Page 105 of Cruel Deception
I couldn’t breathe.
“You want the monster?” he asked. “Then you’ll meet him.”
His voice turned to stone. “From this moment on, I no longer see you as a wife. Or a woman. I see you as a slave. As a prisoner. As the curse your bloodline always was.”
He stood.
“You’ll beg for mercy, Charlotte. But I won’t give it. You’ll suffer until you forget what kindness ever tasted like. I’ll make every day a reminder of your betrayal. You’ll wish for death before I’m done.”
My chest was pounding so hard I could barely keep upright. He walked away. Like he’d already passed his sentence.
More tears slipped down my face.
I dragged myself toward the window and looked down, just to see if Vincent was still there. His body was gone.
Relief shot through me so sharp and fast, I staggered back from the glass. He was alive.
Cassian really sent him to the hospital.
And if he could do that for my brother—after everything—then I would face whatever punishment he had planned.
Even if it destroyed me.
I looked at the door.
Should I run?
But who would I run to?
My father? Who sold my mother and left me to rot?
Vincent? Who turned into someone I couldn’t recognize?
But what if Cassian truly tortured me to death?
Maybe I could escape. Maybe there was still time.
Then I heard it.
The metallic clink.
I turned slowly—and my eyes dropped.
Chains. Thick, cold, cruel.
The metal hit the marble with a sound that shattered my spine.
My heart dropped.
He tossed them beside me like gifts from hell. “Sit.”
I stared at the chains. At the floor. Then back at the door.
“Cassian—please. It was a mistake.”
“Call me master,” he said simply. “You no longer have the right to use my name.”
I stood frozen.
