Chapter 56
ANASTASIA
He came for me. Eryx came.
I was so close to getting out, and my freedom was snuffed out as quickly as it came.
Sebastians men drag me through the back door, the one leading to his office.
I can see Eryx, as his unconscious body is being dragged behind me.
When we get in the office I’m thrown on the floor, my ankle twisting with the heels I still have on.
The men sit him on a chair and tie his hands behind his back.
Sergio walks in holding a pistol and my blood runs cold. His words from earlier echo in my ears. He comes to stand behind me, his hand grips my hair, yanking me up onto my knees.
“Get your filthy fucking hands off of her.” He tries to free his hands but is unable to move.
“Shut up,” he points the gun at his head.
“No! Stop!” I protest.
“I told you what would happen, didn’t I?” he just yanks harder on my hair, “I told you I’d put a bullet between his pretty eyes if you embarrassed me.” He cocks the gun back, “If you refused to—”
“I’ll—I’ll do it. I’ll do it!” I break down, “Just let him go, that’s my condition.”
He lowers the gun. “Smart girl.” He lets go of my hair and I fall to the ground. Just then the door opens again. Sebastian walks through it this time. His sleeves are rolled up and there’s blood splattered on his shirt.
“Muneca, oh what a mess you make of everything.” He walks over and crouches in front of me. He back hands me and I feel my lip split. His hand then comes and caresses my cheek but I move away from it. “Shh, it’s ok. It’ll all be over soon.”
My tears freely fall now.
“This is where you failed Sergio,” he begins, “you always gave her too much leash. Perra’s don’t get a leash, they get a shock collar and they learn real fucking quick who to answer to. When they eat, when they sleep, when they can take a shit.” He gets up and walks over to Eryx now.
“You break them when they’re young and they won’t fight you when they’re older. They know their place on the food chain. You should have gave her to me sooner. Just look at what three days with me has done. That smart mouth of her’s is fucking quiet. No more bite.”
“You shut your fucking mouth. I’ll fucking kill you!” Eryx seethes from his seat.
Sebastian hits him with the butt of his gun. His eye splitting.
“Muneca, would you like to know when your dear, Papá, offered you to me?”
“He is not my father.”
“Oh that’s right, you know that little secret now don’t you? What about your Mamá, you want to know what her last words were?”
I look at Sergio now, “What is he talking about?”
Sebastian starts again, “Ahh well this will make it all that much sweeter then.”
“What did you do?”
Sebastian has a cold smile on his face. “Your dad, no I’m sorry, Sergio here,” he says pointing at him, “promised you to me right before your fifteenth birthday. All I had to do was ‘get rid of your whore mother’ as he put it.”
“You son of a bitch! You sold her at fourteen?”
“The rain that day was just perfect, couldn’t ask for a better day. However, I didn’t know it was also your birthday, honest.” He holds his hands up like he’s swearing an oath.
“You—you killed her? You killed my mother, and my father?”
“Well, I didn’t do anything. I just cut the breaks and let fate take its course.”
Everything I’ve been speculating is true, he just confirmed it.
“She looked up at me, her eyes pleading for me to save her, to save him. I made sure to divert traffic so the ambulance would be delayed in getting to them.”
I turn to Sergio, “How long—how long had you been planning it. To kill them, to sell me off?”
He clears his throat, “I always knew, you had his eyes. How you or Esme never saw it I won’t understand.
I wasn’t going to do anything at first, but after Esme died and your mother had told her the truth, there was nothing keeping them from finally getting together and them taking the company from me entirely.
If they had told you anything I would lose my company and I worked too hard for that to happen.
When I got into debt with the Rivera’s, it just made business sense to sell you to Sebastian.
My debts would be paid and I’d keep my company.
You made it easier when you tried to run away with Thoren.
I didn’t know you’d be with him that day, but hey two birds one stone.
” He points at Eryx now, “He was supposed to get rid of him, execute the job he was paid to do. But he decided to grow a conscious and took you to the hospital, then dropped your brother off at my door.” He smiles, “I will say, the look on both of your faces when I told you he had died, and told him I’d kill you if he didn’t comply, priceless. ”
“You’re a monster. And I’m going to fucking kill you for everything you’ve put her through.” Eryx screams at them both.
“I’ve been called worse boy,” he walks over to him and hits him over and over again. His fist connecting with Eryx's face. Blood dripping from his mouth.
“STOP IT!” I cry out.
Sebastian holds me back. “Let me go!” I struggle in his hold. His hand gripping my hair.
Sergio grabs his gun again and aims it at Eryx. “Time to say goodbye.”
I struggle hander, my roots ripping as I try to get out of his hold.
The gun cocks back, and its tunnel vision.
I throw my head back as hard as I can. Sebastian momentarily lets go to soothe the ache he no doubt feels in his groin.
I take the small window of opportunity and run the short distance to Eryx.
The gun goes off with a pop and then everything around me is silent.
Then the world explodes into heat. A hot, pinprick sting blooms beneath my ribs and blooms and blooms until it’s the only thing in the room.
It’s not immediate, roaring pain, it’s a bright white bloom that makes my vision go a fraction narrow, like someone has put a thumb over the camera lens.
Air becomes heavy and thin at once. My lungs don’t know what to do.
Breathe, hold, scream, and I do all three at once.
It’s louder than the gun, louder than the voices.
The rush of blood, the pounding in my ears that matches my heartbeat, the sudden, obscene intimacy of my own blood warm against my dress when I fumble at the wound.
There’s a numb bubble rolling out from the impact, a deadness that takes my fingers first, then my arm, then the world. The pain is behind the numbness, crawling along the edges. I taste metal. My mouth is full of it. Like a mouthful of pennies.
Someone shouts my name. I think it’s Eryx.
It fractures and becomes wallpaper I can’t read.
Time becomes elastic, long minutes that are really seconds, seconds that feel like landscapes.
I feel unbearably exposed, and at the same time hollowed out, as if something vital has been scooped from me and I’m still waiting for it to be returned.
I feel soft arms wrap around me like a warm embrace.
“I’m sorry.” I hear myself whisper. Then everything fades to black.