Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 537(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 358(@300wpm)
I scream so loud my heart skips, and my ears and head throb.“Nico! Please! I love him! Please stop! Don’t be like my father! Please!” I resort to a last-ditch effort to stop him. I look at the tears pouring from Damian’s eyes, and his muffled screams will be a sound that haunts me forever.
Once his pinky is removed, Nico turns to me, blood on his hand and all the way up to his crisp white shirtsleeve. He wears a sinister grin, and I bend over and vomit at the sight.
“Good girl, let it all out. Vomit the rest of him out of your system.”
“Why are you doing this?” I cry harder, and he steps up to me calmly, the knife in one hand and the other reaching into his pocket. I still struggle to release myself from Giulio but to no avail.
“Would a man who loves you in the same regard betray you like this, principessa?” He holds up his phone, and my eyes try to focus past the tears.
When they do, my heart stops in my chest. I swear it.
The image comes into focus, and when I see photos of Damian and me naked and entangled with one another, my body on full display, I realize they aren't ones I ever knew he took. In fact, I never let him film us or take pictures.
He did this… behind my back.
How could he do this?
Nico keeps scrolling. Each image getting more and more intimate and showing my entire body in ways I wouldn't want anyone to see.
“This is just the start. They were on over a dozen pornography sites, Emelia.” Nico sneers. “Do you still fucking love him now? Am I still the monster, wife?”
I don’t answer him. Instead, my head just slowly shakes, the reality of what is happening sinking in second by second. Each moment that passes, I try to think up a million reasons of how it could be something else, or a genuine mistake, or someone else who did this. It just had to be. Damian was the love of my life.
Damian was the first man to see my body. To touch me. To love me. This betrayal would mean none of it was real.
“No. He wouldn't.”
“Emelia, you think I would just do this on a whim? All of these were found linked to his IP address. He posted them all. I don’t know much about love, nor do I care to, but I’m assuming this isn’t something it would entail. Am I wrong?”
Damian starts to move again and speaks behind the cloth in his mouth. He keeps struggling against his restraints, but he fails to loosen them. I look from him to Nico, then back Damian again, and I ask him what I need to know.
“Did you do this?” My voice is low, and you can hear the heartbreak in it. Anyone could heed it in my voice just as clearly as I can feel it in my soul. He looks at me with a petrified look, but I don't see remorse. He is more regretful he’s in this situation than he is about putting our sex tapes and images all over the internet.
“You were supposed to love me.” My body goes lax, and Giulio loosens his grip on me.
“Are you ready to let me finish the job?” Nico holds the blade up and admires it… and now, so do I.
“Yes.”
Damian screams like a weak fuck, and that just fuels me on.
“Good.” Nico starts to turn, but I place my hand on his shoulder. He stops and looks at me. “Yes?”
I swallow thickly, and then I speak. “Can I help?”
His brows rise, and Damian’s pleas are drowned out by my pulse drumming in my ears. Nico pivots just slightly, his body not completely facing me, but his expression is etched in surprise. “You want to help, wife?”
I nod slowly, glancing at Damian and then to Nico.
Damian does his best to plead his case with just his eyes and pathetic tears, but something in me… darkens… and my heart turns to stone. A feeling I have never felt before. But I welcome it. He betrayed me. He left me. He used me. Was it ever love?
“Yes.” I reach out and grab the knife, and Nico doesn't stop me. I circle Damian then, learning finally what it's like to be the hunter and not the prey.
“You never loved me, did you?” I ask, and he starts to rattle off some incoherent words. I look up at Nico and notice he’s standing there with a shine in his eyes as he crosses his arms and keeps his focus on me.
“Pathetic, isn't he, Giulio?” Nico asks. “It’s nice to take out the trash.”
“The best part of this job, sir,” Giulio says.
I interrupt them, “Nico, remove the cloth.”
He looks at me, and without pause, he does what I ask with a smirk on his face. When he rips the cloth off, Damian starts spitting out words.