Chapter 140 The Breaking
Melissa’s POV
(Warning disturbing scene up ahead.)
I sat by the window staring at nothing. The room was comfortable and expensive. To me it was nothing but an expensive looking cage filled with expensive stuff. I’ve been here for three weeks. I haven’t stopped counting since the day I got here. But I felt really weak today.
I hadn’t eaten in two days. The food sat on the tray beside me cold and untouched.
But I didn’t care. I just wanted Gavin. I wanted him to find me. I wanted him to burst through that door and take me away from this nightmare.
But he wasn’t coming.
He’d married her. Probably didn’t even think about me anymore.
The door opened and Stephan walked in carrying another tray.
“Look, you really need to eat or you will die.” He set the tray on the table calmly. “You’re getting on my nerves. If you want to die, there are more interesting ways to die than starvation, don’t you think?”
I didn’t look at him, I kept my eyes on the window. On the city beyond the glass that I couldn’t reach.
“Melissa.” His voice had an edge to it and I knew his patience was wearing thin. “I’m talking to you.”
“Did he go ahead with it?” I asked quietly. “The wedding. Did Gavin really marry her?”
Silence.
Then Stephen laughed. “Oh yes. They’re happily married now. Gavin is right where he belongs. Playing house with his new bride. Living the life father always wanted for him.”
Something inside me cracked.
I started laughing. I couldn’t help it though I sounded hysterical and broken.
I covered my mouth with my good hand. The cast on my left arm was heavy.
Stephen was staring at me. “What’s so funny?”
I looked at him for the first time in days.
“Are you okay with that, Stephen?” I asked. “Being second place to Gavin? Why is he king and you aren’t?”
His face darkened. “You don’t know anything about our family. So shut up.”
I looked back at the window. “It’s just because Gavin is better. He has the aura. Can lead this family. Unlike you.”
I knew I was pushing this too far. I knew it was dangerous but I didn’t care anymore.
If I couldn’t have Gavin, if I was going to die in this room anyway, I might as well tell the truth.Stephen moved so fast I didn’t see it coming.
His hand was on my face. Crushing my jaw until I felt teeth cutting into my cheek.
“You want to know about aura?” His voice was low and deadly. “I’m better than Gavin will ever be. He’s a cheap copy of me. Everything he has, everything he is…I did it first. I did it better.”
He released my face. I gasped.
Then he swept his arm across the table. The food tray crashed to the floor causing plates to shatter and the glass to break.
He grabbed me and yankedme up from the chair.
I tried to push him away but my cast made it impossible. Pain shot through my broken arm.
“You will learn to respect me.” He dragged me toward the bed. “You’ll watch and fucking see. This family will be mine. I’ll stop being treated like shit.”
He reached for his belt.
My eyes widened.
No.
No, no, no…
“Stephen, don’t…”
He unbuckled it. The leather sliding through loops sounded too loud in the quiet room. I started fighting, I wouldn’t let this happen. I clawed at his face with my good hand. I felt skin tear under my nails. I drew blood. But he didn’t stop.
I kicked. Connected with his shin. His knee. He grabbed my broken arm and squeezed it hard.
White-hot agony exploded through me. I screamed.
He used my moment of pain to shove me onto the bed.
“No!” I screamed. “Stephen, please…”
“Shut up.” He was on top of me. I kept fighting, clawing, screaming for anyone to help me.
My nails raked down his neck. His chest. Anywhere I could reach.
There was so much blood. His or mine, I didn’t know anymore. I felt pain everywhere. Even though my heart was filled with pain, I couldn't take it anymore.
“STOP!” I was sobbing now. “Please, Stephen, don’t do this…”
He hit me. Backhanded me across the face hard enough that my vision went dark at the edges.
When it cleared, he was pulling at my clothes.
“No.” My voice broke. “No, please, I’m sorry…I’m sorry…”
“Too late for sorry.”
I kept fighting. Even though it was useless. Even though I knew I couldn’t win.
I kept scratching. Clawing. Biting when his hand got close enough to my mouth. Kept screaming even though no one would hear. No one would come.
Gavin wasn’t here.
Gavin had married someone else.
Gavin had forgotten about me.
I was alone.
Stephen’s hand was on my throat now. Squeezing. Cutting off my air. Cutting off my screams.
“You’ll learn,” he said. His face was bloodied from my nails. “You’ll learn your place.”
My vision was going dark.
I couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t fight anymore.
Couldn’t…
\-----
He shoved my ruined dress up around my waist. His fingers dug between my legs without warning, searching for wetness that wasn’t there. I hissed in pain. He laughed low in his throat, the sound was ugly.
“Dry as a fucking desert. But that’s more than okay with me.”
I felt him fumbling with his zipper, then he forced himself inside in one brutal thrust.
The pain was blinding I screamed until my throat felt shredded. My broken arm was trapped painfully beneath me; every jerk of his hips ground the cast into my ribs. I clawed at his shoulders, his neck, his face…anything to make him stop. Blood ran down his cheek from where my nails had opened him earlier. He didn’t even flinch.
“Keep fighting,” he grunted, hips snapping harder. “I like it better when you fight.”
He wrapped one hand around my throat again, squeezing until black spots danced in my vision. My lungs burned. My nails dug deeper into his wrist, trying to pry his hand away. He only tightened his grip.
“Look at me.”
I wouldn’t.
He slapped me again…open palm this time, ringing my ear.
“I said look at me, bitch.”
My eyes flew open. “You think Gavin would ever touch you like this?” he rasped. “He’s too soft and too fucking noble.”
Another brutal drive. Something inside me felt like it tore wider. I became wet trying to survive this hell.
“There we go. That’s better.”
He shifted his angle, grinding against places that sent fresh spikes of agony through my pelvis. My broken arm was screaming; my throat was raw from screaming; my mind was fracturing in pieces.
I tried to go somewhere else…anywhere else…but he wouldn’t let me.
He grabbed my jaw, forcing my face toward his.
“Say his name.”
I shook my head, tears leaking sideways into my hair.
“Say it.”
I stayed silent.
He slammed into me so hard my head knocked against the headboard.
“Say Gavin’s fucking name while I ruin you.”
A sob tore out of me. “G-Gavin…”
“Louder.”
“Gavin…”
He laughed again, and fucked me harder, faster, chasing his own release while my body shook with pain and shock beneath him.
He came like an animal groaning while he stayed buried, panting against my skin for long seconds before he finally pulled out.
I felt the wet slide of him leaving me, followed by the slow, sick warmth of blood and semen leaking onto the sheets.
He stood up, zipped himself, wiped his bloody cheek with the back of his hand and looked down at me .
“You’ll eat tomorrow,” he said calmly. “Or I’ll come back and do this again. And next time I won’t be so quick.”
He walked out.
The door clicked shut.
I didn’t move.I couldn’t.
I don’t know how long it has been but the room was dark when I opened my eyes. Stephen was gone.
I lay on the bed. Not moving. Not crying. Not feeling anything at all.
My body hurts. Everything hurts.
But the worst pain was the hollow emptiness inside where something had broken that could never be fixed.
I stared at the ceiling.
Counted the cracks in the plaster.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Counted until the numbers stopped making sense.
Until the sun came up.
Until I felt human enough to move.
I didn’t cry.
Crying would mean acknowledging what happened.
And I couldn’t do that yet. Maybe never.
I just lay there.
And waited for Gavin.Even though I knew he wasn’t coming.