Page 53 of Degradation

I stare. I blink in disbelief and then all that emotion, all the shame, all of it explodes inside me.

My eyes fill with tears. I’m sobbing, heaving as she pulls me into her arms and gives me a hug that I need so desperately.

“I can’t do this.” I wail. “Please, you have to help me, you have to get out of here.”

She shakes her head gently, brushing my hair back from my face. “Come on, now. You’re stronger than this. You know you are…”

“You don’t understand…” I continue but she cuts across me.

“No, Paitlyn, you don’t. He is your husband. You need to be good. You need to obey him you need to…”

“He lets other men touch me.” I gasp. “He, he, he let another man fuck me. And the other day, when I wasn’t being sexy enough or whatever the fuck he wanted, he took me down to the guard house and he…” I freeze as I see who is standing there. Who is on the threshold and way to fucking close.

How much as he heard? How much will he report back?

She turns her head, studying the guard for a second too.

“He touched me.” I whisper as quietly as I can. “My husband watched while they all used me.”

She draws in a slow breath but beyond that she doesn’t react. There’s no shock to her face, no surprise. And it hits me then that she knew. She fucking knew.

I jerk back, pushing her away as my anger flares more, as all that pain twists inside me and it mingles with such a sense of betrayal.

“You, you sold me to him. You let me marry him when you knew what he was, when you knew he was a monster, a degenerate.”

Her hand slaps my face. I jolt, feeling that old bruise my husband gave me throbbing once more.

“You’re being hysterical, Paitlyn.” She says. “You need to calm down.”

“Calm down?” I hiss. Calm down? She fucking knew. She knew what he was and yet she led me like a pig to slaughter and for what? “He has parties.” I state. “Sex parties. He has Magnus Blake bring him slaves and they all fuck them and beat them and kill them too.”

Again, no shock. No reaction.

“He made me suck one of them off.” I state. “He had some gold thing on his cock and he made me take it into my mouth and…”

“Enough.” My mother says folding her arms.

“Why? Are the details too sordid for you? You’d prefer not to know all the twisted things I’m forced to do because you thought he could be managed?”

“He can be managed.” My mother says.

I scoff, scrambling from the bed. She doesn’t have a clue, does she? She doesn’t realise what is really happening here.

“The man is mad.” I half-scream. “He’s mad or he’s possessed by the devil.”

“Paitlyn.” My mother says in such a shocked voice. She grabs my arm, yanking me over to sit on the bed and then she walks tothe door, as if she wants to shut the guard out. Only, as she goes to do it, he blocks her.

She bristles, telling him he has no right, and he stares her down, before giving her a firm push back with just one well-placed finger.

“We have our orders.” He states. “Just as she apparently has hers.”

My mother screws her face up and, in a flash, she slaps him so hard across the face. I gasp in shock, wondering if that’s it, that’s the catalyst. He’s always felt like a bomb about to go off. I don’t doubt he’d happily put her in her place if he thinks he can get away with it.

Only, he just grins. He takes a step, then another. My mother moves backwards, further into the room as he crowds her with his massive body.

He’s taunting her, I realise, proving what power he has, just by his physical presence.

“Do that again, woman.” He says. “I like it when you bitches fight back.”