Chapter 30

Savina~

Blood was rushing in my ears, and my hands shook with an anger that I never imagined myself capable of. As Ashton drove us back to the brownstone, excited to teach me another lesson, all I could think about was how I'd spent the past two years letting him treat me like garbage.

After running for about a mile, I'd found a convenient store that had allowed me to use their phone. I'd given the cashier a story about losing my phone, and he'd been so uninterested in my story that he had just handed over the store phone without needing much more from me. Luckily, Ashton had made me memorize his phone number for such an occasion where I might really lose my phone, so it'd been nothing to call him. However, it'd taken me three times of calling him before he had answered, which hadn't been surprising since most people didn't answer calls from numbers that they didn't recognize.

At any rate, as soon as Ashton had answered the phone and had realized that it was me, he hadn't even demanded an explanation of where I'd been. He had simply asked me where I was, then had assured me that he was on his way. While I'd wanted to keep running, distancing myself more, I hadn't. Instead, I had waited patiently for Ashton to show up, then had gotten in the car when he had pulled into the parking lot.

Now, knowing Ashton the way that I did, I knew what his silence meant. He was beyond pissed, and even though he was going to demand to know what happened, he really didn't care. He had his excuse to put his hands on me and that's all that he really cared about anyway.

When we pulled up to the front of the house, I quickly got out, doing my best to steady myself as I waited for Ashton to escort me inside. After all, we were in public, so on the off chance that our neighbors had cameras or someone was watching, all anyone would see was Ashton Oliver being the perfect gentleman.

My heart started beating erratically inside my chest as I watched Ashton unlock the front door, knowing what awaited me once we got inside. Though things were different now, Ashton was still a grown man, and there was no way that I was going to be able to get through this unscathed. Though I wasn't exactly scared, living inside a battered body was never fun.

The second that Ashton locked the door behind us, his arm snaked out to grab a handful of my hair, then like it was the most natural thing in the world, he threw me as far as his strength would allow him, my back hitting the wall of the foyer.

"Where in the fuck have you been?" he seethed, and the fact that he wasn't screaming at me told me that he was a lot angrier than I had expected.

"Ashton-"

"You were fucking Provenza, weren't you?" he snarled, and though he couldn't possibly know that I'd been, he wasn't wrong.

Nonetheless, the rules of the game were different now, so I answered truthfully. "Yes."

I watched as Ashton was momentarily stunned by my admission, and my stomach rolled when he actually looked hurt. His level of crazy had to be off the charts to actually feel hurt that I'd betray him. After everything that the man had done to me these past two years, how could he be surprised that I'd choose Aurelio over him? Ashton had to be genuinely insane to believe that I could ever love him, or to think that what he felt for me was love.

As Ashton stared at me in shock, I got to my feet, needing more from him. "I went to go see my parents, and when I got to their house, Aurelio was there."

Snapping out of his shock, Ashton sneered at me, his face contorting with rage and disgust. "I always knew you were nothing but a fucking whore." I inched towards the alcove leading to the living room, making it look like I was trying to get away when I really wasn't. "When Daniel and Reginald fucked you that night, I knew that you liked it. I knew that you were lying when you said that you didn't want them." He took a few steps toward me, following me into the living room. "You were probably lying about Cooper Donaldson, too. I bet you can't wait to fuck that piece of shit."

"You're wrong," I argued. "There's only one man that I've ever wanted."

"You cunt!" he thundered as my face snapped sideways, the force of his slap sending me back into the middle of the living room. "You filthy fucking whore!"

I quickly scrambled back towards the couch, and though my face felt on fire, I knew that I had to force myself past the pain. "It's true," I bit out, provoking him some more.

Ashton stormed over, then grabbed me by my hair, flinging me aside, my face hitting the edge of the coffee table, and that's when I knew that he planned on killing me. No longer caring about any damage to my face, he was making his intentions clear.

I didn't have time to catch my breath before Ashton's foot kicked my stomach in, robbing me of all ability. Doing my best, I rolled over to crawl away, but Ashton was on me before I could even move an inch. He had my hair again, and this time, he slammed my head up against the base of the couch, then flung me to the side again.

"You know, I always knew who you were, you stupid bitch," he sneered. "I knew who you were before we'd even met. Why do you think I chose you to find us that building? I knew that you were Sartori trash, and it made my dick hard to know that I had turned one of their bitches into a useless whore."

Each word out of his mouth fueled my rage, and I just needed a little more from him before making my move. I just needed to make sure that he didn't kill me before I got the chance, because the rules had definitely changed once Ashton had decided to bust up my face. He was going to kill me, then call his father to help him clean up the mess.

Ashton used my hair to pull me to my feet, and once he did, his left fist sent me careening back against the fireplace, blood trickling down my cheek. "You were so in love with that sonofabitch, I knew I could get you to do whatever I wanted once I showed you that tape."

"That…tha…that tape is…is fake…" I said, finally revealing one of my cards.

Ashton started laughing, and it sounded hollow and deranged. "I had Jorge Bustamente set up and killed just so that I could fuck you up the ass without permission."

I almost threw up.

What kind of man killed another human being for no reason?

"You can love Aurelio Provenza all you want, Savina," he continued. "But he'll never have you the way that I did. While you might be a whore, I'm the only man that has ever used you like the piece of trash that you are."

As I struggled to stand up, I made sure to place myself in front of the poker stand. I had my hands behind me, making it look like I was trying to brace myself, and though I was, I was also grabbing one of the iron tools behind me in my right hand.

"You…you never had me, Ashton," I said, my breathing a bit labored, not a stranger to cracked or broken ribs. "I used you."

His face turned red. "Meaning?"

"I used you to keep Aurelio out of prison," I informed him. "Even though that tape is fake, it changes nothing. I used you to protect the man that I love, the only man that I've ever loved."

"I'm going to fucking kill you!" he raged.

"Not before I send you to fucking hell, you piece of shit," I spat.

His eyes were wild with a fury that couldn't be described, and I knew that this was it. Preparing myself, the second that Ashton stepped my way, I pulled the poker out from behind my back, then swung with all my might. Meeting his head, he stumbled back a bit, shock coloring his features, the very idea of me fighting back feeling foreign to him.

I advanced on him, then swung a second time. This time, he went down, and then it was my foot in his stomach, in his face, and anywhere else that I could make contact. However, because I wasn't an idiot, I stepped back, letting him get to his feet, and that's when I shoved the poker into his stomach, twisting it until it turned around twice in my hand.

With the look of shock still etched on his face, I said, "Thanks for getting back on your feet. After all, I have to be able to tell the police that you were coming after me, so I had no choice but to stab you to protect myself."

"You…you…"

I pushed the poker in farther. "I was never scared of you Ashton," I finally told him. "I was never your victim or your prisoner. You never had any control over me. The only thing that controlled me these past two years was my love for Aurelio." A trickle of blood began to seep out of the corner of his mouth, and my chest bloomed with the sight. "I've always been a Sartori, and you should have kept that in mind."

Ashton started shaking his head. "N…no…"

"Luckily for me, your ego never questioned why I'd call you after already breaking free from you," I went on. "And now? The whole world is going to remember you for the abusive monster that you are."

Or were, as I watched the light finally leave his eyes.