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Heath comes barrelling toward us, pulling me away from my father and sweeping me up in his arms, wrapping me tightly against him. “Olivia! You’re alive! My sweet Olivia! I’m so happy you’re alive. I was disquieted by your absence and not knowing whether you’d come back to me. If I knew where to look, I’d have come to get you. Oh, I don’t know what I would’ve done if you’d never returned. But now that you’re back, we’ll make haste to spend the rest of our lives together. I never want to lose you again.”
This delusional piece of horse crap. “Let me go, you pig!” I say, slapping him across the face and kneeing him in the crotch.
Wincing, he releases me before gathering up his ego off the asphalt and turning to face everyone. “She’s clearly in shock.” He laughs.
“In shock?! I’ve been telling you this since day one!” I say loud enough for all to hear. “But you’ve failed to listen because your idiocy is too loud for you to hear anything but your own thoughts. If anyone should be locked away in an asylum, it should be you and your empty brain. I will never marry a serpent like you, understood? Never. If you were the last person on earth, and I had to rely on you for survival, I would rather die. I disliked you before, but I despise you even more now that you let the town think that my father was insane, and you got him locked away.”
Heath’s rage overflows through the redness of his cheeks and the bulging of his veins.
Turning to everyone, I say, “My father was telling the truth, you bunch of nitwits!”
Heath grabs me by the jaw. “Look, it’s clear that you’ve lived through some trauma. So, I’ll let this slide. Going by the bruises on your neck, I can tell you’ve been raped and have no affection for the male sex, but with time, you’ll come to see…”
Pulling my jaw from his grip, I pierce him with my gaze. “I wasn’t raped. And don’t you dare place one of your filthy swine fingers upon me again, or I’ll make sure you regret it.”
He laughs a little, a soft, quick giggle at that last part before his face transforms as if just hearing the first part. His brows narrow, his forehead seems to expand, and he bares his teeth. “You—You are a whore!” He looks at his hands as if they’ve been soiled. “Never touching you again won’t be a problem, you filthy cunt rag. What did you do? Seduce your captor to make your escape? It would’ve been more honourable if you had died, keeping your virtue. You’re nothing more than a slut, and you deserve to be thrown into the cell with your father! And the man who captured you, who stole what was mine deserves to be killed!”
“Hurrah! Lock them up! Lock them up!” the crowd yells.
“I was never yours!” I try to yell over the chanting crowd, but it’s impossible to get past their shouts.
“We’ll search the ends of the earth for him and if the words of the whore’s imbecile father are to be trusted, then someone must know the whereabouts of the man called ‘the beast.’ He’ll be slain for messing with what’s mine!” Heath screams.
The men who already have their weapons on them raise their pistols and swords in solidarity. My stomach drops for Adam. I know he’s surrounded by guards and security. I’m aware he seems invincible. Yet, this wariness persists within me. Trying to get a word in over their loud chanting is a lost cause. Turning to my father, we make a silent agreement to escape. However, our efforts are quickly thwarted by the guards who snap shackles around our wrists.
The crowd erupts in cheers. Heath’s grin widens, and I shudder. I’ve just gotten my freedom back; I’m not about to lose it again. My kicking and shouts do nothing to help me as I’m dragged inside the jailhouse and thrown into a cell with Papa, all the while thinking, along with us being trapped, that Adam can’t die.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Adam
It’sfastapproachingtwenty-fourhours since Olivia’s left, and I can’t even bring myself to eat. I don’t want to see anyone. Anger consumes me, and I have no one to blame but myself. If only I’d chosen grace and charm when we had first met; things would have been different. Well, if I forget the consequences that brought us together in the first place. Surely, if I’d chosen grace, she’d have been long gone with her father since day one, and I’d have never known the scent and taste of her.
Gulping from the acid that attempts to disintegrate the organs working hard behind my chest to keep me alive, especially now, I groan. I don’t think I’ve spoken a single word to anyone else; the only life worth living is the fantasy that exists in my head. At least there, I can keep her with me forever.
Before her, nothing really fit. There was always this longing, this gaping hole within me that needed to be filled, and I ran away from it. I silenced it. I murdered my needs and desires, like I’ve murdered others. I’ve rebelled, I’ve caused people pain because of my own pain. I decided the world was a dratted ball of horse shit, and I treated it as such. People were nothing more than animals or objects. Feelings were curses put upon us to fulfil some cruel controversy. I was slowly dying inside and killing everything and everyone around me, both literally and figuratively. Inside me, there was a dull emptiness where organs made of metal clanked around the shell of a body.
She forced me out of that and now, she’s gone forever. I’ve bled out before her, and there’s no way to force everything back in the place they used to be. She’s resuscitated my soul. She’s made me believe in miracles, in something or someone greater than all of us who has mercy on even a beast like me. It makes sense, that for someone like me, I should be punished in this way. To be forced to live without her, because to find her and beg her to return to me, and to give me a second chance would mean falling back into old patterns and coercion. If I love her, then I must love her enough to let her go. Even if letting her go feels like death. I caused this on myself and though my chest tightens to admit this, I need to assume responsibility for my actions.
The drapes are pulled shut, and the room is pitch dark. Whether it’s day or night, I can’t tell, and I don’t care. Outside the window, down below, there’s a roar of voices, shouting something or another. My legs, arms, head, and body, they all feel too large to carry. The shouts pass through my thoughts like a vague memory. A knock on my door barely jolts me before it bursts down. I suppose all the people I’ve angered have come for their revenge. It’s only fair that I die for all I’ve done. Remaining still with my back turned and my eyes closed, I don’t attempt to defend myself.
“Boss!” It’s Lucian. I sigh. “Boss!” He tries again. If I don’t answer, he’ll understand the message I’m trying to send him. “Boss! Mate? Adam?” he says. “Look, get your arse out of this bed. There’s a whole town of people outside the gates, holding torches, pistols, rifles, and swords, banging on the locks and climbing the gates to come in. They’re shouting something about Olivia, justice, and coming for the beast. What do you want us to do? We can open fire on them, but we’re outnumbered. Give us an order.”
My heart sinks. Olivia has sent the whole town after me? I should’ve expected this; what did I think would happen? This is proof of the way she feels about me. If she despises me this much, I deserve to get what’s coming to me. I’m an animal, and I deserve to be slaughtered like one. I don’t deserve to be happy or to live a life filled with love. I’ve made my bed, and I’m lying in it.
Lucian and all the other men already know the lookout points, the firing posts hidden around the mansion, they can fight to protect themselves. But they shouldn’t fight to protect me. Whatever happens next is out of my hands. Whether I live or die isn’t up to me, but a world without Olivia’s love and filled with the memories of how I hurt her and the one she loves, is a world I’m all too happy to leave. If the people want justice, then they should get it.
“Cocksucker!” Lucian yells. “How can you expect to win Olivia back if you’re dead?” Lucian tries but when that doesn’t work, he swears on his way out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Lucian
‘Gunshots are muffled by the bodies that they fell. Slashing swords bounce off each other, ringing like bells. Grunts and howls, shouts and yells. This mansion has become a different type of hell.’
“You must go with the other servants, Gloria! I won’t take no for an answer, and there’s no time to argue!” I gasp, looking behind me as the front door breaks down.
“No, I won’t leave you,” Gloria cries. “Give me a gun. I’ll fight.” Picking her up, I hurry with her toward the back door. “No! Put me down! I’m not leaving without you!” she screams, digging her short nails into my arm.
“And I’m not risking your life,” I say. “I love you, please but if you keep on struggling, you’re going to hand them an advantage to shoot me when I’m not looking because I’m too focused on you. Please. Go. Toward the opposite side of the woods, so these blood-hungry animals won’t see you. Release some horses from the stable. And please, for heaven’s sake, don’t get caught. Go to Lhyrenia and if I survive, I’ll meet you there in three days. If a week’s passed without my arrival…” Emotion chokes me. “Move on with your life.”
