Page 145 of Depravity

Conrad shoves him off before he takes my hand and demands I open my mouth and stop being difficult.

Fine. That’s what you want. You want to see the destruction? You want to see how they took me, and they broke me more than you ever could.

I narrow my eyes, take a deep breath and open my jaw.

Conrad’s face changes almost instantly. I know the man has seen and done terrible things, and yet the way he reacts, the wayhe takes a step back before getting control of himself? Yeah, that tells me everything.

The doctor somehow manages to master himself. He uses some cold metal stick thing to check the wound while I try not to whimper from the pain.

“It’s a mess.” He says. “They must have hacked it off. No surgeon would have done such a thing.”

“Can anything be done?” Conrad asks.

I know the answer before the doctor speaks, so I don’t feel anything as he confirms it.

“No. It’s too late to re-attach. The best I can do is give some antibiotics to stem off any infection and we’ll monitor the healing.”

Conrad lets out a growl. Clearly, he wanted a different outcome, and I wonder if this moment here will be what does it, what makes him decide I’m too trashed to bother with.

“…She’ll be able to eat, but only small amounts. There’s enough muscle left that we won’t need to put an NG tube in…” He continues, but Conrad isn’t listening.

He’s staring at me, staring at my face, my body, every bit of my ruined flesh.

And I stare back, waiting for him to say it, to order the man to give me some injection or other and to ‘put me out of my misery’, only, he doesn’t. He just looks at me as if daring me to question him.

Once I’m given the ‘all clear’, Magnus orders the servants to come and bring some things to clean and dress me. But Conrad dismisses them, telling him that no one is touching ‘his wife’ ever again.

I gulp. I seem to shatter what tiny grasp I have on my nerves, and my tears spill down my cheeks like a waterfall.

Magnus pulls Conrad aside, growling in his ear that he’s being a fool. “The girl is too damaged to bother with…” he begins, but Conrad cuts across him.

“Like you didn’t damage your wife.”

Magnus scoffs, shaking his head. “It’s a completely different set of circumstances.”

“Is it?” Conrad counters. “You had your wife shot, remember…’

The look on Magnus’s face says it all. Clearly that’s information he didn’t know Conrad was aware of. His eyes then dart to me and it takes all I have not to blink, not to look away.

“She’s a Founder,” Conrad states. “A Founder. You know what that means. You wanted an heir? Well, now you’ll have one. Blake blood mixed with Founder blood.”

Magnus sneers. “We have no definitive proof that the girl is a Founder,”

“That’s not how this works.” Conrad smirks. “What we say goes. And besides, you know it’s true. Why else would the Esau’s have been involved in all this?”

“To bring me down.” Magnus snaps.

“Not just you. Us. Our family.” Conrad states. “Brynn’s bloodline legitimises your leadership in a way Antonio could never have created by himself. Once she gives us a son and heir, we’ll be unstoppable.”

“We?” Magnus repeats. “Since when has it been ‘we’?”

Conrad puts his hand on his brother’s shoulder, shaking his head slightly. “It’s always been ‘we’, Magnus, you just never allowed anyone else to do anything to help you. You’ve been too determined to prove you could rule all by yourself.”

“And you're saying you’re stepping up?” Magnus growls.

“I have your back as long as you have mine.” Conrad says pointedly.

Magnus narrows his eyes, glancing at me like he wants to argue more and then he looks back at his brother. “Your wife will never suck your cock again. You know that, right?”

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