Page 33 of To Have and to Hold

I stood and moved aside so he had a better view of the screen. “I needed to see her,” I admitted.

“You’re fucking stupid, Theo,” he said, lifting his phone back up. “If he finds out… if anyone finds out… how did you even—?”

“Shut the fuck up, Charlie,” I interrupted him. “Look at her, really look at her, big brother.”

He seethed, but stepped closer to the screen, his eyes landing on our little sister. She’d sat up now, lifted her nightgown up to study the skin across her stomach. I couldn’t make it out from here, but there were smudges of red, and her body language seemed tense, jumpy. She flinched when her fingertips brushed over her ribcage.

“How can you stand the sight of her like that?” I demanded of him, watching him observe her. But I didn’t see what I thought I should. His eyes darkened, but not with sadness. There was disgust, sure, but something worse. Something like humor, disdain. My heart hardened, the last ebbs of my familial love for him sinking away.

We watched someone march into her room and grab her by the hair, dragging her towards the door with no warning. I let the anger and impotence wash over me, coat my skin. I swapped the camera to the hall outside her room, and we witnessed a man slap her across the cheek and mutter to her before she nodded and began trailing a maid, who led her through the house at a fast pace. The guard trailed behind them both, throwing verbal jabs at Violet.

"That's Lucy," Charlie muttered, pointing to the maid.

"Your fiancé?" I asked, only half-caring. Maybe an in.

He nodded. "Yeah." He seemed bothered to see her there, but didn't say anything else, only furrowed his brow. We just watched as Lucy guided Violet through the halls.

“How can you stand it?” I asked Charlie again, willing him to have a reaction to her pain. Something beyond fucking enjoyment.

They moved into the dining room and even through the grainy footage I could see her wincing, waddling almost, like she was unable to lift her feet more than an inch off the ground. She looked weak, beaten down, and it took every fiber of my being not to rush over there now and kill everyone that got in the way of getting her free. I knew we had to wait though, it would be better. There were more effective means that would involve a higher chance of disappearing for good. We just had to have a little more patience.

“How can you watch that and do nothing?” I asked Charlie again, urging him to fucking react, raging that he still refused to do anything, despite the evidence in front of us that she was being destroyed. He was our father’s son, through and through, determined to lead the life given to him, for us all to. Even the girls. Even when it meant our deaths, our bodies. He watched Violet now with no emotion, only a shrug.

“He’s getting what he wanted, what she's built for,Theodore Lewis,” Charlie said, snapping out of his thoughts and emphasizing my full name like our father would. Reminding me of my place. “I don’t know why you fucking care so much. She’s not your responsibility. She’ll make a baby for Rafe and then he’ll fucking kill her, or keep her as a prize cow to keep popping out spawn. Who gives a shit?” He breathed out through his nostrils like a fat bull. “She’s well-enjoyed there, trust me.”

Gently, I slipped my hand into Charlie’s hair at the back of his head, squeezing to hold him in place. I’d had enough. Charlie was the heir, the next leader of this fucked up clan, but I was the enforcer. I knew I sparked fear in him when I got going.

“What are you doing?” he asked, trying to bat me away, but I squeezed tighter. “Get off, Theo.”

I applied just a touch more pressure, so his hair follicles would strain and ache. “Stop talking about her like that,” I threatened, and he laughed, light at first, but with a trickle of nerves when I didn’t let go. He grasped my hand and attempted to tug me free. I forced his head back at the same moment he grabbed a knife from his pocket, bringing it up to my throat. We were suspended mid-air, looking at each other upside down, one slip away from maiming the other.

“I will kill you,” he told me, pressing the blade against my skin. “You forget what I’ve already done for you, bringing you here. It left you at my mercy. Father won’t flinch if I told him you’d been insubordinate, and I’d put you down. He will relish the fact that he didn’t have to deal with your pathetic ass anymore. The church doesn't need any more Lewis men, Father doesn't need you here. He tells me almost daily to find a way to send you back. To get you out of the way.”

“Do it then,” I said, pressing my neck towards him so the blade dug into my skin. Without Violet, I had nothing much to live for, anyway. If she was living this life of torture because of me?Maybe I deserved it. I didn’t let his hair go, and he didn’t push the blade in. Numbness beckoned.

“It hasn’t stopped with just him, you know,” Charlie growled, something flashing over his eyes. A bitter coldness.

“What the fuck do you mean?” I asked, but movement on the screen snagged my attention, and I looked up, breaking the tension. Without a word, Charlie dropped the knife, and I let his head go, and we watched what was happening just on the other side of the woods outside the window.

Rafe strolled up to Violet, and my stomach clenched when she submitted right away, ducking her face and shaking in fear as he approached. He didn’t stop moving when he reached her, his hands falling on her shoulders as he walked her backwards until she hit the wall. With him looming over her, she looked so tiny. She’d lost weight, and had almost appeared to shrink in height, too. The body I’d touched on her wedding night had been full, thick-thighed and warm. Healthy. While she didn’t look underweight, there was a new gauntness to her, a bleakness in her pallor.

Charlie huffed and tried to pull away, but I grasped his chin from behind and held his head steady, directed at the three screens, all showing Violet’s torture. “You have to watch it. It can’t be any worse than what I’ve imagined, big brother.”

“Fucking hell, Theo,” Charlie scoffed, but he stopped trying to turn away. Even when I squeezed his chin, digging into bone, his gaze remained fixed as the devil on the screen hurt our sister.

First, he slapped her, throwing her head to the side. Then, he said something we couldn’t hear before she lowered herself to her knees. I watched him rape her face, slamming his hips so hard into her that the pictures on the wall rattled. She cried and scrambled throughout, desperate for traction, for it to end. Even with the grainy footage, them not near the screen, that was clear. This was just abuse. No real church on earth truly believed inthis. Watching him, I understood even more that it was all just for show, for power.

Before Rafe came, he withdrew from her mouth and twisted her to the floor, her ass in the air and her face smashed to the hard wood. I caught brief sight of his spit slick cock before he burrowed it into her, pumping once, twice, before stilling, riding through his disgusting orgasm. As his body spasmed, he slipped his hand under her clothes and did something that made her jerk, then he withdrew his now bloodied fingers, wiping them over his lips. Even through the grain of the camera, he looked blissed out.

“He’s just trying—” Charlie started, but I squeezed his chin with force to stop him talking. Fuck, he was on my last nerve. Never had this aggression, this conniving violence my family was so well known for, taken me over so wholly. Not until Violet’s wedding night, when protective rage rooted in me.

Rafe said something to Violet as he stood up and tucked his gross cock back into his trousers, stomping on her hand when she didn’t reply. I saw her scream out, then nod, and Rafe strolled away, leaving her there, ass up, exposed, as staff walked past.

To see her like that, humiliated, used up and discarded, without even the dignity of privacy? The resolve in me shuddered, blackened. The house continued its day, deliveries made, cleaners sweeping by, and Violet stayed there, on display, Rafe’s cum sinking inside to find nothing. He would punish her for that. I needed to get her out before he could.

“Jesus fuck, Theo, can I get the fuck on with my day now? You can sit and watch our sister become a fucking farm animal. I have shit to do,” Charlie said, and I let him wrestle away from me, standing straighter to give him room to move. We stayed stuck like that for a long time. Watching, lost in the horror of it all.

“No,” I said, as he turned to confront me. I couldn’t look at his fucking face anymore. Fuck, the rage bubbling in me was hot, burning up my insides as I fought to keep it contained. Charlie was okay with this, he was fine to carry on this legacy. Our mother, sisters, grandchildren, whoever came along would get the same treatment under him. “You will help me,” I spat out, trying to control my voice. “You will help me, Charlie, you will help Violet.”

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