, I’m excited to witness the process that will lead to it.
Mom falls sideways and starts shifting away from Dorran, and let’s just say that it’s…awkward.
He raises his hands in mock defeat, making my lips twitch.
“You literally made all that noise to get my attention, and now you’re moving away from me?
” he says to her, and when she shakes her head and continues to slide away from him, he sighs and presses the heel of one of his boots to her bound ankles.
She cries, to which he rolls his eyes.
“I don’t have time for this shit,” he mutters. “Let’s take you out of this room so that I can be done with you for good.” He grabs her by the hair and starts dragging her towards the door, ignoring her broken sobs.
As he should.
“Dorran?”
He stops at my voice.
I walk over to him. “I can’t hear her screams clearly enough,” I say.
He blinks, then lets go of a surprised chuckle. “Do the honors, then,” he states, and jerks his head at Mom.
I take a step back and look down at her, and when her teary eyes bore into mine, I give her a wink before pulling away the duct tape from her mouth with as much force as I can muster.
She yelps in pain, and it’s a pleasing sound, albeit a short one.
Dorran grins at me, then resumes dragging her out into the hallway. She screams and curses all the way through, and it’s ineffective enough that it doesn’t even bother me.
Bitch. Cunt. Whore. Perfect nicknames for the Flawed Princess, I suppose.
We enter the main gym area, and I notice two metal chairs in the center of the room.
They’re placed in such a way that they’re facing each other, and next to one of these chairs is a wooden table, upon which is a surgical tray.
There’re a couple of pliers in this tray, and I can only imagine how Dorran is going to use them on my mother.
If he decides to use them at all, that is.
Mave and Solo are standing next to one of the walls in the room, half-shadowed by darkness, whereas Jayce and the rest of the crew have taken to the other corners of the room.
“Christ, fuck-face. What happened to you in there?” Mave says, giving Dorran repeated once-overs, clearly rattled by the amount of blood on him.
“He had fun, is what happened,” Solo provides, then chuckles when Dorran flips him off.
“If you plan on spending time with us, then you’ve got to get used to seeing Dorran like this,” Jayce says. “He’s our resident butcher, in case you didn’t know.”
“Yeah, and I’m itching to gut a pig next,” Dorran adds, giving Jayce a too-wide smile. “Wanna volunteer, my dear?”
Alex snorts, and Jayce grabs his crotch before mouthing, “Fuck
you,” to Dorran.
Mave glances at them, then shakes his head and folds his arms across his chest. “Why the fuck did I even ask?” he mutters to himself, making us laugh.
Dorran shoves Mom in Varsha’s direction, then settles into the chair that’s got the wooden table beside it. “Get her ready,” he orders Varsha.
Alex joins her, holding onto Mom while Varsha unties her hands. He then pushes Mom down into the chair opposite Dorran’s, and Varsha secures her wrists to its armrests. Once they’re done, the two step back and join Jayce. Feeling out of place, I make my way to Mave and stand next to him.
“You okay?” he asks, then scans me from head-to-toe. “There’s blood on you.”
“Not mine.”
“I gathered as much.” A wistful sort of look takes over his face, but he brushes it away and nods ahead. “These people are crazier than I’d imagined,” he whispers. “But I have to say, though: Miranda has never looked as fucked up as she does right now.”
I chuckle. “True fashion icon, isn’t she?”
He makes a sound in the back of his throat, to which I laugh.
“Will the two of you stop giggling?” Solo hisses from next to Mave. The latter tries to protest, but Solo arches a brow, quieting him.
“Yo, Ledge; what’s our plan here?” Varsha asks, and the three of us turn our attention forward again. “For shit to not go sideways, we’ll have to make her death look like an accident.”
“You dare speak about me as if I’m dead!” Mom sneers in a cracked voice. “You are nothing compared to me. Nothing.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Mave mumbles, then marches towards Mom. He reaches her, and when she glowers at him, he rears his right arm back and punches her in the jaw.
Blood spews from her mouth at the impact, and a screech-like sound fills the air as her chair skids backward. For someone who has won-over wealthy investors with merely a shift of her brow, she isn’t exactly doing well on her own right now.
“Step aside, Maverick,” Dorran says in his signature, too-calm voice.
Mave grits his teeth, keeping his hand fisted. He stares Mom down with so much hatred that it makes my chest ache. He despises her for everything she’s done to me; for how she’s treated me.
“You don’t deserve a daughter like Cignette,” he says to her. “Hell, you don’t deserve anything. The fame, the money, the forcibly-earned respect – you deserve none of it.” He grunts and punches her again. And again. And each time he does it, he draws blood.
I feel the wetness of tears on my cheeks only when Solo places a hand on my shoulder, squeezing it.
“Keep it together, kid,” he assures. “And don’t even think of looking away. You’ll watch what’s being done to her, and you’ll watch it until we’re through with her.”
I nod, warmed by his words, and the kindness in his eyes.
He gives me a small smile, then retreats his hand from my shoulder.
“Maverick.” The warning in Dorran’s voice is clear, and it’s enough to change the atmosphere in the room.
Mave is in the middle of delivering yet another punch to Mom’s already bruised and swollen face, but stops when he, too, senses the shift. He raises his hands by his sides, then spits at Mom’s feet before making his way back to me.
“Feel good?” I ask, then glance at the redness around his knuckles. “Apart from those, I mean.”
He sniffs and runs a hand over his mouth. “Plenty.”
I notice a tick in his jaw as he stares ahead, and the stiffness in his posture. Deciding to let him be, I sigh and focus on Dorran.
He gets to his feet – his eyes on Mom – and starts pulling his chair closer to hers. The sound of metal grating against concrete echoes through the room, thickening the air with tension.
There’s bloody saliva dripping down her chin, and she has all but folded in on herself. But when she sees how close Dorran’s getting to her, she makes a weak sound of protest. He, of course, ignores it, and once he’s satisfied with the new placement of his chair, he brings the table close as well.
Mom’s eyes widen almost comically at the sight of the pliers. “Don’t do this,” she croaks out. “There’s still time; don’t do this, Dorran.”
“And what, let you go? Forget about what you let happen tonight, and what you’ve been doing to Cignette for years?” he counters, then cocks his head to the side. “I don’t think so.”
Mom starts sobbing, then flinches when the action causes her pain.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” The question passes through my lips before I can even think about it.
Everyone in the room looks at me, Mom included.
“When you want to cry, but can’t because you know it’ll only hurt more if you do,” I continue.
“But those salty tears still fall through, making the bruises on your skin burn…” I swallow against the lump in my throat, and clench my jaw to stop my chin from trembling.
“It fucking hurts, Mom, and it only grows. It breaks you from the inside; traps you in an endless loop of fear – both conscious and otherwise.”
Dorran meets my eyes, and I see recognition there – towards my words, and the meaning they hold to the both of us.
“Cignette…” Mom’s face crumples as she cries. “I’m so…sorry, my sweet. Please forgive me. Forgive me, and I promise to be a better mother to you. Get me out of here, and I swear to you that I’ll change. I’ll do everything you want me to, but just…please, just get me out of here.”
“Are you seriously fucking negotiating with your daughter right now?” Jayce hisses, and makes to step forward, but Alex holds him back.
“I’m asking her for forgiveness,” Mom argues.
“When you’re so close to meeting your end? That’s rich, Miranda,” Alex counters. “Out of all the times you could have apologized, or even talked yourself out of assaulting Cigs, you choose now to atone for your wrongdoings.”
“I don’t need you, Mom,” I say honestly.
“Not after how much you’ve scarred me over the years just to make yourself feel better.
You treated me like an enemy, and not like your own flesh and blood – which I fucking am.
You’ve made me feel vulnerable and scared in my own skin, and now you want me to forgive you?
” I laugh. “No. Just…no. You deserve everything that’s happening to you right now, and you deserve it because you’re a cruel, narcissistic human being, and you need to pay for all the damage you’ve done to me. ”
“I gave you money, a status in our society, a fucking house to live in!” she screams brokenly. “What else could you possibly want from me?”
“The fact that you even have to ask me that is proof enough that you shouldn’t have been a mother to begin with,” I tell her.
She pauses, as if my words have hit her all at once. But then her face contorts just as fast. “Fuck you, you ungrateful little cunt.”