Chapter 6 - The Rat Returns
The antibiotics worked quickly, and within a week, Lily was back to running down the hallways, her laughter echoing off the marble walls.
The manor had changed entirely, transforming from a prison into a bizarre, heavily guarded sanctuary.
Even the hardened men who worked for Silas began carrying candy in their pockets, tossing them to Lily whenever she passed by.
But happiness in this world was a fragile illusion, destined to be shattered.
I was sitting in the library reading a book when the heavy double doors swung violently open.
Two of Silas’s men dragged a bloodied, beaten figure into the room and threw him onto the expensive Persian rug.
I stood up, the book slipping from my hands and hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
It was Marcus.
My husband looked pathetic, his face bruised and swollen, his clothes torn and stained with dirt.
He coughed, spitting a glob of blood onto the floor before looking up at me.
"Elena," he gasped, reaching a trembling hand out toward me.
"Thank God you're okay. They caught me at the border."
Disgust flared in my chest, burning so hot it entirely completely consumed my fear.
Silas walked into the room slowly, the silver revolver hanging casually by his side.
He didn't look at Marcus.
He looked at me.
"My men found him trying to cross into Canada," Silas stated, his voice devoid of emotion.
"He tried to bargain with them. Do you know what he offered in exchange for his life?"
I stared at the pathetic excuse for a man who had fathered my child.
"What did he offer?" I asked, my voice chillingly calm.
Silas's eyes darkened with a lethal fury.
"He offered to tell the rival family exactly which room you sleep in," Silas said.
Marcus scrambled backward on the rug, frantically shaking his head.
"No! He's lying! I would never do that!" Marcus screamed, tears streaming down his bruised face.
"Elena, you have to save me! Tell him to let me go! We can be a family again!"
I looked at the man who had sold us into slavery, who had left us to die, and who was perfectly willing to trade my life for his own cowardice.
I felt absolutely nothing for him.
"You stopped being my family the day you walked out that door," I said, my voice steady and cold.
May you like
Silas walked forward and pressed the barrel of his gun against the back of Marcus’s head.
The click of the hammer being pulled back echoed loudly in the silent library.
