Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66503 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 266(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
“Killing my husband was the hardest thing I have ever done,” she says, lifting her head. “But it was the right decision.” She looks over at her son. “Something I should have done a long time ago.”
Luca casually runs his bloodied fingers through his hair and strolls inside, tucking his gun back into his pocket. “Dad was done for anyway. Fucking cancer.”
The bloodied coughs into the napkins … that explains it.
“He tried to pull the company with him,” Anne mutters at her son. “But it’s over now.”
“Damn right it is,” Luca says, as he marches over to his dad and actually plants a foot on top of his corpse. “You piece of shit just couldn’t stop fucking with people, could you?” He kicks him a few times. “Even after I’d already taken most of your company, you just had to be a fucking asshole until your last. Fucking. Breath.”
With every word, he adds another kick.
Damn, that guy really hates his father.
“Hello …?” A squeaky whisper from the corner of the room draws everyone’s attention.
Blom’s still stuck in that chair, covered in piss and gunpowder as he lies sideways on the floor.
“Help, please,” he mutters even though all of us are looking at him like we want to roast him alive.
Luca snorts. “Yeah, no thanks.”
“Luca, let’s go. There are many things we need to arrange, like a cleanup crew and a funeral.”
Luca glances at me. “I will honor the deal we made.”
I nod at him.
“No!” Blom suddenly squeaks. “Not my money. My bank account.”
My nostrils flare, and I march over to him and set him back down on the floor so I can look at him while I seethe with rage. “You’re not keeping a dime of that money. Not a single fucking penny is yours.” I point at Aurora. “She’s the one who gets to decide.”
CHAPTER 26
Aurora
I clutch the bathrobe I stole closer and tie the knot around my waist so no one sees my breasts or pussy before I approach my father. He shivers in his seat, sweat drops rolling down his thick forehead.
He looks broken.
Just like I once did when I spent those nights in that cell, wondering if I’d ever see the light of day again.
“Please … Aurora … Help me out of here.”
His begging does nothing for me. Not anymore. Not since he chose to rat out our position and sell me to save his life.
“You tried to get me to fuck him and his wife,” I say, grinding my teeth so hard I feel like I might break some. “Just to save your own skin.”
Suddenly, a hand is planted on my shoulder. Beast leans over me, holding out his last gun. “I kept this last bullet … for you.” He pushes it into the palm of my hand like it’s his gift to me. Just like I once gave him the gift of hope in the form of a flower, he now gifts me revenge.
My body stiffens under the weight of the weapon.
And slowly but surely, I raise it to my father’s forehead.
“No, no, please, don’t do this,” my father begs, his voice squeaky like a mouse.
Tiny. Insignificant.
Just as how he made me feel for all those years. All those years, locked up in his home like some princess in an ivory tower. All those years of subjugation and humiliation for the simple act of existing the way I am.
“Please, you’re better than this, Aurora,” he murmurs. “I love you.”
“You don’t know what love is,” I hiss back, pulling off the safety. “I loved you with all my heart, and you broke me.”
“I didn’t mean to, but what else was I supposed to do? You would’ve never have been accepted by society,” he mutters.
“He accepts me the way I am!” I scream, pointing at Beast.
My father looks defeated. It suits him well. “I only wanted to help.”
“Help?” I parrot. My finger rests on the trigger, my mind reeling with all the suffering he’s put me through. “You call forcing me to wear these gloves ‘help’? You call giving me to the enemy like something to fuck ‘help’?” Boiling with anger, I shake my head. “You sold me out and betrayed me!”
So this is how it feels. This is the kind of power that courses through Beast’s veins.
I shove the gun farther into his head until the skin begins to ripple around the metal.
Years of misery I endured for this moment. This moment where I could punish him for all of the pain he inflicted on me out of his self-absorbed need to make me into something I never was.
He deserves it.
He deserves every inch of pain.
But to end it now would mean silence.
No more revenge.
No more suffering.
And that … that’s a fate too easy for him.
With a heavy sigh, I lower the gun.
Instead, I fish Beast’s knife from his pocket and cut through the zip ties that keep him in that chair. Then I peel away the gloves Lex made me wear and chuck them in front of my father’s feet. “I am beautiful,” I say as I stare straight into his soul. “Despite everything you said and did to try to make me a monster like you.”