Page 5 of Ky
“Angelo, what are you doing?” Amelia demands shakily. “You promised me I’d be yours. That we would get married, and you’d forget about your obsession with Sera.”
Angelo throws his head back and let out an almost maniacal laugh.
“Shut your mouth, bitch. I’m done with your whining.”
Amelia’s gasp of shock and the tears that form in her eyes breaks my heart. We had been as close as two friends who weren’t born sisters could be, but Angelo had come between us when Amelia’s crush turned into something deeper, but only on her end—because Angelo has never known how to love anyone but himself—and she had forgotten all about our friendship when he started taking notice of her.
“Seraphina, I won’t ask you again. Come. Here,” he yells.
Swallowing the lump that has suddenly formed in my throat, I look across at Ky, and he gives me a slight chin lift, telling me without words that I should do as Angelo says. But how can I leave him to face my brother and his goons alone?
Clearing my throat, I slowly make my way towards Angelo and Amelia, and that’s when all hell breaks loose. Ky retrieves a gun which had been tucked into the waistband at the back of his jeans, I guess that’s why I didn’t notice it. Frozen in place, I watch as if in slow motion. Ky fires at Angelo, but the bullet doesn’t hit my brother. Instead, it strikes Amelia, who had stepped in front of him like a human shield, taking the bullet meant for him.
I duck and scream, as another gun is fired by one of the goons, and goes straight through Ky, who drops to the floor like a dead weight. A scream is ripped from me, and I smack my hands over my ears, lowering my head as I continue to scream. I’m roughly pulled to my feet, and a hand smacks me across the face, stopping my tears and my screaming.
“What did you do?” I whisper again and again, ignoring the pain that was radiating from my cheek.
“What had to be done to take out the trash,” he says without an ounce of remorse. My eyes lower to the two figures on the floor. One is my best friend since childhood, a woman I told everything to, and who’d gotten in so deep with my brother that she didn’t want to hear the ultimate truth about the man she had fallen in love with. Her eyes open, the beautiful blue looking straight ahead into nothing, and I knew she was dead. I should feel something other than pity that she was gone. But our friendship had suffered since the day she got tangled up in Angelo.
The other, a man that had given me the best night of my life, and if the events of tonight were to be believed, maybe even a lasting memory. He was lying on his stomach, and both hadblood pouring from various wounds in their bodies. I whimper as I touch my hand to my belly. Could it be possible? I shake my head, too afraid to believe any of it.
My teeth chatter as shock settles in. It was difficult trying to get away from Angelo while it was just me, but with a baby involved, it will be even more so now. I want to stay; I want to call 911 and get help for them, but I can’t do any of that. I have to think of this unborn baby now. I have to stay alive for him or her.
Clearing my throat, I jut out my chin and hate myself even more for stepping over Ky’s prone body as I walk toward Angelo. But what other choice did I have? Unable to look at the carnage in front of me any longer, I willingly walk out of the warehouse with Angelo and into a future I don’t know if I’ll ever survive.
CHAPTER TWO
Seraphina – 4 years later
With my eyes squeezed shut, I struggle to stifle the whimper that threatens to escape as pain courses through my entire body. The disgust I feel washes over me, threatening to break my spirit and resolve. But I was determined not to let it.
I couldn’t let it.
Otherwise, I may as well give up now and just let him kill me. I slowly turn my head, seeing Angelo lying in the bed next to me, finally passed out from the alcohol and the drugs he’s recently consumed.
I’ve decided that today is the day. Today I will escape this hell, and I will run as far away from this life as I can. The threats and violence have escalated to the point I know he was going to kill me someday. Because I wasn’t the meek and mild woman, he remembered as a child.
He repeatedly unleashed his brutality upon me, both physically and mentally, yet I remained steadfast in denying him the gratification of seeing my spirit shatter. Not even when he’d lock me in the cold, dank basement for hours on end, naked and with no food or water. All that because he wanted the money, my mother had left me when she was killed in the car accident that left me alone in a home with two monsters.
I was just thankful that he took his rage out on me, and not the sleeping child just down the hall. But I wasn’t sure how long that would last, so I decided today was the day we would run.
Slowly, I peel back the covers, his loud snoring like music to my ears. The bastard was so deeply asleep that not even an earthquake could wake him.
At least I hoped not.
Padding naked into the bathroom, I try not to wince at the searing pain that fills my body. Turning my back to the mirror hanging on the wall behind me, I swivel my head, staring at the red welts all over my skin.
Using a whip to torture me is a recent development.
The sadistic bastard had taken great enjoyment in whipping me whenever he felt I was misbehaving.
Shaking my head, I turn my eyes away from the horrible sight and force myself to have a hot shower to wash away the feeling of revulsion I held inside me for the man who was the vilest of monsters. It took everything inside me not to scream as the hot spray came into contact with my sensitive skin. But I plowed on, finally jumping out with a towel wrapped around my body.
Opening the cupboard underneath the vanity, I push everything to the side, pulling out a small black bag in which I kept some clothes for myself and my little girl. Carefully putting on the sweats and T-shirt so as not to hurt myself further, I stare at my reflection in the mirror again. My brown hair, still damp, hangs limply around my face, and the clothes I’m wearing sag on me, a reminder of the inordinate amount of weight I’ve lost over the past four years.
Taking a deep breath, I drop the bag on the floor, uncaring if he sees it there. I’ll hopefully be long gone by the time he notices me missing.
I’ve chosen today to do what I’m about to do, because the egomaniac has given all the staff, including his security team, the day off, and they won’t return until tomorrow. So no one will be around to see me make a run for it. Quietly slipping into a pair of sneakers, I knew I’d have to do a lot of walking. They weren’t the height of fashion, but they were practical. Something that was more important.