He turned and an inaudible gasp left my lips. It felt like it had been so many years since I last saw him. He had grown a beard, his bluish-grey eyes darkened as they raked over my body.

"How did you get here?" that's the first thing he asked me.

"Why did you think that I was Katerina?"

He gave his head a shake, brushing his thumb over his lower lip, "Answer my question, Evangeline."

I breathed out a sarcastic laugh, "I'm not here to answer your question; I came here to get answers."

He let out an amused breath, leaned his butt against the dresser he was standing in front of, and crossed his arms over his chest, "And how do you plan on doing that?"

I furrowed my eyebrows. He was acting as if nothing had happened between us, he was acting like the last one and a half months didn't happen, he was acting like he just didn't care about any of it.

I took a deep breath in to remain calm, "Are you cheating on me? Is that why you are doing all this? Is that why you've been so distant, is that why you are avoiding me?!"

The amused expression got replaced by a hardened look. He stood up straight, his arms falling back to his sides as he took a threatening step my way, "I don't have to hide from you if I wanted to cheat on you. If I wanted to cheat, Evangeline, I could have cheated on you while living in the same fucking house as you."

"Then why are you doing this?"

"I'm not doing anything. You're the one who broadcasted our sex life in front of hundreds of people and then went on calling me a coward. You're the one who had been hugging, kissing, and caressing my men in my absence, you're the one who told Katerina to get into my bed. So, tell me, Evangeline, why are you doing this?" he asked, staring into my eyes.

His words were like a spear in my heart. Was he insinuating that I was the one who cheated? He cleverly turned the entire blame on me to weasel his way out of answering me.

I have lived with him enough to play his games with him I have learned his tricks, if he can twist my words then I can twist his words too.

I lifted a shoulder, I knew what I am about to say could ignite a fire between us but I was too far gone in rage to care, "Well, my husband isn't paying attention to me, I had to get it from other men."

In a second, I was pushed against the door with his hand clasped around my neck. He gripped my throat in a way that I went onto my toes, my hands flying to his on my neck. He stared at me with rage sparking in his eyes, he was furious. His eyes had warped into a wicked darker shade that made my heart rate double.

"Watch what you say to me, Evangeline. I have had enough of you being a bitch to me," he growled, his fingers digging into the side of my neck.

I managed to give him a sarcastic smile, "I learned it from you, you know, being a bitch!"

"Watch your fucking mouth!" he shouted over my lips, "Stupid fucking Evangeline. I knew you were fucking stupid, I just didn't realize how much. What are you trying to achieve here, huh? You think I'll play right into your juvenile mind games?"

His other hand landed above my head on the door while the other gripped my neck. His words infuriated me, I don't know what I was doing anymore. I came here to get answers but instead, I lost my train of thought when he blurted out Katerina's name.

"Are you fucking Katerina?!"

"I already gave you the fucking answer to that!"

"Then why the hell are you hiding like a coward?!"

He gritted his teeth, "I'm not hiding, I just don't want to see your fucking face!"

His grip became almost suffocating. I was forced to take in slight gasps of air through my nose, "Why?"

"Because I just don't want to!"

I punched my fist at his bicep, "Give me a reason!"

He seemed unaffected by it, "I don't have to give you shit!"

With my free hand, I gripped his neck, my long nails dug into his skin, "I won't leave until I get my fucking answers!"

He breathed out a laugh, "You will leave and you will not get the answers you so fucking want!"

"Why do you want me to leave so bad? Waiting for Katerina to come over so you could cheat on me?"

Suddenly, he pulled off my grip from his throat and grabbed both of my hands. He turned me so that I was facing the door, and then slammed me into the wooden surface, twisting both of my arms behind my back.

Then I felt his warm heavy body pressing into mine. He held both of my wrists with a single hand, and fisted my hair from the back of my head, pulling my head back, so, he could look down at my face from behind.

"I didn't fucking cheat on you, Evangeline, but I don't think I can say the same thing about you considering how cozy you were being with Lorenzo," he sneered in my ear.

"Leave me alone in that house again and I will send you our sex tape."

I had no idea what I was saying; or why I was saying all that. I had no intention to cheat on him. I would never do that to him. Lorenzo was nothing but a brother to me but I could see how much it affected him when I danced with him yesterday night in the nightclub.

He made a sound that was neither a growl nor a groan, it was something between them, it was almost animalistic, kinda like the low howl a wolf makes to scare his prey.

He dragged me to his bed, threw me over it, hovering over me. I moved my limbs around trying to get out of his hold and in the process of getting out, I slapped him across his face... hard.

I gasped as I realized what I had done.

Then there was silence.

None of us saying anything, none of us moving.

His face was turned to the side, and then slowly very, slowly he turned his face back toward me. His eyes filled with a newfound fury, he looked like he'd eat me alive if I moved.

I swallowed; his face and got closer and closer to me. When his lips were hovering over mine and we were breathing each other's air, then he whispered something.

Something that sent a chill down my spine.

Something that made me lay rigid underneath him, my limbs went numb with absolute fear.

My whole life flashed before my eyes.

The room where I lived with my parents.
Our breakfasts, lunches, and dinners together.
Our last talk and laughs when dad told me we'd move.
The night they were murdered.
My mother's dead body soaked with blood and more bullet holes than I could count.

Then the next morning.

Nikolai.
I went to his house.
I kissed him.
I gave myself to him.
I married him.
I loved him.
Then he left me.

Then he said those words again. They resounded in my head again and again and again.

"I killed your parents, I gave the order. The Lorenzo whom you have started to adore so much was the one that shot Elijah and Mary to death. He said it was the best night of his life. There was just so much blood. He enjoyed it, he relished it, he tasted your mother's blood; he told me she tasted divine," he drew out his tongue and sucked on my earlobe before releasing it, "Much like her daughter..."

I lay underneath him, listening to him, my muscles went numb, and my mind went blank.

"He would have killed you too-but we didn't know that you existed. If he had known, he would have killed you without a second thought."

He laughed.

Nikolai laughed in my face.

He looked like a monster a complete monster.

I couldn't see him, all I could see was the devil.

"But I think, God had made you specifically for me. You were made for me, you were the only one left alive in that house for me, you were kept safe for years for me, you were mine before you even knew me, Angel. So, don't fucking test me. I can't hurt you but that doesn't mean you can do whatever the fuck you want."

Something popped in my head. I don't know what it was. I don't know what happened to me. Blood red flooded my vision, I couldn't see anything but red-hot anger.

I shrieked as loud as I could and launched myself at him. I hit him as hard as I could, and he got off me standing at the edge of the bed. I saw his eyes widen in surprise.

I threw myself at him, punching, kicking, slapping, and scratching. I did everything I could.

He pulled away from me, hurriedly walked to the nightstand, and pulled something out of the drawer. Was he taking out a gun?

I jumped over him again and he turned. I kneed him on his thigh and then slammed my elbow against his face while he bent over a little. He grabbed my arms and pulled my body into him, "Calm the fuck down!" he yelled at me.

I was past my rational thinking. His words played in my mind like a siren on a loop.

"I was the one who killed your parents, I gave the order"

"I was the one who killed your parents, I gave the order"

"I was the one who killed your parents, I gave the order"

"I was the one who killed your parents, I gave the order"

I screamed out, Nikolai tried harder too, but only with enough strength to just overcome me. I elbowed him in the ribs as hard as I could.

He suddenly pushed me back on the bed, my hand pinned above my head, he sat over my legs so, I couldn't move them either.

"Calm the fuck down, Evangeline!"

I glared directly at him. His lips were bleeding, there was a bruise forming on his cheek.

My vision started to get blurry then I felt the warm liquid dripping down my cheeks. It was my tears, I had started crying. I promised myself I wouldn't cry, I promised myself.

I cried as hard as I could. I squeezed my eyes shut and I just started to cry. I sobbed, and hiccupped, my body wracked with an onslaught of sobs.

"I'm sorry..." he whispered, "Fuck, I'm so sorry, baby" he started to kiss my tears away but I didn't feel anything. His grip on my wrists eased.

I didn't feel the warmth of his lips. The spark of his touch. The butterflies in my belly felt like they had died. I felt numb.

"Why?" my voice barely above a whisper.

I wish he had never told me.

"Your father, he wasn't a good man, Evangeline, neither am I," he whispered, kissing my cheeks, my forehead, "No one leaves this world, baby girl. Your father tried to leave, he knew, he knew this would happen but he tried to run anyway. I did what I had done to anyone who'd try to betray me. Under the Costello name, your father was an asset but outside our world, he was a liability for us."

I looked into his eyes through my tears, "You told me... you told me you didn't know that he was planning on leaving," I managed to say through my sobs.

He let out a dry breath, "I lied..."

I cried harder, shaking my head from side to side, I didn't want to accept it, "Why are you taking it out on me? What have I done in all of this? You murdered them, you're a murderer! You killed my parents! You're the reason-"

"Your father killed my mother, Evangeline..."

I stilled, my lips slightly parted. I blinked to clear my vision, "What?"

"Your father, Elijah killed my mother. She was innocent in all of this, he injected her with a blood-poisoning bacteria that turned into Sepsis. She was in pain, she cried for so many nights straight; she couldn't breathe. Your father was waiting for her to die, he granted her the most painful and prolonged death. He was waiting for the day, she'd take her last breath, so he could flee the country. He knew that my father and I would leave everything for her funeral. He was waiting for the right moment to take you out of the country without anyone knowing. He did it for you..."

I blinked, taking in everything, every little detail. I stared at him, his face had twisted with pain and anguish.

He loved his mother. He killed my parents. And now he is taking it out on me.

Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?

"He did it all for you..." he repeated.

He held me accountable for what my father did. I had no part in any of this. If his mother was innocent in all of this then so was I but he was punishing me anyway.

"You are punishing me for what my father did?"

He shook his head, "I can't look at you because every time I do, all I see is my mother's murderer."

"You are punishing me for a crime I didn't commit, all the while you massacred my entire family," I seethed, my body gaining back the power.

"Evangeline, I—"

"You gave me a life sentence for something I had no power over while you ordered your men to kill them."

"I didn't mean to hurt you-"

"You had the power, I didn't... You really must hate us, Nikolai, my parents and me. That's why you married me? For revenge?"

His eyes widened, shock washed over him, and he slightly shook his head. I pulled my wrists from his grip when he wasn't expecting.

"You must hate me so much..." I weakly pushed at his chest to get him off of me.

"Evangeline, don't fucking-"

"That's why you couldn't say that you loved me because you didn't, that's why you never gave me the respect I deserved as your wife, as a person," I pushed again but he didn't budge. Now it all made sense. "You hate me, you hate me."

"Evangeline, fucking stop it!"

"You hate me" I pushed him back hard, "GET OFF ME! YOU HATE ME! YOU'RE A MONSTER! I HATE YOU! YOU'RE AN ANIMAL! YOU DISGUST ME! GET OFF ME!"

He restrained my arms again and turned my face to the side. I struggled, my eyes widened, and he laid his body over me, his weight crushing me into the mattress. He held my body in such a way that I couldn't move under his weight, I struggled with all my might but he was far stronger.

He grabbed something from the bed, it was probably what he took out of the nightstand earlier. I panicked as I struggled harder underneath him.

I started crying again. He scared me. Nikolai scared me. I never thought he'd scare me as much as I was scared of him right now. I was terrified of him.

"Let me go, please, let me go," I cried harder, "Please, let me go!"

"What is wrong with you? I'm not going to hurt you, Evangeline!" I heard him say but I didn't believe him. He killed my parents, he was a murderer. I gave myself to their murderer. He kept holding my head to the side, I could only see the wall. Panicked ghosted underneath my skin, fear clogging my throat.

"Let me go, please, please! I won't bother you again. Please, don't kill me!" I cried harder than before.

"I won't fucking kill you! Are you fucking crazy?! Have you gone insane?! Stay still!"

Then I felt it.

A sharp needle pierced into my neck.

I screamed because it was the only thing I could do.

Then he pulled it out, letting me go. He got off me and I saw a syringe in his hands. He walked to the corner and tossed the syringe into the bin. I touched my neck, the spot where that needle had punctured my skin.

He walked back to me and I crawled back over the wrinkled sheets, getting away from him. He grabbed my ankle and pulled me to the edge of the bed.

"No, please, no, what did you do?" I touched my skin.

He just stared at me, he didn't say anything. There was a deep frown on his forehead. Did he inject me with the same disease that my father had injected his mother with? Was this his revenge?

"What did you do to me, you monster?!" I shrieked.

"Shh..." he grabbed my face with both hands and pulled me into his chest, holding me tightly.

"What did you do to me?! You're a monster, you are a fucking monster! Get away from me!"

I felt my limbs losing the fight in them as if I was paralyzed. Black dots appeared in my vision and I shook my head.

"Nikolai..."

"It will be alright..." was the last words I heard before I lost consciousness altogether.

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