Page 3 of Reckoning

“Yes boss.” The man says.

I shake my head once more. I don’t want to leave, I want to see that every one of those bastards are dead but I can’t stand here. My legs are shaking, my body is losing itself in a dark spiral I can’t get out of and I can’t focus on anything.

I let out a whimper, my head feels too dizzy, my heart is beating too rapidly. I take a step back but it feels like my feet aren’t even on the ground anymore and as I start to slip into darkness I know it’s Koen’s arms that catch me.

That it’s him who carries me away. Not the man he called. Not one of the five men who raped me so long ago.

And worse than that, I don’t fight him, I don’t even try, I just let the darkness take me and let this man carry me away, trusting that he won’t hurt me.

Trusting that he will keep me safe.

Sofia

Two Months Earlier

They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Well, I’ve never heard more bullshit in my life because it certainly didn’t make me stronger. It didn’t make me tougher.

It broke me.

They broke me.

Otto Fucking Blumenfeld broke me.

I let out a ragged breath, feeling my anger mixing once more with my panic. Even after all this time I still can’t seem to get any rational grasp on my emotions. I still can’t get any rational grasp on anything.

But I’m good at pretending. Really good in fact. So good the entirety of Verona thinks I’m fixed. It’s only my family that know otherwise. And to be fair, I’d much rather it that way. Much rather the world think that I’m capable of healing than them realising what was really going on and how damaged I truly am.

How utterly, irreparably damaged my soul is.

My feet crunch as I take another step. The glass beneath my boots makes a satisfying noise as it shatters more. My eyes skim about the place, and I walk from one luxurious room to the next reliving every horror that I endured, every awful violation my husband put me through, all whilst letting the petrol pour freely from the canister in my hand.

The smell makes my nose wrinkle.

The fumes fill the air.

But it masks the stench of what this place is. The walls Otto twisted around into my prison cell.

I haven’t removed a thing. I’ve kept all his possessions here. The priceless art, the jewellery, the furniture that could gain me a fortune at any decent auction house. All of it became mine when that bastard died, only I don’t want his money. I don’t want to profit from any of this.

No, there’s only one thing I want.

One thing that would at least begin to sate the agony inside me.

I want to wipe away every last living memory of that man. I want to destroy everything he ever owned, everything he ever touched. I want to make sure this city learns what happens when they cross the Montagues, but not just us, what happens when they fuck withme. I want this city to stop seeing me as some poor innocent girl and to finally accept that I have changed. I have grown. I am no longer the baby-faced victim they all read about a year ago.

I am so much more than that.

I draw myself up, pouring the last of the fuel onto the bed that I technically shared with my late husband. If it were possible this is where I’d set the fire, this is where I’d start the inferno, only I know if I do that I’ll burn with the house and I don’t have a death wish.

But I’ll admit it irks as I make my way back through the house and to the front. I liked the poetic justice of burning our bed. Of burning that room - I guess torching his entire house will have to make up for it.

My lips curl as I pick up the flash bomb. Yeah, I like to be dramatic and let’s face it a simple match just wasn’t going to have the same effect. There just wouldn’t be enough drama.

I pull the pin tossing the thing inside. The blast is limited, small, I did my research when I snuck this out of Roman’s stores. I don’t want to blow the house up. I want to burn it to the ground. I want to burn every last fucking thing of Otto’s.

As the bomb sparks it makes a tiny crackling bang and my skin erupts in goosebumps.

I stand, feeling the cool autumn wind against my back and watch as the flames catch, as they slowly rise and spread and then the heat, the fire, it lights up the night sky, illuminating it for the entire city to see.