“But to have the audacity to run off and get married when you knew it would be forbidden? That, I can’t forgive. I’ve been too soft on you. The annulment is already in the works.”
“I won’t sign it.”
He laughs now. “Do you think I need you to sign it? Elena, you disappoint me.”
“I’ll just marry him again. You can’t keep us apart.”
He sighs and reaches into the briefcase and pulls out a whip. It’s long and well-worn.
“Dad.”
He circles the room, walking around me. He rips my T-shirt in two, exposing my back, then returns to dragging the whip, flicking it with his wrist as if he’s warming up.
He’s just scaring me.
I’m so sick of this shit! Just let me leave so I can be with Archer!
He walks behind me, and to my utter shock and horror, he cracks that whip across my back, sending crazy, searing pain throughout my body.
“That’s one,” he says, his voice as calm and cool as glass.
I can’t believe it. He hurt me.
“What’s best for the family is always the priority,” he says and lashes the whip over my back again, making me cry out in pain this time. “You know this. You know.”
“I love him,” I whisper, and am rewarded with another lash of the whip.
“Do you think I give a fuck?”
More lashes. He counts ten, then pauses and punches my face. I see stars when he hits me square on the nose, and then he picks the whip back up and counts another ten lashes. And when he’s done, and I can no longer cry or speak, he simply rolls up the whip and tucks it into his briefcase.
I can’t stand anymore. I’m hanging by my useless, dead hands. I can feel the warm blood trickling down my back, soaking my shorts. Blood also runs down my face, and my eyes are swollen.
“It looks like you need more time to think.” His voice is calm again. His impassive eyes roam over my face before he turns and walks out, leaving me alone once more.
The lights come on, blinding me.
“The annulment is complete.”
My back sings in pain, as does my face. I have a headache the size of Texas. I can’t see well.
But I’m going to live through this, and then I’m going to leave. I’m going to run away with Archer. We can live anywhere.
“I can get married again.”
“Tsk tsk.” He sets a laptop on the bench and opens it, then taps some keys. Suddenly, a video of Archer fills the screen. “Looks like he’s having lunch with his sister.”
Archer and Anastasia.
“This is live,” Dad continues as if we’re having a conversation about the weather. “Oh, see this man here?”
He points to the corner of the screen where a man I recognize as one of my father’s goons sits at a table nearby.
“He’s armed and has been given the command to kill them both when they leave this restaurant if you don’t make the right decision. Right here, right now.”
My eyes fly to his in shock.
“You wouldn’t kill him.” My voice is like sandpaper.
“You underestimate me, little girl. Even after the beating I handed out last night, you still underestimate me. Did you think I’d let you walk out of here and go off with him? Or let you sneak away?”
I can’t reply. My eyes are on the man I love as he laughs with Anastasia. Oh, how I wish I was with them.
“I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
“You have two choices. Either he dies, or you do what you were born to do and think of what’s best for your family.”
Archer is my family!
“Either way,” he continues, “you won’t be with him. You just need to decide if he lives or dies.”
“This is so fucked-up.”
“Quite,” he agrees. And when I look into his eyes, I can see that he’s enjoying himself.
He wants to hurt me.
He’s getting off on it.
And I don’t doubt that he’d kill Archer just to fuck with my head.
“Fine.” I lick my bloody lip and feel everything inside myself break. I feel my heart die. How will I go on without Archer? How will I live for the rest of my life without him in it? But Archer losing his life isn’t an option. I have to keep him safe. “You win.”
“There.” Father closes the laptop with a satisfied snap. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
I expect him to untie me, but he turns away and picks up a lighter and lets the flame lick the big ring he wears with a prominent W on it. He doesn’t wear a wedding band, but he’s worn that stupid, gaudy ring every day of his life.
I want to shove it down his throat and let him choke on it.
“And this is so you always remember who it is that you belong to.”
Before I can do anything, he presses the hot metal to my skin, high on my thigh, and I scream in pain as he brands me.
He fucking branded me!
I want to claw out his eyes. I want to spit in his face. But I go limp as a rag and wait as he unties my hands and helps me fall to a heap on the floor.
“I’ll send a nurse up to tend to those wounds,” he says. “And, Elena, if I find out that you have any words with Archer aside from breaking it off, or if you try to see him, I will kill him.”
I watch his feet as he walks out of my closet, and then I curl in on myself, crying harder than I ever have in my life. Not from the open wounds on my back, or the burning flesh on my thigh.
No, the pain of losing Archer forever is far worse than any physical pain could ever be.
“Hey.”
I’m holding the phone close to my ear, eager to soak in every word we say, even though they’re going to be painful. He’s going to hate me before this call is over.
“Where the hell are you, E? I haven’t heard from you in days. A man shouldn’t go that long without talking to his wife, you know?”
I close my eyes. Wife. Oh, how I long to be his spouse. To truly be his until the end of time.
“Yeah, we need to talk about that, Archer. We were really impulsive.”
“Planned it for three months,” he reminds me. “I don’t think that’s impulsive.”
“Well, it was for me. You know, I think I just got really caught up in the idea of getting married and everything, but now that I’ve had time to think it over, I don’t think this is what I want at all.”
He’s quiet for a moment. I want to scream, I’M LYING! HE’S MAKING ME DO THIS TO US!
But I can’t.
“What are you saying, E? Do you want to go back to dating?”
“No.” I swallow hard and hate myself for what I’m about to say. “No, I think it’s best if we just go ahead and part ways now. Clean break. I’m sorry if I hurt you, Archer, but it’s really what I want.”
“I can’t believe this.”
I have to push my hand against my sore mouth so I don’t sob out loud.
“You’re breaking up with me?”
“Yeah. I’m just too young to be tied down, you know? I need to experience life and spend some time alone. You’re just not what I want, Archer.”
“But we’re married.” I can hear him pacing on the other end of the line.