Chapter 42

Chapter Forty-Two

SERAFINA

At some point a bag or something like it had been placed over my head. I’m back to consciousness but there’s not much for me to do. My hands are taped together, along with my ankles, which I assume are tied to the chair I’m sitting in.

I think I’ve officially run out of panic. My body has no more to offer. I would also like to know who the fuck has kidnapped me. Who has been attacking me. I want to know what the fuck I did so wrong that I deserve this.

A door opens and shuts. Footsteps echo on the floor as someone walks toward me.

“You awake, bitch?”

It’s the same female voice from before.

“Nope,” I say.

The bag is removed from my head. The woman is no longer wearing her cut up winter hat fashioned into a mask. I have no clue who I’m looking at. She’s pretty. She’s beautiful actually. Stunning.

Bright blue eyes. Long eyelashes. A cute little nose and perfectly thin lips that look a natural deep shade of pink. One obvious freckle just under her left eye that somehow makes her look really pretty. Her hair is an auburn color, pulled back in a messy way that’s done on purpose to look busy yet sexy.

“Who are you?” I ask.

The woman grabs my hair and pulls. I groan in pain.

“I can’t believe this didn’t do you in,” she says. “I thought for sure you’d be in a coma. Hopefully fucking dead. But you’re just one tough chick, huh?”

My teeth start to chatter.

Oh. Fuck.

“You did everything to me,” I whisper.

“Not everything,” she says. “I did not drug you at that party. That was all Des. My idea, of course. Just enough to make you feel out of it. And, yeah, I opened the window. Was hoping you’d tumble out and just die right then. That would have been the best case scenario. But we don’t usually get the best case scenario, do we, Serafina?”

She lets go of my hair and looks me in the eyes.

I shake my head. “I have no idea what’s going on. What did I do to you?”

She leans in and brushes her cheek against mine. I feel her warm breath tickle my right ear.

“Tyrant,” she whispers. “That’s what you did. You fucked my man. You fucked the man I’m marrying. Well, the man I’m already married to. At least in the terms of normal society.”

My stomach plummets and I gasp for a breath. The woman steps back and watches my reaction. I blink fast and shake my head.

“No,” I say. “No fucking way. How? Why would he…” I swallow hard. “Wait. I’m just a claimed . That’s all. What was I supposed to do? He was using me to pass to marry Des.”

“Wrong!” Her voice booms through the concrete room. “Sort of right, but mostly wrong.”

I look around. I have a sense of déjà vu but no clue why. This room is literally just concrete. It’s bright and creepy.

“You think it’s okay to fuck someone else’s man?”

“I don’t believe you,” I say.

“Who do you think pierced his nipple,” she says with a sly grin. “Well, I guess I claimed one and you claimed the other, right?”

My lip starts to quiver.

“Oh, don’t fucking get like this right now,” she says. “Too late for that. Plus, you saw what I did to him, right? I just couldn’t fucking take it anymore. Waiting around for something to happen. Waiting for Des to get his shit together. When I heard him confess his love for you. I just… I had to do something. I lost my mind for a second. But it felt good jamming that knife into his back. Watching him hit the floor. I hope he’s dead. How would that make you feel?”

“If you’re his wife, why doesn’t it bother you?” I ask.

She puts the back of her right hand to her forehead, throws her head back and lets out a weeping sound.

“Oh, no! What happened to him?! I loved him so much!”

“Fucking scumbag,” I say.

Her hand drops down. “What did you call me?”

“You heard me. You’re a scumbag. You’re worthless. He didn’t want you. He didn’t love you. Why was he given someone else? Did you listen to all the times we fucked? Huh? Were you ever part of any ceremonies? Were you ever claimed before?”

I’m digging deep for my bitchiest attitude. It’s working. The woman’s eyes go wide. She runs toward me and slaps me across the face. I see stars and I hear ringing in my ears.

“I’m pulling out these staples,” she growls. “Let you fucking bleed to death.”

She grabs my hair and pulls. Her fingers claw at my head, bringing on a new, fresh pain that makes me scream.

I take my chances and bite her. My teeth sink into her right arm and I hold on as tight as I can. Now the woman is screaming in pain, trying to get away.

There’s a slight pop sound in my jaw as she breaks free. I feel myself then falling to the right. I hit the floor with a hard thud, which includes my head. I feel blood seeping already.

The woman grabs at her right arm.

“If it wasn’t for your stepmother, you’d already be dead!”

The words register but then don’t.

What does…

The door to the concrete room opens and in walks my cunt of a stepmother. She looks at me. She tilts her head for a second. Then she looks at the woman.

“What happened to you, Danielle?”

“The bitch bite me.”

Danielle… who apparently is Tyrant’s wife…

My head is now throbbing.

“Pick her up,” my stepmother says. “Take the tape off her too. She’s not going anywhere. This is a soundproof bomb shelter.”

That’s why the room gave me a sense of déjà vu. My father had this room built in case of an emergency. He brought me down here one time, just to show me. When I was much younger.

“I’ll keep this simple, Serafina,” my stepmother says. “There’s a saying that goes something about a person being worth more dead than alive… that was your father. And that’s you.”

She smiles at me. She’s been evil since the moment I met her.

I just really never thought for a second she would actually try to kill me.

“Oh, you poor thing,” my stepmother says to me as she touches a towel to my head, collecting blood.

My legs have been freed but my hands haven’t been yet. I want to hit her so bad yet I want to know everything. Then again, what does it even matter?

Danielle stabbed Tyrant right in the back. I saw him, face down, the knife in his back. And he was gone. Right now my life truly has no purpose.

“What’s the point of this?” I whisper. “Money? My father’s money? You received how much when he died?”

“Money only goes so far in life, Serafina,” my stepmother says. “There’s a bigger purpose. A bigger picture. Come here. Let me get this tape off your wrists.”

My stepmother looks back at Danielle.

“What?” Danielle snaps.

“You couldn’t let this play out, could you? You had to fuck things up. I knew you were going to fuck things up.”

“I listened to him fucking her ass!” Danielle cries out. “Then he confessed his love to her and said he wants her forever!”

My cheeks are now red-hot. My stepmother looks at me. Judging me.

“Really, Serafina? You let some man do that to you?”

“How do you two know each other?” I whisper. “Tell me everything. Why…”

My chin quivers. My stepmother hugs me. She pulls me in and for a second I catch myself almost resting my head on her shoulder. I quickly back away and spit in my stepmother’s face.

“You little bitch,” she says.

“See what I mean?” Danielle asks. “She’s insane. She’s not like you said!”

“Apparently Tyrant didn’t break you but built you up,” my stepmother says. “You know, for a second or two here, I’m feeling a little bit of pride in you, Serafina. Where was this your entire life? We could have been having so much fun together!”

“Did you kill my father?” I ask.

Oh, I’ve wanted to ask that question for a long time. My stepmother looks me in the eyes but does not answer the question.

“Hey, what are we doing here?” Danielle asks. “We still have a plan in place. Right?”

“You think this will work the way you wanted it to now?” My stepmother winks at me and looks back at Danielle. “You really pushed things forward too hard and too fast. You left Tyrant for dead. Have you communicated with Des yet?”

“Been dealing with your daughter.”

“I don’t have a daughter,” my stepmother says.

“And my mother died a long time ago,” I say. “And my grieving father brought some useless cunt into the family.”

“What an awful word to use! Someone should really teach you a lesson, Serafina. Bad enough I had to take care of Olivia, right?”

“What did you do to her?” I shake my head. “She was good to me. She was a good person. What did you do?”

“She was snooping, Serafina. She didn’t like my plans for you. What choice did I have? I had to have her removed from the house. And the country. It is a shame though. I mean, if you took a second from letting Tyrant fuck you in the ass, you would maybe see the news. International news. Tragic how that woman fell off a cliff. Fell to her death.”

I scream. I scream as loud and as hard as I can. I catch my stepmother off guard and she stumbles back, covering her ears.

“Shut her the fuck up!” Danielle yells but her voice is muffled compared to my scream.

My stepmother slaps me across the face but that doesn’t stop me. I can’t tell if this is me fighting back or just completely losing my mind.

“I’m going to shoot her!” Danielle yells.

My stepmother looks back at Danielle.

The door to the safe room explodes open like in some kind of action movie. In comes four men, dressed in black robes, wearing masks. Danielle starts to scream. My stepmother starts to scream.

One of the masked men swings at Danielle, shutting her up, sending her down to the floor. Two others grab for my stepmother and hold her. The fourth masked man rushes up to me. I reach for him, not knowing who it is.

It can’t be Tyrant… he was… d… dead…

The fourth masked man slaps my hands out of the way and produces a needle. Before I can do a thing, there’s a pinch in my neck and the room melts away. Reality melts away.

I just hope I’m dead too so I can meet up with Tyrant.