Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
I didn’t want to die alone.
Except, my husband had cruelly signed my death.
Adrian never claimed to care for me, but he said I would be protected.
He lied…
How naive of me, to believe him, to trust him when he had proven over and over again that he was untrustworthy.
That was he was a ruthless beast without a heart.
And tonight, I was going to pay the price of my naivety.
I was going to die here, torn apart by these beasts while my husband watched.
The world tilted, darkness closing in my body finally gave up.
My last conscious thought was of Adrian’s cold, emotionless face as the Dobermans lunged toward me.
Then everything went black.
I failed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Adrian
I walked through the woods, my hands buried deep in my pockets, a low whistle escaping my lips. The sound was foreign even to my own ears, something I hadn’t done since I was a young boy. The forest floor was soft beneath my boots, the air crisp and clean, carrying the scent of pine and damp earth.
The night breeze was cool against my face, and the red haze of rage that had consumed me before had dissipated, revealing the forest around me in sharp clarity.
My soft whistling continued as I followed the tracks of my Dobermans in the mud, their paw prints distinctive and easy to trace.
Though my anger has cooled, it has left behind a hollow ache in my chest that seemed to expand with each step.
I inhaled deeply, letting the scent of pine and earth fill my lungs.
“Shadow! Orion!” I called out, my voice echoing through the trees. “Nyx!”
A chorus of barks answered me, guiding me forward. My muscles began to unclench, the tension that had been my restless companion finally releasing its grip. The strain in my shoulders eased.
I inhaled again.
The time that has passed has given me a chance to think more clearly now.
Serafina’s words had driven me to a madness I had kept carefully restrained, waiting for the right moment to unleash.
And this hadn’t been the moment.
It had been too soon.
And it was too late now.
The moonlight filtered through the trees, casting shadows that danced across the forest ground and reality set in… my reality, what I had done…
The pure air of the forest had a way of stripping away pretense, leaving only truth in its wake.
The barking grew more insistent, more urgent. I quickened my pace, pushing aside low-hanging branches as I followed the sound.
And then I saw her.
Thud.
My wife lay crumpled on the forest floor, her body curled into itself like a wounded animal.
Thud. Thud.
Her beige dress, once elegant, was now torn and stained with dirt and blood. Her dark hair was spread around her like a halo, her face so pale it was almost translucent in the moonlight.
Blood trickled from a cut on her forehead, and her arms were covered with tiny cuts from the branches she’d crashed through in her desperate attempt to escape.
Her face, the once perfect skin, was marred with scratches and bruises. Her bare feet were a mess, cut and bleeding, from her desperate flight through the woods.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Serafina looked small, fragile—a stark contrast to the defiant woman who had challenged me in the car. Her chest rose and fell with shallow breaths.
In the dim light, she looked like a ghost, like death itself had claimed her.
I had done this to her. I had pushed her until she broke.
A sliver of something uncomfortable twisted in my gut. Guilt, perhaps, though I quickly pushed the feeling away. My wife had brought this upon herself with her cruel words, her mocking laughter. She had struck at the one wound I couldn’t bear to have exposed.
A blackness in my soul that I had tried to bury.
I wasn’t worthy…
I hadn’t been worthy.
I failed.
And she reminded me of that failure.
My dogs circled her, their massive bodies forming a protective barrier between her and the dangers of the forest. Shadow looked up at me and barked, a sound that was more concerned than aggressive.
They hadn’t harmed her.
Of course, I knew they never would.
Dobermans are family dogs. They are often misunderstood, but they are extremely loyal and protective to a fault. Scary on the outside, but gentle on the inside.
My three had been with me since they were pups, trained to defend and obey. They had sensed Serafina’s fear from the beginning, her terror of their size and strength. Of what they were capable of, the damage they could inflict.
And my dobermans have apparently taken a liking to my wife.
I didn’t know why… if it was because they recognized that she was now the mistress of the house, or because they could smell my scent on her, therefore in retrospect, that made her theirs as much as she was mine.
But my sweet, frightened wife didn’t know that.
What she didn’t understand was that all they had ever wanted was to play with her, to earn her affection.