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One
Present Day
Nerine
I finally did it. I finally killed him.
The bastard deserved to die by my hands.
He won’t hurt me anymore. He won’t hurt anyone anymore.
He thought I was a commodity, a thing to use for power and status.
Big mistake. Huge mistake.
I stared down at my blood-soaked hands. The dark, crimson liquid glistened rich and beautiful, pooling in my palms, still warm, still filled with the essence of the monster I married. Not by choice but force.
Tick, tick, tick.
The grandfather clock in the library counted the seconds since Andraius Fredric Angelos’s demise.
Not a true Angelos but a faker, a charlatan, someone who assumed a name to take my fucking throne.
Bastard.
A laugh bubbled up inside me, but my stomach clenched before I set it free. Then chills filled my body, making it seem like I’d never feel warm again.
I dropped my head back against a wall of books, trying desperately to ignore the pounding in my head, and shifted my attention to the asshole.
The handle of the knife I’d used to slice his belly open poked out from underneath him as he bled all over the rug.
A brutal death was a fitting end to the demon who used a blade to carve his punishment into my skin for not meeting his expectation of a new bride.
That was nearly five years ago.
I’d lost count of the number of times since then that he’d threatened to end me, take another, younger wife, and use the inheritance that came if I died to build upon his empire.
Hisempire.
Fucker. It wasmydamn empire. I was the true Angelos. Not him. Without me, he was nothing. And now hewasnothing.
He’d done everything to destroy my spark, my confidence, and my youth. And in the beginning, he’d almost succeeded. I’d lost everyone and everything I loved, and he preyed upon it. He turned me into a shell of the person I remembered before he entered my life. Then I realized falling under his rules made him happy and gave him power over me.
That was unacceptable for a girl brought up to fight for what belonged to her.
I decided I’d rather have him hate me. He’d treat me the same no matter how I behaved.
Plus it wasn’t as if I’d get back all the time stolen from me.
At nearly twenty-four, most of my old friends had graduated from college. In contrast, I’d spent my time in hell, living as a wife to a man who’d take my family name as if it were his birthright and then wanted to breed me like a mare so he could legitimize his claim.
Thank God the bastard never proved to be anything but sterile. Though he’d never once admitted it. No, it had all been my fault.
As in all cases when men held bigger egos than abilities, they blamed a woman for their shortfalls.
Piece of shit.
Tick, tick, tick.
