Page 83 of Bound By Crimson

Chapter Eighty-Three

Raw and Guttural

She was in bed, lying still like always.

Pretending.

The same way she had for months.

She kept her body still. Breath measured. Movements faint, like someone who’d forgotten what strength felt like.

And then the door opened.

No knock.

No warning.

Just the sound of the handle turning.

Then—his smooth, velvet voice.

“Lyric...”

Her heart jumped into her throat.

Kai.

She didn’t move.

Not right away.

He stepped closer. Said nothing.

Just stared.

She couldn’t read his face.

Was it pity? Was it love?

Something in between?

He knelt beside her, leaned down, and wrapped his arms around her.

And she melted into him .

Her body moved before her mind could catch up.

She hadn’t been touched in months. Not like this.

Not gently. Not familiarly. Not by someone who held her like this.

She cried into his shoulder, hating herself for needing it.

For needing him.

Even if he didn’t mean it—

Even if it was a lie—

It meant everything .

He didn’t let her go.

He sat beside her on the bed and held her like he used to.

Cradled her until her sobs turned shallow.

Until the tremors in her chest began to slow.

Then he looked at her.

Brushed her cheek with the back of his hand.

“I’m sorry, Lyric,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”

She wanted to forgive him.

Wanted to believe the words.

Wanted to take their baby and run.

To be a family.

To pretend it had all been something real.

For one fragile second, she almost let herself.

Almost closed her eyes and fell into the lie.

Almost believed they could still be whole.

Almost.

But then it hit her.

He was her uncle.

The thought turned her stomach.

She pulled back from him, just enough to look into his eyes.

“Did you know?” she whispered.

He didn’t have to answer.

She could see it in his face.

He had always known.

“How could you?” she asked, her voice barely more than a breath. Not angry. Just broken.

He stood.

“It was my duty,” he said. “To keep our lineage alive.”

The words dropped like stone .

“Duty ,” she echoed.

That’s all she’d ever been to him.

A name. A womb. A transaction.

Her chest caved in.

She searched his face—begging for something real.

“Was any of it real?” she whispered. And hated herself for asking.

He didn’t answer.

He looked down. Then away.

Then he said—

“I’ve been visiting Edwin. He’s beautiful. He’s exactly what my mother wanted.”

Her blood boiled.

“Noah!” she snapped. “His name is Noah!”

He didn’t respond to that.

Didn’t even flinch.

“Lyric… I just wanted to say I’m sorry. Maybe I can convince my mother to let you out—let you see him, if you promise to behave.”

She stared at him. Behave?

Her body stayed frozen, but fury shimmered beneath her skin.

“You’re not sorry,” she said coldly,

“You’re just ashamed of what you’ve done. You want me to say you’re not a monster—but you’re the worst kind.”

“I hate what you did to me! I hate what you made me into! I hate you!”

“I will never forgive you! Or your mother!”

He walked to the door slowly.

Paused.

His hand hovered on the doorknob.

Then, slowly, he turned to face her.

“You want the truth?” he said quietly.

“I pulled away because I had to. If anyone found out—what we are, what we did—everything I’ve built would crumble. My reputation, my company, my place in the world… gone.”

He looked at her, shame twisting his features .

“I grew up knowing that our blood is sacred, chosen, set apart since the beginning. That we’re descendants of something divine, something ancient, and to taint it with outsiders is a betrayal of God Himself.

My mother said we were born to preserve it—to protect the lineage at all costs.

That mixing the blood would summon ruin, disease, madness… even death.”

His eyes were wide—he truly believed this.

“She told me about those who disobeyed—how their children were born wrong, how entire branches of the family tree were wiped out in fire or madness.”

“She said hell waits for the impure. That our souls would rot, our legacy would end, and God would erase us from existence.”

A bitter breath escaped him.

“Our family is dying, Lyric. There’s no one left. I’m the last male of our bloodline. We tried. But my mother was too old to carry a child. So… we had to find you—to continue the legacy.”

A sharp breath rattled through her. Her entire body recoiled, like something filthy had touched her.

We tried.

The words echoed in her skull—twisting into something worse than betrayal.

They would have .

They tried to.

Her vision blurred with disgust.

“We were the last chance to keep it pure.” He continued, like it was matter-of-fact. Normal. “It was my duty to marry you, make a generation that could carry it forward. You should’ve wanted this too.”

He hesitated. His voice wavered.

“But I still had to worry about what the rest of the world would say—what I knew deep down. That it’s wrong. That it’s… monstrous.

“So, I left. I tried to move on. Focused on other women. And I hate myself for that… But I didn’t stop wanting you.”

“And if there’s any part of you that still feels what we had… maybe we could try again.”

Lyric sat stunned, her chest tight with a storm of emotion .

Her face twisted, part rage, part heartbreak.

But even then… her heart wanted more.

He said he loved me.

The words echoed and all the emotions rushed through her.

Circling back to the fact that he was her uncle.

Her birth mother’s brother.

She jerked back like she’d been burned.

“You tricked me,” she said, trembling with rage.”

“You knew—and you still touched me. Still said you loved me.”

“Made me fall for you—sleep with you—carry your child—without telling me the truth.”

She was on her feet now, trembling with rage.

“You knew it was sick. You knew it was wrong.”

She laughed bitterly, a sound with no joy behind it.

“You let me love you—made me believe it was real—when you were my uncle the whole time.”

Her voice cracked as she shouted:

“You violated me, Kai. You used me. And then you left me here with that monster that you call Mother !”

She was breathing hard now, wild with betrayal.

“This wasn’t love. It was manipulation. You ruined my life—and his!”

She took one step forward, voice low but venomous.

“You’re scared you’ll burn if this bloodline dies out?”

Her voice cracked, but her rage only sharpened.

“For what you and your mother did to me—you’re both going to burn.”

She glared at him, her voice steady now.

“And I hope you do.”

Her eyes narrowed, glassy with rage.

“Did she have my parents killed?”

The question ripped out of her.

“Did you?”

His silence stretched.

Heavy.

Final.

Like a verdict she already knew .

She screamed—raw and guttural.

Kai flinched.

Then took a step back, like she might rip him apart.

Maybe she would.

She grabbed the nearest thing—a glass vase—and hurled it at him.

It shattered against the wall just inches from his head.

He didn’t move.

Didn’t speak.

Just looked at her.

A flicker of something—fear, regret, maybe even shame—crossed his face.

And then he turned.

Opened the door.

Paused—

Not for her.

For himself.

“I didn’t want it to be this way,” he said, his voice barely audible.

Then, quieter—almost resentful.

“You could’ve had everything.”

With that, he was gone.

And Lyric screamed again—

A sound that shattered the walls inside her.

Like something tearing loose from her soul.

She screamed until something broke.

Until there was no voice left.

Until hope was gone.

Until there was nothing but the silence he left behind.