Page 102 of The Madman and his broken Princess
I nodded with a small smile.
She threw her arms around my neck and sobbed. I held her as she cried. “Are you happy?”
“I am. That’s why I’m crying.”
I never understood the concept of happy tears. Eventually, Amelia pulled back, her face tearstained and eyes teary. “I can’t believe it. Where will we live?”
“In a palace of our own making.”
She sank her teeth into her lower lip and looked back toward the manor. Her smile widened. The look on her face was worth it. She and I would build a new palace worthy of our love.
Two days later, four demolition balls surrounded the manor. Staff and our bodyguards temporarily used containers for cooking and to find rest. The pool house, the security house near the gate, and the animal enclosures were the only buildings that would remain on the premises. Even the fighting pit would be torn away.
“Where will fights take place now?” Amelia asked as she leaned against me to survey the upcoming destruction.
“I’ll build a bigger and better amphitheater just on the outskirts of LA. It’ll be spectacular. You and I will get a loge with splendid thrones so the audience in the ranks and at home on their screens can fear and admire us from afar.”
She let out a laugh, then she sank her teeth into her lower lip, her gaze darting up to the bone crown atop my head. “If you create a crown for me, promise me it won’t be from bone.”
I smirked and touched her cheek. “Black onyx would suit you beautifully. The red of your hair will look like flames against it.”
“That sounds beautiful.” She narrowed her eyes in thought. “Why do you keep the bones of your enemies close? In your crown and as trophies on your walls? Why not banish them from your life for good?”
“I never understood why people thought bones were a disturbing sight. Once cleaned, the material is beautiful, which is why humans used to create art from animal bones.”
“Maybe because we prefer to bury the dead.”
“I prefer to remind myself of every enemy I killed. That way, when the nightmares become too real, I’ll know they are just the past and not my present.”
She nodded as if she could accept that explanation. Her eyes were drawn back to the mansion just as the four wrecking balls swung toward the walls. The resulting bang let birds in the surrounding trees and rose maze shoot into the sky. Clouds of dust rose as the walls crumbled.
We watched for several hours as the place that had been our prison for many years, and in many ways, was torn down piece by piece.
I held Amelia in my arms as she cried more happy tears, and I felt lighter with every part of the house that disappeared.
Amelia had shown me photos of houses that she liked. She wanted big windows, a bedroom full of light. I wanted a place worthy of the name Romano Manor, a castle that would awe people from afar but unsettle them enough to stay away.
Five days later, like I had wanted, nothing of Romano Manor remained but a huge plain area.
“Time to rebuild our home,” I told Amelia as we headed up the slope toward the barren land from the pool house where we’d spent the past few nights.
In the following six weeks, construction workers built the house Amelia and I envisioned. A castle reminiscent of old Scottish fortresses made from basalt, granite, and slate. Two huge turrets towered on both sides of the highest floor. Windows allowed an all-around look from our bedroom in one of those turrets. While we based our design on Scottish castles, we changed the window sizes so more light would penetrate the halls and rooms. Amelia and I watched every day as our new home became a reality.
When we could enter our house for the first time, my pulse pounded in my veins like it rarely did anymore. I took Amelia’s hand as I led her through the wide wooden double door into a light-flooded entrance hall. Tall arched windows flanked the entrance door. The entrance hall was two stories tall with a glass dome that allowed sunshine to spill down. An open staircase led up to a wide gallery where my trophies were displayed. Gold, dark wood, and purple velvet dominated the insides.
The staff kitchen and the bodyguard quarters were at the very back in a separate wing. A door separated that part of the house from ours, so Amelia and I would be alone in our home most of the time. Amelia and I descended the winding staircase, arriving at a dressing room on the first landing, then moved up farther to the huge circular bedroom in the turret. The walls were made of windows, allowing sunlight to stream in. A claw-footed copper bathtub perched beneath one of those windows. Our round bed stood in the center of the room. The purple comforter contrasted with the black wood of the bed frame and flooring. Behind the bed, a circular shower made entirely of glass allowed the person inside to look out toward the sky or the Hollywood Hills. Ameliastepped up to the window beside the bathtub, which faced the gardens.
My eyes drifted toward the place where the rose maze used to be. It had been torn away. Only one wall behind my mother’s gravestone and two rose arches remained. “It feels like being in the sky,” Amelia said with a pensive smile.
I nodded. The turret was the perfect place for our bedroom, above everyone else, and with a spectacular view.
Amelia beamed up at me. “I feel free. Really free, for the first time in…” She shook her head, her brows pulling together. “In forever.”
I wrapped my arms around her and put my chin down on the top of her head with a small smile. “When I’m here with you, I sense peace. In the outside world, the darkness always spills forth, and I’m the raging monster everyone fears, but in our home, I’m more than a beast.”
She touched my hand. “This will be our safe place, the place where you can be vulnerable and we can be us.”
“Us.”
