บท 24: Horrors of 7th Wedding Anniversary

(Content in this chapter might be a bit disturbing for sensitive readers. Discretion is advised.)

Doran entered his villa in a blinding fury. He had sensed Zyair was trouble even before he had officially met him but he hadn't anticipated the man to be this shrewd.

The table in the dining room had been set with all kinds of food which used to be his favourite and a small home-baked chocolate cake lay in the centre. It was a norm in their seven years of marriage.

Every year on their anniversary Skyla would cook for him and bake a cake but either he would never come home or would arrive so late that she had gone to sleep.

Ignoring her efforts yet again he went straight to his room. As he neared it he heard the giggling voice of Skyla from inside. She was talking on the phone with someone. He was about to enter the room when the one name he thought he had heard enough for the night left his wife's mouth.

"Mr. Zyair was a picture of perfection in that costume. I still can't wrap my head around the precision with which he pulled it off."

Doran had heard enough, he barged into the room. His furious visage revealed the depth of angry emotions he was carrying inside. Before Skyla could turn he had grabbed her cell phone and thundered.

"Whom are you talking to?" his enraged glare had her shifting away from him.

"Huria, why? Can't I talk to my friend now?" she stared back at him in disbelief, not understanding what had him so riled up. By then Doran had switched her cell phone off.

"You can't if you are going to discuss other men with her and how perfect they look," he sneered, pocketing her phone. He would be checking it later for what she had been up to. This made Skyla lose it. He had taken everything from her, confined her to this hell house and now he was trying to take away the last of her freedom, her cell phone.

"So you can sleep around with God knows who and I can't even talk about other men? The term hypocrisy must have been coined for the likes of you. Give my phone back," her voice becoming high-pitched as she slightly shook with anger that coursed through her veins.

"Keep your voice down," he threateningly warned.

"Or what? You will hurt me like you always do. Instead of loving me. It has been seven excruciating years I have spent craving any shard of your love. You sorry excuse of a man," words had barely left her lips when his hand connected with her face with a brutal force.

~Thwack~

This sent her sprawling to the floor. He wasted no time in grabbing her by her hair and dragging her to their bed. Skyla screamed in pain, her cheek stung as he lifted her by her hair and threw her on the bed.

She tried to scuttle away from his raging self but he climbed over her. Holding her arms above her head with such raw force that she couldn't feel her hands, they were going numb and blue by the second.

"Let go of me you monster. I hate you," she wanted to ablaze this man, once and for all.

The fake mask of calmness had evaporated and she could see what he kept hidden underneath. It was ugly and it terrified her inside.

"If only you could keep this filthy mouth of yours shut, I wouldn't have to hurt you. Since it's so difficult for you to understand. You want to see why I don't get physical with you I think I will show you the right way."

His foreboding words sent a wave of terror rampaging through her pinned-down body and she searched those gelid pits of his for any humanity, but she found none. Only a chilled emptiness stared back at her.

He unbuckled his belt in a jiffy and turned into a fiend with no horns. She lost count of the lashes at some point and only her screams echoed in this forsaken room. His gift to her on their seventh wedding anniversary.

***

It had been days since she had left the position she had been lying in. Amsilia and Madame Maven had tended to her wounds but no one was able to lift her spirit. A part of her was permanently shattered and had begun to harbour a lasting enmity for him.

For 7 years she had endured his abuse, it was mostly verbal with an occasional slap or a cigarette burn whenever she defied him. For years she had held onto hope that he might change that he might mellow down to her.

But after this incident, she lost that tinker of hope. It vanished in that chasm of those glacial eyes. She knew they would haunt her forever, there was no escape from that haunting feeling.

Doran had left his house that night and he hadn't been seen or heard from since. His cell phone was off and not even Caleb knew where he had gone.

Amsilia was constantly with Skyla, begging for forgiveness on behalf of her son. She had to beg that day for Doran to finally open the door and let her in. The look she had seen on her son's face had chilled her to her core. Never had she anticipated him to fall to this level.

The slap she had given him had no effect, he had stared vacantly at her as if not even recognising his own mother before he left the house. Amilisia then made up her mind that she had to get Skyla out of this marriage.

"Skyla, my child. I know I asked you to give my son a chance when he married you. And I know you have given him more than he deserves. There is no forgiveness for what he has done so if you want to divorce him, I will help you. I will arrange the money and even hide you away from him."

Amsilia mustered up enough courage to speak with Skyla. She lay curled up with her head in Amsilia's lap, her eyes closed. She slowly opened them and sadly stared at her mother-in-law.

Her voice came out low but firm when she spoke.

"I can't, I made a promise to my dying father. I don't break promises. I will die, rather than yield and quit."