Chapter 6
Damon had taken Yvette to a private room and called for a personal doctor. The doctor examined the wound on her forehead carefully, but all Yvette did was cry and say, “Don’t worry about me. Check Damon first. I never thought Serena would become even crazier after five years. I shouldn’t have shown mercy back then.”
She choked on her tears and continued, “She must have come back because she still can’t let go of you. Back then, everyone in the city knew how obsessed she was with you. The moment you treated me a little better, she humiliated me in public and slapped me.”
Damon sat at her bedside, holding her hand.
“Don’t worry,” he said gently. “She won’t ruin what we have.”
Then he gave a cold little laugh.
“To me, Serena was never anything more than a toy.”
I stood outside the door and heard every single word.
When we were children, he used to lock me in dark rooms because he was bored. He would throw in snakes, rats, and insects just to hear me cry. Later, he found out I fed stray dogs. So he had some of them poisoned for fun.
And now, inside that room, he said it himself.
“That mutt deserved to die.”
My memories rushed back all at once.
The chains. The bruises. The nights I was tortured until my whole body turned black and blue. The way he once ordered that I not be allowed medicine. The way he had looked at me with that sick, crazed obsession.
“If I haven’t played enough,” he’d once said, “then have my child. I want to see how stubborn you can stay when you’re pregnant with me.”
It was Ranger who went to find the old master and saved me.
It was Ranger who got me to a hospital.
It was the injuries Damon caused that destroyed my ability to ever become a mother.
And even if I had still been able, I would never have borne a child carrying Damon Locke’s blood.
That was the real reason he had wanted Ranger dead.
Then my phone vibrated.
The moment I saw the caller ID, my expression softened for the first time that night.
A warm voice came through the line.
“You went to the banquet in your father’s place? I heard your ex-husband is there too. Why didn’t you wait for me?”
I swallowed and muttered, “I’m about to get played to death here. If you don’t want to collect my body, come save me.”
Then I hung up.
Inside the room, Yvette was asking, “What if Serena still wants to come back to you?”
Before Damon could answer, I kicked the door open.