“Papa! She just showed up and attacked us,” she rasped, her voice hoarse.
Dimitros looked at me and grunted, “She tried to suffocate Aria.”
Fuck, thank God those two had adjoining bedrooms. He must have heard the screams too.
I was on my mad wife before my next breath.
I yanked her off of him, grabbing her by her waist with one hand and putting her in a chokehold with the other while she waved the knife frantically, trying to stab us all. I didn’t care if she got to me as long as she couldn’t hurt my children.
Amara’s incoherent words and vicious screams broke free.
“Amara, stop,” I gritted, trying to keep my voice calm but failing. “Calm down.”
Of course, my wife wasn’t easily calmed. She was fighting me like an animal, hissing and screaming at the top of her lungs.
My eyes were locked on my terrified children. Aria’s eyes widened with terror and Dimitros’s face was smeared red, blood gushing out of his cheek wound. I could feel my fury bubbling at the sight, but I tried to keep my calm and not go bat-shit crazy on my wife who didn’t know what she was doing.
“Amara, calm down,” I tried again.
She dropped her knife on the ground with a loud clink, then elbowed me in the ribs. I let out a pained grunt. For someone who was barely active, she exhibited a lot of strength. Or maybe that was simply her adrenaline doing the work.
“Dimitros,” I grunted. “Get the tranquilizer.”
He ran out of the room while I kept a kicking-and-screaming Amara subdued, who even tried to headbutt me with the back ofher head. Her hands flew up and down, clawlike as if she were a goddamned cat, in Aria’s direction.
I cursed in Greek, English, Latin, and every fucking language I knew, gripping her waist and holding her back when Dimitros came back, breathless and bloodied with a syringe in his hand.
“Give it to me,” I hissed as I stumbled toward him, still holding Amara in a firm grip with one hand and reaching for the syringe with the other.
Once it was in my hand, I pushed the needle into her neck. It didn’t take long for Amara to grow quiet and stop struggling before slumping in my arms.
Dimitros and Aria were already engulfed in each other, protecting themselves while Aria whimpered, her eyes locked on Amara with utter terror and a fear that I would never forget.
“How did she get out of her room?” I grumbled, standing up with my wife’s limp body in my arms.
“I don’t know,” Aria cried as she shifted to push a piece of cloth against Dimitros’s bleeding cheek.
“She tried to suffocate Aria,” Dimitros gritted. “That woman cannot stay here.”
Of course he was right, but it still hurt to hear Dimitros refer to Amara asthat womanrather than his mother. He deserved to have a mother, at least a memory of one. He had nothing, and that part killed me. It made me feel like the shittiest father on this planet, knowing I’d failed him. I hadn’t chosen a good woman for my children, but was rather forced into an arranged marriage to a madwoman who had now scarred this entire family.
“We’ll talk later,” I told them both. “I’ll call the doctor to check you both out. Then we’ll all clean up and get to bed. You both need rest. We’ll talk about all this tomorrow.”
With that, I turned around and left to put Amara back in her sanctuary.
And this time, I’d secured her with double locks.
Five hours later, my head throbbed as the first pale rays of morning slipped through the gap of my office curtains. It stretched across the room in a thin line of burnt orange, gilding my bar cart and the crystal whiskey glasses calling my name.
This house was too quiet for a home with two children inside.
Its walls were filled with horror in the aftermath of Amara’s outburst, and now my mind couldn’t help but seek a temporary refuge.
I slumped in the tufted armchair and closed my eyes, listening to the ticking of the clock. I spent hours here like this after having to save my children from Amara’s wrath and whatever wars she waged in her mind. She’d been locked up in the attic suite that had been completely renovated and secured to ensure she couldn’t escape. Yet, somehow, she’d found a way.
“Fuck,” I rasped to the empty room.
I’d brought a monster into our home. How could I have been so careless and stupid? My wife’s madness had lurked in the early years of our marriage, but she’d hidden it well.
