Chapter 186 186
She was too shaken to speak.
In truth, she barely heard anything he had said. Her mind was buzzing with fear and confusion as she simply stared at him, blinking slowly while he stepped away from her. The warmth of his touch disappeared, leaving her feeling strangely hollow as she watched him stride toward Julien.
Without hesitation, Damien drove a brutal punch into Julien’s stomach.
The man doubled forward with a choked gasp, blood spilling from his mouth.
Jacqueline couldn’t bear it.
A strangled breath left her as she spun around and rushed out of the room. She stumbled into the corridor, gripping the wall for support as ragged breaths tore through her chest.
And then it all came crashing back.
Every memory.
Every moment of torture she had endured at that man’s hands.
The pain.
The humiliation.
The years he had spent destroying her piece by piece.
All of it surged through her mind at once, suffocating her beneath the weight of it. The agony she had buried for so long now clawed its way to the surface, overwhelming her.
How had she managed to carry so much pain inside her all these years?
Her chest tightened painfully, her heart twisting as if it were being squeezed in a vise. The memories pressed down on her so heavily she felt like she might suffocate under them.
From somewhere behind her, faint and muffled, she could hear the sounds of struggle dull thuds and grunts of pain.
The noise pulled her slowly back to reality.
She wiped the tears from her face with trembling hands and forced herself to inhale deeply, trying to steady her breathing. But no matter how hard she tried, the panic refused to fully settle.
Then, without consciously deciding to, her feet began to move.
Step by step, she walked back toward the room.
When she entered again, she stopped in the doorway.
Damien was still beating Julien mercilessly.
Jacqueline watched in silence.
Her eyes looked empty void of any clear emotion but the tears sliding down her cheeks betrayed the storm raging inside her.
Her gaze drifted across the room until it landed on a table sitting in the corner. A few objects were scattered across its surface.
Slowly, she walked toward it.
She no longer felt afraid.
Her hand reached out, and she picked up a small knife lying on the table.
With the blade clenched tightly in her fist, she began walking toward the battered, bloodied Julien.
Damien noticed immediately.
He went still, silently observing as she approached the man. His eyes dropped briefly to the knife in her hand, then lifted to her face.
The emptiness in her gaze made his lips press into a thin line.
Jacqueline stopped directly in front of Julien, her eyes fixed on his chest as if she could burn a hole straight through him.
Damien didn’t need to ask what she wanted.
The fury blazing quietly in her eyes told him everything.
Without a word, he stepped aside.
Jacqueline stared at the man tied to the chair.
Julien’s head hung back loosely, yet his swollen, bruised eyes still found her. Despite the blood and injuries covering his face, a cracked smile twisted across his lips.
He let out a weak snicker.
“I k… knew y-you w… were fcking him b… behind my back,” Julien rasped, spitting blood between words.
Tears threatened to spill over again, but Jacqueline forced them back.
Her hand trembled slightly around the knife, yet she tightened her grip before slowly lowering herself to her knees in front of him.
Then she struck.
The blade slashed across his leg.
Julien’s body jerked from the sudden pain, but he didn’t scream.
Jacqueline stared silently as blood seeped through the fabric of his off-white slacks, staining them a deep crimson around the wound.
He didn’t scream.
Why?
Her jaw tightened.
Without hesitation, she slashed his other leg.
Again, Julien refused to cry out. His teeth ground together as he endured the pain in silence.
Damien watched closely.
The wounds she inflicted weren’t deep enough to truly hurt him.
She wanted to hurt him.
But she didn’t even know how.
“Come on… scream in pain,” Jacqueline muttered hoarsely. “I-it’s like music to my ears…”
Her voice wavered as she continued.
“You used to s-say that… remember?”
Damien’s jaw clenched.
“You’re being too soft,” he said through gritted teeth.
Her eyes flashed with sudden fury.
Gripping the knife tighter, she drove it down into Julien’s thigh.
This time, Julien screamed.
But Jacqueline didn’t stop.
Using both hands, she dragged the blade downward toward his knee, tearing through flesh as the man’s scream rose into a howl of agony.
The sound echoed through the room.
And Jacqueline felt something strange settle inside her.
Calm.
“Now t-that’s m… music,” she stuttered, a faint smile trembling on her lips.
Her eyes glittered with something dangerously close to satisfaction as she watched him writhe in pain.
It wasn’t the same pain he had inflicted on her.
Not even close.
But seeing him suffer brought a strange sense of relief to the wounds carved into her soul.
A temporary balm.
Nothing more.
“You slut!” Julien snarled through his agony.
Jacqueline immediately plunged the knife into his other thigh.
“You destroyed me,” she hissed.
“You stole my soul. You ruined me!”
Her voice rose into a scream as she dragged the blade down again, ripping open his flesh while Julien thrashed against the chair, screaming uncontrollably. Tears streamed from his eyes, cutting through the blood on his face and leaving wet trails down his cheeks.
“I was just a sixteen-year-old teenager!”
Her words struck Damien like a blow.
His fists clenched tightly at his sides as rage flared hotter with every passing second. His heart twisted painfully for her.
Three years.
She had endured that monster’s torment for three long years.
Every word she spoke made Damien want to tear Julien apart with his bare hands.
But this was something Jacqueline needed.
She needed to face him.
She needed to hurt him.
This moment belonged to her.
Jacqueline slashed across Julien’s stomach, drawing another hiss of pain from him. But she didn’t stop there.
Again and again, the blade tore across his chest, leaving bloody lines in its wake while he screamed and begged beneath her assault.
Yet no matter how much pain she inflicted, it would never erase the trauma he had carved into her life.
No amount of blood could undo the horrors he had forced upon her.
She was hurting him.
Making him suffer.
But it still wasn’t enough.
It would never be enough.
Nothing could ever bring back the innocent, pure Jacqueline who had existed before him.
By now she was sobbing openly, her entire body shaking as if it might break apart.
Her heart felt like it was bleeding.
“Kill me all you want,” Julien spat bitterly through the blood in his mouth. “You’re my whore… and you’ll always be my whore. You still smell like me.”
His words struck her like a dagger.
Her breath caught.
For a moment, she couldn’t breathe at all.
Then a raw cry tore from her throat.
With a desperate roar, she lunged forward, the knife rising toward his neck
But a strong, calloused hand caught her wrist in midair.
She froze.
Her tear-filled eyes lifted.
Damien stood in front of her.
Without a word, he pried the knife from her trembling fingers and pulled her up from the floor. She stumbled unsteadily, but before she could fall, he pulled her firmly against him.
Her small body collided with his solid chest as he wrapped an arm around her, holding her close.