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This is the man I’ve feared the last few weeks? This is the man I allowed to hold so much power over me? Over my life?
He took a part of me I’ll never get back. The brutal pain of him deep inside me will forever haunt me.
But this man is nothing more than a terrified, pathetic coward.
I would feel sorry for him, but I don’t.
All I feel is an unyielding, burning hatred in the place where my love for him once was.
“But I know your secret,” I mutter. “I know why you hurt people smaller and weaker than you. Why you go after women and children.” My voice is soft, the same I used when we were in bed together. “You’re a coward, Isaac Payne. Nothing but a fucking loser. A woman-beating, child-abusing, narcissistic socio—”
Before I can fully get the words out, his hands wrap around my throat. My body momentarily stills, shock overriding everything else. But then I look into his eyes—his blank eyes. There’s nothing there, not a hint of the man I knew, of the man I loved.
Nothing.
There’s just an empty, dark void where his soul should be.
Then he squeezes, and all my primal instincts come rushing back to me.
My hands fly up and my nails dig into the thick skin of his forearms. He hisses as I draw blood, but he doesn't stop squeezing, so I don’t stop fighting.
I buck, and kick, and snarl, and spit. But he doesn’t let up.
Instead, he turns us and backs me away from the wall and I know where he’s leading me.
No.
I claw at his skin harder, tears leaking from my eyes as my air is cut off. I don’t know what to do, how to overpower him. I can’t stop this from happening.
Roman.
It’s the only thing I can think about. His name, over and over, like a prayer giving me enough strength to bring my knee up. Isaac dodges the blow, and shoves me down to the floor, right where my mother laid for the last time.
His knees rest on either side of my body as he hovers above me. I inhale a gurgling breath as I watch his pupils dilate so much that all that’s left is a blackness that coats his soul, his entire being.
As the sun rises, the light filters in through the windows, bathing the room in a soft glow. Maybe I would’ve found it beautiful, but I can’t focus on that right now. All I can think about is trying to take my next breath.
Roman.
“You’re just like your mother,” Isaac snarls, his voice full of disgust. “Isn’t it funny how history has a way of repeating itself?”
His lips twist in a sick grin as I writhe beneath him, struggling to breathe under his unrelenting grip.
Roman.
“She was so quick to fall in line,” he continues, his voice soft. “So eager to please me, she’d do anything. But then she got mouthy, she got too curious. Just like you, sweetheart.”
His hands tighten, and I reach for his face, dragging my nails down his cheek. A sick amount of satisfaction fills me at the sight of the bright crimson beading on his skin.
“Fuck.” His grip around my throat barely loosens and I take the chance to inhale as much air as I can.
Roman.
“She knew her place until she didn’t,” he growls. “But she wouldn’t stop looking. She wouldn't stop fighting. She was getting in the way. She was going to ruin everything.”
Lifting me, he slams back onto the wood, and I feel my skull crash into it just like hers. Black spots dance in my vision, and my muscles start to weaken.
“She pushed and pushed and pushed, until I had no other choice. Just like Cami. Just like Roman. And now, just like you.”
