Page 74 of The Broken Queen

“You look beautiful,” Anna said, looking me up and down, tears forming in her eyes.

I turned and looked in the mirror. The woman was beautiful on the outside. Long, midnight hair curled past her shoulders, a laced bodice black dress molded with her body. If you looked close enough, you would see the trauma and pain that she endured two nights before.

The scars.

Bruises.

Marks on her hips and thighs as her fiancé shoved his way inside, defiling her the night before their wedding day. This wasn’t a fairytale. She didn’t meet and fall in love with the guy. Instead, she was set up by her father to have an arranged marriage to a monster. The kicker, he wasn’t even her father. He was the father of a man she desperately loved. She didn’t know who her real father was or where he ended up.

She was trapped in a recurring nightmare, drawing further and further into its depths, hoping that one day, she may make it out alive.

A single tear fell down the woman’s face. She was broken.Weak.Every time she fought back, they came at her harder, breaking her spirit. They wanted her to give up, to fall into their trap.

It almost worked. If it weren’t for the small light of hope she had buried deep inside of her, reminding her that she needed to keep going.

Julianna.

Slade.

A brighter future. One filled with love, laughter and hope.

No, she had to keep going.

“Are you okay?”

A laugh bubbled from my lips. Anna could be the sweetest person, but she didn’t understand. She still sided withhim.

The other thing nobody saw was the chains around her ankles. They didn’t trust her enough to let her be free. They wanted to keep her chained for the rest of her life. The chains wouldn’t come off until it was time to walk down the aisle, to her funeral.

No, Anna, I wasn’t okay. Not in the slightest.

I missed Mother.

I missed Julianna.

And I missed Slade.

There were so many times I wanted to give up, to just let my maker take me away. It would be easier. The pain would be gone. But then I’d be leaving Julianna behind to rot in a world that wasn’t perfect. I would leave her behind, not knowing for sure whether or not Slade would stick around for her.

I couldn’t do that to her.

She came behind me to place the veil in my hair and met my gaze. “It’s time.”

My throat tightened, a lump forming that made my speech impossible. She reached for the keys in her pocket and bent down to unlock the chains around my ankles.

Be strong. Don’t back down. You can do this. Could I marry Zeke and have a happy life with him? No. Would he learn to love Julianna as if she were his own? No. There was no way in hell we would have a happy life with that fucking monster. But wouldn’t I be trading one life with a monster for another?

Slade was no saint. He was Lucifer. He had to be with the way he prayed on my emotions like I was some washed up soulin Phlegethon’s river, just boiling away in eternity suffering for my crimes.

I truly hated the man for what he did to me, but still there was a yearning for him. I was his puppet, and I couldn’t cut myself loose from his strings.

My heart, soul, and body wanted him. I craved him like a vampire craved blood. I needed his hands on my skin. I wanted his lips devouring mine in a kiss that would burn so hot it made Hell’s fires jealous.

As my gaze roamed over the woman in the bodiced midnight dress, all I could think about was how this woman was walking down the aisle to the wrong man. I was stuck, trying to find a way out.

It was a farce. The black dress. The snotty rich people who were on Lars’s payroll. The men in expensive suits looking for women to traffic in the crowd. Praying on those that were weaker than themselves. The mafia lingered in the shadows, waiting to slaughter anyone who stepped out of line, including myself. The groom standing at the end of the aisle acting like he was about to marry the woman of his dreams. Nobody cared about what the groom did to me behind closed doors. Nobody cared about the threats he made to my daughter. Nobody cared that Lars tortured me for the last two days to comply. They only cared about the next King, and what he would do to make their pockets heavier.

A small, crimson smile appeared on the woman’s lips as she adjusted the knife to disappear into the bouquet of red and black roses. The scene was breathtaking and so was the bride. Soon it would be the Queen making her own move. A move that would make me known as a traitor to not only my family and the mafia, but my kingdom as well.

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