Page 56 of Cruel Deception
It felt like something was breaking—and neither of us knew how to stop it.
“Give me the name of the man who violated you,” Cassian said. The words were low. Precise. A knife against already-broken skin.
It didn’t sound like a question—more like a command born from sudden realization. Like, for once, he’d come across something he didn’t already know about me.
“What?” I croaked, unsure if I’d heard him right.
“Name,” he repeated, unwavering. “Now.”
I looked away. My throat closed up. I didn’t want to say it. I didn’t want to go back there—but the memory came anyway, like blood through a reopened wound.
It had been my birthday.
I’d celebrated earlier that day with my father, planning to meet two friends from college later that night at a cheap club—because I couldn’t afford anything better. Just me, Zara, and Ivy. They were both in Russia now, far away, living lives that didn’t reek of blood and silence.
We had been drinking, dancing, laughing. For a moment, I felt free. Alive. But then they came in—men in dark clothes, draped in violence. Mafia. You could smell it on them, like expensive cologne over rotting flesh.
Two of them approached and said their boss wanted to see me.
I laughed it off. Told them no.
They didn’t like that.
They said nobody refused their boss.
Fear began to coil low in my stomach. I had just turned eighteen—barely an adult, barely understanding the world. New to college. Still wide-eyed and stupid. I had just started dating Nico back then, still believing the worst thing that could happen to me was a bad grade or a breakup.
The men walked away, but I knew it wasn’t over.
I told my friends I wanted to leave. They waved me off, drunk on cheap tequila and fake lights. So I planned to sneak out. Quietly. Alone.
But just before I reached the door, they came back.
Two of them.
Grabbed me. Lifted me off the ground.
I screamed. Fought. Bit. Kicked. Nobody listened.
They threw me into a room. Smoke and stale liquor choked the air. He was waiting. Their boss. The one who wanted me.
He was already taking off his belt.
The others didn’t leave. They just watched.
That night, they destroyed me.
They made my birthday unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. I remember the smell of the sheets. The music thudding from the club. The bruises.
When it was over, I walked home like a ghost.
I didn’t tell my grandfather. Couldn’t. Didn’t want to break him.
I never told anyone.
Tears poured down my face now. Uncontrollable. My body was shaking like it remembered too vividly.
Cassian hadn’t moved, but he was there. Silent. Too silent.
