The loud, desperate screams bouncing off the damp concrete walls did not make Roxy stop.
She did not blink. She did not hesitate. The sweet, scared girl who used to hide in the dark was completely gone, leaving only the fierce Matriarch in her place.
The ex-husband thrashed wildly against the thick steel chains, his eyes wide with absolute, blinding terror. But there was nowhere for him to go. He was completely trapped.
With one swift, violent motion, Roxy brought the heavy, sharp blade down.
She exacted her bloody, final revenge. She took away the very thing that made him feel like a big, tough man. She permanently and violently un-manned him, completely cutting off the source of his sick, twisted pride. She made absolutely sure that he would never, ever be able to use his body to hurt, scare, or force another woman into a corner ever again.
A terrible, glass-shattering scream ripped out of the ex-husband’s throat.
It was a sound of pure, mind-breaking agony. His whole body jerked upward, pulling so hard against the tal chair that his wrists bled against the chains. Then, his head fell back, and his entire body went completely limp. He was still awake, but the terrible shock and the pain made his brain totally short-circuit. He gasped for air, his chest heaving, his face turning as white as snow.
In the dark shadows behind Roxy, the six Kings did not look away in disgust.
They watched her take her revenge with dark, proud approval. Torian stood a little taller, his massive chest puffed out with pride. Zarek gave a slow, deep nod, his golden eyes shining. They knew exactly how much courage it took for her to face her biggest nightmare. She had finally taken her power back, totally destroying the monster who had broken her all those years ago.
Roxy stepped back. Her breathing was completely steady. She dropped the heavy tal blade onto the floor. It hit the concrete with a loud clatter.
"Ren," Roxy said softly, her voice perfectly calm.
The silver-haired healer stepped out of the shadows. His face was completely blank. He didn’t have his magic anymore, and even if he did, he would never waste it on a monster like this. But they couldn’t let the man die in the next five minutes. Roxy wanted him to live long enough to truly feel what he had lost.
Ren walked over to the shiny tal table and picked up a large roll of thick, white dical bandages.
He moved quickly and professionally. He didn’t speak a single word to the crying, gasping man in the chair. Ren heavily and tightly bandaged the terrible wound, pressing the thick white cloth hard against the bleeding to make sure the man wouldn’t bleed to death right there on the floor.
When Ren was done, the ex-husband was completely, totally destroyed.
He was slumped over in the heavy chair, his chin resting weakly on his chest. Tears and sweat dripped down his face, mixing with the dirt on the floor. He wasn’t a scary bully anymore. He was just a hollow, empty, broken shell of a person.
Zarek walked over to his wife. He didn’t care about the ss. He gently wrapped his giant, warm hand around Roxy’s waist and pulled her close to his chest.
"You did perfectly, my Queen," Zarek rumbled softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her dark curls. "It is over. Let’s go ho."
The Kings ford a tight, protective wall around Roxy. They turned their backs on the broken man in the chair and walked right out of the cold, bright room.
Clang. BOOM.
The heavy steel door slamd shut behind them. The massive lock clicked into place, plunging the underground room back into absolute, pitch-black darkness.
The ride back to the penthouse was quiet, but it was a good, peaceful kind of quiet. The heavy, dark cloud that had been hanging over Roxy’s head since the afternoon in the park had completely vanished.
When they stepped out of the private elevator into their beautiful, warm ho, Caspian led Roxy straight into the giant master bathroom.
The bathroom was bright, warm, and slled like sweet vanilla soap. Caspian turned on the gold faucet, letting the warm water run into the shiny marble sink.
Roxy stood in front of the mirror. She rolled up her sleeves and placed her hands under the warm, running water. She grabbed a bar of sweet-slling soap and washed her hands carefully. She watched the soap bubble up, washing away the dirt and the terrible mories of the underground cell.
Syris handed her a fluffy, white towel.
"You never have to think of him again," Syris promised softly, his green eyes full of gentle love. "He is erased from your world. Your future only has light in it now."
Roxy dried her hands and looked at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t look tired anymore. She looked strong. She smiled, a real, genuine smile, and leaned back into the warm, safe arms of her incredible husbands.
Miles away, deep underground, the freezing, dark cell was totally silent.
The ex-husband sat in the heavy tal chair, completely trapped in the pitch-black room.
The physical pain was agonizing. Every single ti he tried to take a deep breath, a terrible, burning fire ripped through his lower body. His hands were completely numb from the tight chains, and he was shivering so hard that his teeth clattered together in the cold.
But as the hours slowly ticked by in the dark, sothing strange happened.
The physical pain started to feel small. It was slowly pushed away by a different kind of pain. This new pain was entirely in his chest, and it was a million tis worse than anything Roxy had done to his body.
It was the crushing, suffocating weight of his own intense remorse.
In the total dark, with no distractions and no one to yell at, his brain finally stopped making excuses. The fake stories he used to tell himself—that Roxy was just weak, that he was just teaching her a lesson, that it wasn’t a big deal—all completely shattered.
He saw clearly, for the very first ti, exactly what he was.
He was a monster.
He rembered the way Roxy used to look at him when they first t. She had been so sweet, so kind, and so full of hope. And he had taken that beautiful, innocent light and crushed it under his boots just because it made him feel powerful. He had locked her in the dark. He had yelled at her until she cried. He had ruined the best thing that had ever happened to him.
A loud, painful sob ripped out of his throat.
He cried in the dark, the tears burning his cold cheeks. He realized he could never fix what he broke. No apology in the world could ever glue those pieces back together. He had destroyed a beautiful person, and because of that, his own life was completely worthless.
He was sitting in a freezing cage, mutilated, and completely unloved by anyone in the entire world.
He slowly let his heavy head hang down, staring blankly at the dark concrete floor near his boots.
The blinding white light from earlier had burned an after-image into his eyes, so he could just barely make out the shapes on the floor in the dark. Right near the leg of his tal chair, resting carelessly on the dirty concrete, was a jagged, sharp piece of tal. It looked like a broken piece of a heavy tool that had fallen off the shiny tal table when Roxy picked up the blade.
The jagged piece of tal was sitting just inches away from his chained boot.
He stared at it.
He was so tired. He was completely exhausted from the pain, the cold, and the heavy, terrible truth of his own evil choices. He didn’t want to sit in this dark box for the rest of his life. He didn’t want to live with the crushing guilt anymore. He just wanted it all to stop.
Using the very last bit of strength he had left in his freezing body, he stretched his right leg out. The heavy chains rattled loudly. The tip of his dirty boot hooked the piece of jagged tal and slowly dragged it closer.
He leaned his body forward as far as the tight wrist chains would allow. He stretched his bleeding fingers down, reaching blindly in the dark.
His fingertips brushed the cold, sharp edge of the tal.
He gripped it tightly in his hand, not caring that the sharp edge cut deeply into his own palm.
He closed his eyes in the pitch-black room. He thought about the bright green eyes of the sweet girl he had ruined. He thought about the fierce, untouchable Queen she had beco without him.
He brought the jagged piece of tal up.
He groans, as his life wastes away, "I am sorry... Roxy."
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