The Torturing

“Daemon! What do you think you’re doing?! Don’t come closer! I said don’t come any closer!” Maddy was horrified when Daemon did not budge on his stance.

He snatched her wrist and slit a quick wound on it with his knife that made Maddy shriek in sudden pain.

“I thought you wanted me to always be by your side? I thought you wanted to feel me against your skin? Why are you complaining now, Maddy? This is what you wanted, right?” he said grinning.

There were only a few times when he let his fangs out and this is one of those. He promised himself that whoever hurt Devon would suffer tremendously even her own family after they find Emily.

“Not like this! You are trying to murder me!” She tried to get out of his steely grip but couldn’t.

“Not if you answer every single question I have right now for you.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! Get off me! Let me go, Daemon.”

But her actions were in vain. He still held her prisoner under his death glare. Annoyed, he put the knife on her neck and asked in a dark tone.

“Tell me what really happened that night. Did you have a hand when Gestoni assassinated me?”

Maddy is frozen on her feet, her eyes were fixed on the blade on her neck, one wrong move and he could literally slash off her head. “No! Why would I do that?”

Daemon nodded and smiled at her. “You’re right. Why would you even do that? Silly me for asking. Why did I even ask you that? Because you had a deal with him not to kill me, right? He’ll have his daughter back and you’ll have me. Isn’t that a good plot, Maddy? I’ll be scared to death against Gestoni and you’ll have me for yourself entirely. Am I right?”

Her face was gotten rid of any color proving that his deductions were right. If so, the more reasons for doing this to her.

“H-How did you know that?” she uttered in disbelief. “I only talked about that to my…”

“Your faithful gunmen confessed to me right before I blew their hands off their arms,” he said after cutting her off. “Not a really good sight I may say.”

Maddy swallowed the lump on her throat when she realized she can’t run away from her sins anymore. “B-But Daemon, I only did it because I love you so much! We are both fated to be together forever. Look at me now! Didn’t I emit the kind of woman that is fit for a man like you? You deserve me as much as I deserve you!”

“You’re sick! You’re a sick woman, Maddy!”

To his shock, she grinned widely. “You are sick too for thinking that a man like you could have his happily ever after with a woman like Devon! I won’t let you be with her happily! You two can’t be happy while I am still alive! I will make you suffer as much as I can until my last breath!”

He clenched his hands in rage. There’s really no point of prolonging this for. He has to get the information and leave once and for all. Maddy is beyond saving already. He won’t kill her, at least not now. She deserves to suffer first for all the things she’d done to Devon.

“I’m asking you again and I want you to be honest with me. Where is Emily? Where did the Farrows hide her? Tell me, Maddy!” He pushed the blade closer to her neck and more blood flowed out of her flesh.

She laughed deliriously. There’s not a bit of fear on her face.

“Why would I tell you? So you could have your whole family while I’m out here alone and being battered by my husband? Come on, Daemon. You know of all people that a woman like me could not live like that. Kill me with that knife! I want to be rather dead in your hands than having to live like this!”

He paused for a while and stepped back, the knife was withdrawn and the blood from it was dripping to the floor. Maddy looked on feeling victorious.

“He can’t really resist her no matter how he forces himself to hurt me," she thought. Daemon loves me too!”

“Is that what you really wanted because I’m doing it. Don’t you dare wish that because I’ll be doing this fast. You tortured Devon slowly by framing her and taking our child away from her.” He ran the blade back across the vein on her neck but this time, his application of force is stronger and has more of an intent to kill. “I’ll torture you some more too. You don’t think I know that you still have a family? That you’re not really an orphan? Do you want me to order them to kill them this instant?”

Maddy’s eyes widened. How did he learn about it? She did everything she could to hide their location and identity!

“N-No! Daemon, no! Please, no! Don’t touch any of them,” she begged. “They don’t know what I’m doing!”

It’s his time to grin. Bingo!

As he thought, they are her only weakness. He thought she didn’t have any good emotion at all until he mentioned her family.

“Then tell me where the Farrows are hiding Emily. And don’t you ever tell them that I ask you this.”

“I don’t really know where is Emily. I’m telling the truth! Please, believe me!”

But he did not buy it. There are already countless times that she used this kind of tactic against him and it always worked but now just now.

“The truth, Maddy. I want the truth!” he yelled at her face.

She dropped down to her knees this time. “I’m telling you the truth already! I don’t know where they hid her! I don’t know!”

Daemon assessed her facial expression. There’s some truth to what she’s saying more than the manipulation she wants to employ.

“Then you should know about it. Talk to them again and find her yourself if you don’t want the head of your beloved to be delivered to your doorstep first thing tomorrow.”

He turned his back and wiped the blood of the knife on the curtains. He has to go back to the mansion because Devon might cry if she wakes up without him by her side.

“You’re doing this to me because you can’t technically force the Farrows to give your daughter back to you! You are directing the blame on me because you stand no chance against them! You are weak, Daemon! All you can do is blackmail me!”

He stopped cold on his tracks but did not look back at her as if she was just some unimportant subject before him.

“Yes, that’s what I can only do and it happened that it’s the best thing that I can do only.”

“AREN’T you tired of this, Devon?”

Devon looked back at Henry who sat next to her in the garden she’s staying in. She woke up just now without Daemon on his side of the bed and to shake off the uneasiness, she decided to come down to the garden to get some fresh air.

“No matter what the both of you will do, you know your parents will not give back Emily to you.”

That familiar ache on her heart knocked again. Why are all of them saying the same thing? Is it really impossible for them to take Emily back? Are she and Daemon only delusional?

Why can’t they have their own daughter back when they are her parents?

“How sure are you? And why are you still here? I already rejected you, Henry. I am married to your boss.”

She stood up to leave but he stopped her by her hand.

“I don’t care, Devon. You’re just blinded and you see him as your only way to get your daughter back but even that is not enough.”

He stood up without letting go of her hand.

“I can do more than what he’s doing for you, Devon. I can give you a more peaceful life. I can drop all of this and beg your father for forgiveness.”

He stepped closer to her shadow to convince her more.

“I know you are exhausted from living in this world. If you come with me, you will live a peaceful life away from the toxicity of your family and your husband. Please Devon, give me a chance to prove to you that I can love you more than your husband can. I’ve been secretly loving you for the past years already.”

He tried to kiss her but she stepped back with a confused expression. Henry nodded and freed her hand from his grip.

“I’ll give you time until you can open up to me and accept my love for you. That’s how much I respect you, Devon. That’s how much I love you.”