Chapter 11 - The Architect of Agony and the Betrayal of the Bloodline
The air in the dining room turned into a solid block of ice,
pressing against my lungs until every breath felt like a chore.
I looked at the photographs on the table,
the images of the three men in the shadows,
their gold Moretti pins glinting like the eyes of predatory cats.
They had been there,
standing among the guests,
watching as Adrian raised the whip.
They had watched the first strike,
the tenth,
the twentieth.
They had watched the blood stain my dress,
and they had done nothing.
I turned my gaze to Dominic,
the brother I had always worshipped as a protector,
a man whose word was law.
His expression was unreadable,
a mask of cold marble that I could no longer penetrate.
"Explain this,"
I whispered,
my voice trembling not with fear,
but with a burgeoning,
white-hot rage.
Dominic didn't look at the photos.
He didn't need to.
"We needed to know,
Elena,"
he said,
his voice devoid of any emotion.
"We needed to know if you were still one of us,
or if you had truly become a Cole."
"You let him whip me,"
I said,
the words tasting like copper in my mouth.
"You watched him humiliate me in front of fifty people."
"We were at the gate the moment the party started,"
Matteo added,
looking down at his hands.
"The men inside were there to ensure he didn't kill you,
Elena.
But they were ordered not to intervene until you made the choice."
"What choice?"
I screamed,
slamming my hand onto the table.
The pain in my back flared,
a jagged reminder of the 'choice' they had forced upon me.
"The choice to stop being a victim,"
Luca said,
his lawyer’s voice smooth and terrifyingly logical.
"For three years,
you ignored our calls.
For three years,
you let that man treat you like a trophy.
We couldn't save a woman who didn't want to be saved."
"So you let him torture me?"
I asked,
looking at each of them in turn.
"Gabriel?
Nico?
You both agreed to this?"
Gabriel looked away,
but Nico met my eyes,
his expression filled with a dark,
troubled loyalty.
"It was the only way to get you back,
Elena,"
Nico said.
"If we had just walked in and taken you,
you would have hated us.
You would have gone back to him eventually.
But tonight...
tonight you called us.
Tonight,
you became a Moretti again."
I felt a sickening lurch in my stomach.
My rescue hadn't been an act of spontaneous love.
It had been a calculated extraction,
a psychological breaking of my will to ensure my return to the family fold.
The Coles had destroyed my body,
but it was my own brothers who had orchestrated the destruction of my soul.
I looked at the gold pin on my lapel and ripped it off,
flinging it across the room.
It hit the far wall with a sharp 'ping' and disappeared into the shadows.
"I called you because I thought you loved me,"
I said,
my voice dropping to a deathly quiet.
"I didn't realize I was just switching one cage for another."
I turned to Julian Thorne,
who was watching the scene with a mixture of horror and fascination.
"Thank you for the information,
Investigator,"
I said.
"I believe you have what you came for."
"Elena,
sit down,"
Dominic commanded,
his voice regaining its authoritative edge.
I didn't stop.
I walked toward the door,
the pain in my back a dull roar,
my mind a whirlwind of fire.
"I am going to my room,"
I said without looking back.
"And if any of those 'watchers' are still on this property,
tell them to stay out of my sight.
Because the next person I draw blood from won't be a Cole."
I heard the chairs scrape against the floor as they rose,
May you like
but no one followed me.
They knew better than to push a Moretti who had finally found her teeth.
