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Cassie
Idon’t believe my eyes. All around me is a picture show of destruction. On every wall are photographs of me, my friends, where we went to school, parties. The story of our lives. I stare at the one of Eloise and her professor. Making out at a party one night and then a more revealing shot of them in bed together. Then there’s Lauren, her career plans marked through with a big red line with ‘denied’ written in red on the letter she received, inviting her to the studios.
Natalia’s fashion show that received so much praise has been photographed and then crossed out with the word ‘denied’ in red. Then there’s me. So many photographs of me as a child, growing up, here in this palace. Pictures of me with Victor, my friends and my family. There are love hearts drawn all over my face and deep slashes in the faces of any guys I have ever spoken to, including Victor. A damning catalog of my life by an obsessed mind.
Victor stands behind me and whispers, “I told you he was cruel, deranged even. The pain he inflicted on me was a release from a despicable and evil mind. The fact he made you promises and has always intended on breaking every one of them shows he can’t be trusted. You never believed me, which is why I had to show you the madness. The man you will marry tomorrow and the man who will make your life a misery is Maxim, Cassie and you need to know the truth.”
“What can I do, Victor? I can’t take it all in?”
The tears fall as I see my life in ruins before me and the comforting arm that Victor puts around my shoulder makes me ashamed I ever doubted him.
He whispers, “I told you to trust me, Cassie. I have always loved you. It was always you, and Maxim knew that. He knew I wanted you and, like the bastard he’s always been, he tried to take that from me as well. He has things on every important person in your life. Your parents, sisters and friends. The career you wanted has been canceled and your friends’ lives ruined because he wants to keep them here. Marry them off to his friends and keep a tight circle around him that he has full control over. It’s why we clash so badly. I won’t sit back and watch him ruin lives. We have to act now, Cassie. I am the only person who can save you, to set you free.”
“What are you going to do?”
I feel a little afraid of the darkness in Victor’s eyes and he says roughly, “Fight back. I claim his bride and then his throne. I have been planning this for a long time. Take out his foundations and rock them till they fall. Those men he invited are the people he controls in the outside world. Men who are loyal but not for much longer.”
“Why, what will you do?”
My mind is reeling and I can’t absorb the information. and he snarls, “I’ve been running a ghost operation for several months. I have my own loyal group of subjects who are working for me. Clever men who will take the positions of power. Men who are at the top of their game. Men, I control and men who will ensure the monarchy lives to see the next generation. Maxim will destroy everything we hold dear and I will not stand by and watch him ruin so many lives. Don’t you see, Cassie…”
He turns to face me and his eyes shine with an excitement that leaves me speechless and a little afraid. “We can have it all. Marry me and I will set you free. You can have your career, your friends too and all I ask is that you stay loyal to me. Be my queen and help me make a difference to the world.”
“But…” I step away because this conversation is scaring me and I whisper, “But how? What about Maxim?”
“Him.” He spits out the word in disgust and grins like a mad man. “I have a very interesting accident planned for the lot of them holed up in that room plotting to manipulate the world to their advantage. A clever way to extinguish them all that they won’t see coming.”
“How?” I am so fearful for everyone because of the madness in Victor’s eyes and he laughs bitterly. “I’ve set up poisonous gas to be pumped into the room. Instant death as they inhale the poison I have concentrated into lethal volumes. My own team of assassins are in place to make sure none of them survive and all in the protective walls of a room no guards can enter. The door is locked, and the guards placed outside have been replaced by my own men. When the door is open, they will all be dead in an apparent mass suicide because my guards will make sure that every last one of them is placed in a compromising position, making it look as if they self-inflicted their passage to the afterlife. Rather ingenious, if I’m honest, which brings me to the next part of my plan.”
“Which is?” I lick my lips nervously as a spark ignites in his eyes and he steps forward, bringing extreme danger with him. “You, Cassie. We need to make sure that if by some chance he survives, it’s to find his queen has been taken by another. My initial proposal remains and you must surrender your virginity to me to stand any chance of realizing your dream.”
“No.” I back away because just the thought of it is making me feel sick, and he laughs softly, “I’m sorry, my darling, did I say you had a choice in the matter? No, if you won’t give it to me willingly, which would be better for you actually, then I’ll take it by force and then I’ll do it again and then again and then again.”
He advances with an evil look in his eye, and I look wildly around for some form of defense against an obvious maniac. Trying to run to the door, I scream as his hands grab my dress and I hear the rip of fabric as he tears it off my back and sobbing, I stumble to the door, praying for a miracle because I already know he locked it when we entered. Laughing madly, he reaches for me and pulls my hair and then turning slaps my face hard as I stumble back against the wall and he hisses, “What’s the matter, don’t I turn you on enough?”
Gripping my throat, he holds my head against the wall and with one hand tears the rest of my dress from my body in one sweeping movement. As the tears fall, so does any hope of rescue because this part of the castle is separate from the rest and the walls so thick, it’s doubtful anyone would hear me scream.
As he fumbles with his pants, I watch him pull out his rock-hard cock and I desperately try to kick out but he slaps me hard around the face once again and slams my head against the wall, growling, “Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. You will learn who controls you, who controls everything and you will be my queen and there is nothing you can do about that.”
Suddenly, the door crashes open and the look in Victor’s eyes will live with me forever as the confusion settles in like slow motion. The room is filled with menace as he is wrenched off me and slammed to the ground, his hands held behind him and I hear him scream in pain as his bones crack.
Men that scare the hell out of me fill the room with menace, tattoos and an attitude that warns off the bravest soldier. Guns drawn and flexing muscles ensure that Victor is held helplessly on the ground, as a man who looks like Satan’s foot soldier hands me a leather jacket and says kindly, “Take this.”
Covering my body in the slightly warm jacket, I accept his tattooed arm as he wraps it around my shoulder and whispers, “It’s ok, darlin’, you’re safe now. Come with us, no harm will come to you.”
“But Maxim, the others, you must warn them.” I can’t bear the thought that somehow Victor’s plan has worked and the pain that is twisting my heart is all I can think of.
“They’re safe. I’ll take you to them.”
My legs shake as they lead me from a room I never want to see again, in my mind as well as physically and as we leave Victor howling in agony on the floor, I wonder what will happen next because now I’ve seen that room and everything in it, I’m not sure who to trust anymore.
