Noelle’s eyes were on the clock as she felt every second pass.
She didn’t know how she would approach Sergio with her idea of an arrangement, but more than anything, she didn’t know how he would react to it.
Since he hadn’t seemed so interested in her until now, she had hoped that it would continue to be so. After all, she had absolutely no intention of being his wife in truth. And if he wanted to enforce that, then the fight would be on.
Taking a small bite of the steak left behind by Lucero, Noelle chewed slowly, her stomach not caring for any food at the moment. Still, she hadn’t eaten in a day and she needed her strength.
Despite all her plans, she was smart enough to realize she was just a girl in a foreign country, surrounded by people who cared nothing for her. If Sergio wished to force himself on her, chances were that he could easily do so. In the eyes of the people, she was his wife. And no one would see anything wrong with him exercising his husbandly rights.
No matter how strong her conviction was that no other man but Blue would claim her body, she was afraid.
Her hand trembled as she forced herself to take another bite.
One more hour.
In one more hour she would find out if there was any honor to Sergio or not.
In one more hour, she would either defend her autonomy or die fighting for it.
After all, she’d only accepted to marry the man because Cisco had threatened her Blue. If he hadn’t done that, Noelle was sure she would have found a way to get herself out of this.
Yet for Blue…
For him she would do anything.
Anything but bed another man, that was.
Noelle felt bile rise up her throat at the mere thought of someone other than Blue putting a finger on her. More than that, and she would simply die.
‘I can do this,’ she whispered as she placed the fork down.
Rising to her feet, she changed into the gown Sergio had left for her. The dress was just as colorful as the clothing worn by the people who’d greeted them at the entrance of the hacienda. It was an intricate design that wrapped around her body beautifully. But it was also a design that allowed for hidden places.
Noelle didn’t stop to think of the potential consequences for her actions. She simply arranged the dress around so it could conceal the sharp knife that had accompanied her dinner.
‘Lucky me that it was steak,’ she muttered dryly as she finally fixed it in place.
Sharper than a usual serving knife, it could definitely injure someone if the situation required it.
Of course, Noelle hoped it wouldn’t get to that point.
Her husband was, after all, the ruler of this land. She had no doubt she would be immediately caught if she tried anything.
Yet that didn’t deter her—not one bit.
Gazing at herself in the mirror, she almost couldn’t recognize the person looking back. It wasn’t just the dress she’d put on. It was also the look in her eyes—almost blank, and just as hopeless.
Her family had finally done it. They’d finally managed to push her off the cliff, letting her fall into the merciless abyss.
Maybe she’d known all along it would come to this. Maybe she was just fooling herself in those nice, cozy moments spent with her brother and her sister-in-law. Yet now, reality was staring her in the face.
She was all alone. Left to the wolves to fend for herself. Simply…all alone.
But Noelle was used to loneliness, just as she was used to being treated like a second-hand person. That was nothing new.
What was new was the fact that they’d dared to mess with the only person who’d ever made her feel less alone. And in her eyes, that was unforgivable.
Yes, for now she was all alone. But it wouldn’t be for long. Only until she found him again. Only until they would be reunited once more.
Until then, she just had to bear it a little while longer.
‘I’m coming for you, Blue. One way or another, I’m going to find you,’ she whispered to herself.
One might say that her obsession with Blue was unnatural. That it was simply outrageous for anyone to be so fixated on someone they’d never met.
But in Noelle’s view, they had met.
Their hearts had met. She’d learned for the first time in her life what it was like for someone to care about her and her opinions.
More than anything, he’d told her that she mattered.
For the wretched little girl who’d only ever been an afterthought to her own family, that had been…everything.
Blue hadn’t only taught her things about herself she’d never known, or never explored before. He’d dared her to desire more for herself.
Noelle desired him.
And she would fight the entire world for him.
He’d saved her once from the precipice. Now it was her turn to return the favor.
Quiet determination shone in her features. Slowly, the hopelessness in her gaze melted away, replaced with a strong resolve and an even stronger love.
All her life, people had underestimated her.
No more.
Starting today, she would be the master of her own destiny. And against all odds, she would find her happiness.
That was a promise she made to herself.
‘I choose us,’ she whispered, a smile pulling at her lips.
Before, she’d fought solely for herself. Now, she had another reason.
One that was arguably stronger than the former. One that would lead her down a path of no return.
Him.
‘Señora? I’m here to lead you to Señor Villanueva’s room,’ Lucero’s voice interrupted her thoughts.
Fully armed, and with her conscience at peace, Noelle was finally ready to confront her husband.
Too bad things wouldn’t go in any way she could have ever imagined.
Instead of peace…she was about to wage war.
Lucero didn’t speak as she led Noelle down the darkened corridors of the hacienda.
Noelle was surprised by how eerily quiet the place was. But more than anything, she was taken aback by the distance they had to cross to get to Sergio’s quarters.
One would normally think that a man would place his wife close to him. But as they continued walking, Noelle realized her new husband didn’t seem that keen on her company—he’d placed her nearly at the other end of the house.
Noelle supposed it wasn’t such a bad thing, and she hoped when they talked he would be just as keen on keeping that distance in all areas of their lives.
A slow smile tipped at her lips as she felt herself growing lighter at that thought—months of stress slowly melting away.
But it wasn’t long lived as her entire face fell when Lucero declared.
‘We’re here.’
They stopped in front of a ceiling high double door, and the sounds coming from inside were unmistakable.
A woman was moaning.
Noelle’s mouth opened and closed as she turned to look at Lucero with questions in her eyes. The girl did not show any outward reaction to the sounds.
She merely took a step forward, knocking on the door.
Noelle froze as Sergio’s voice rang out, calling a sharp come in.
‘Here, Senora,’ Lucero said, opening the door for Noelle before retreating and leaving her alone.
Noelle swallowed hard, taken wholly by surprise by the new development.
As she widened the door, stepping inside the room, she tried her best to school her features at what she saw.
Just like her own apartment, Sergio’s had a huge sitting room, a few couches in the middle forming a circle.
Sergio was sitting on one such couch, his expression bored as he leaned back in a relaxed manner.
In front of him, there were two naked girls having sex with each other while he looked on—two girls that looked barely older than herself.
By God, what have I gotten myself into?
Noelle could barely stop herself from trembling, and the only thing that helped was feeling the outline of the knife within her breast. It was within easy reach, and her fingers itched with the need to feel the cold handle against her skin, her mind already clamoring with scenarios in which she’d drag the blade along Sergio’s torso, cutting him from head to toe.
‘Come here,’ he ordered, turning his head and narrowing his eyes at her. His accent was barely detectable and that told Noelle he must have spent considerable time abroad.
She decided it wasn’t the time to show her hand. She needed to be patient and wait for the right moment.
The girls stopped when they noticed Noelle, turning to look at her curiously.
Noelle walked inside the room, but she didn’t get too close to either Sergio or the girls. She merely kept a cool distance.
‘I said come here,’ he repeated, his voice gravelly.
Noelle took one more step towards him, but she didn’t come there as he wanted her to.
A twitch appeared in his cheek when he noticed her subtle disobedience, and Noelle could swear she noted a glint of annoyance in his eyes.
‘You look worse than in photos,’ Sergio suddenly said, his eyes roving over her body.
‘Thanks,’ she replied drily. ‘I did my best.’
She’d never expected a compliment, but neither had she expected an outright insult.
His mouth curled in disgust.
‘You were fatter in the pictures. I told your brother I don’t want an anorexic bitch,’ he continued, spitting vitriol with every word.
The more he spoke, however, the more incensed Noelle became. At him. At her brother. At everyone who saw her as little else than cattle to be sold and exchanged.
‘What can I say, the thought of marrying you burned calories,’ she muttered under her breath, unable to help herself.
If before she’d been slightly afraid and anxious about the meeting, it only took for Sergio to open his mouth and utter those idiocies for her to lose all her fear. Instead it was replaced with anger and a need to tell him to shove every word up his ass.
But she wouldn’t do that. Not quite yet.
‘What did you just say?’ He straightened his spine, leaning forward as his eyes flashed at her.
‘Oh, nothing,’ Noelle smiled sweetly, her cheeks hurting from the fakeness of it. ‘Just bridal nerves.’
He narrowed his eyes at her.
‘I told your brother what would happen if you’re not untouched,’ he commented drily, still looking at her through hooded eyes. ‘I have free rein to punish you as I see fit.’
Noelle’s eyes flared in alarm.
‘What if I’m not?’ she dared to ask.
‘Oh, you won’t like the outcome. But I have it on good terms that you are. If I’d been suspicious in any way, the wedding would have had a public medical exam.’
What…
‘You’re crazy,’ Noelle whispered.
The girls were watching her raptly, unabashed by their naked state.
‘Maybe,’ Sergio shrugged, not really paying her any mind. In fact, as he turned his attention to his watch, he completely tuned her out.
‘Take off your clothes. The consummation is in thirty minutes,’ he commanded in a perfunctory tone.
Noelle blinked, uncertain she’d heard him right. Thirty minutes? Why the hell was it timed? What was even happening?
‘What?’
‘I have to repeat myself? Take off your clothes.’
‘No,’ Noelle replied, pushing her chin up.
‘W-what?’ he sputtered, his eyes wide as he took her in.
‘I will not take my clothes for you or for anyone else,’ she declared.
The girls gasped at her audacity, while Sergio simply seethed.
Before Noelle realized what was happening, Sergio was out of his seat in and front of her.
The slap took her completely by surprise, as did the sheer strength of it.
One moment she was on her feet, staring defiantly at him, the next she was on her floor, her hand going to her stinging cheek.
He’d caught her in the ear, too, and a sudden ringing accompanied what she realized was her own harsh breathing and the sound of barely stifled sobs.
But she wouldn’t give him the chance of seeing her cry.
‘You fucking talk back?’ he sneered at her. ‘I gave you an order, you follow it, puta infecta. I own you,’ he spat at her.
‘You. Don’t. Own. Me,’ Noelle replied through gritted teeth as she tried to regain her balance.
Her ear was still ringing. The flesh on her cheek reddened but she pushed against the pain and tried to get back up.
Sergio had an off putting grin on his face as he looked down at her.
‘You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?’ he chuckled. ‘I’ll have fun breaking you.’
She barely got up to her knees before he struck again. This time his knuckles caught her in the jaw, the pain blinding as she fell back down with a gasp.
His words echoed in her ear just as her new reality suddenly crashed in.
She was trapped. Fully, utterly trapped. And this man… This man before her wanted her to misbehave so he could punish her.
She noticed it in the way he was goading her, his foot tapping impatiently against the floor as his hands clenched and unclenched.
He was fucking waiting for her to say something more so he could hit her again. And again. Then maybe rape her.
‘So young and ignorant,’ he bellowed. ‘You’re in my land, puta. There is no way out,’ he laughed. ‘Caro, Isabela, come here,’ he ordered the other two girls. ‘Take her clothes off,’ he nodded at Noelle.
The girls neared her, but Noelle, already hanging by a thread, struck out, hitting and pushing them away.
‘Don’t touch me,’ she hissed, holding her arms around her body in a protective stance. ‘Don’t fucking touch me,’ she repeated as she glanced up at Sergio.
Sergio raised a curious brow at her.
‘You dare disobey me?’ he asked, amused.
Noelle blinked back the tears, the pain in her cheek pulsating almost unbearable. Still, she wouldn’t back down. Gritting her teeth, determination shone in her eyes as she moved slowly, ready to remove the knife from its hiding place.
She looked up, her gaze perusing his form as she identified his weak points.
The throat.
She would go for the throat.
She would push the knife so deep in his flesh, he’ll have no other option than to waste away right under her gaze. And then, only then, she would rejoice.
Yet she barely managed to make a cohesive plan in her mind before his hands went to his belt, quickly unbuckling it and taking it off.
No!
She would never allow him to touch her.
But it was only a moment later that she realized he didn’t mean to touch her like that. When the harsh surface of the belt connected with her body.
The first blow was so sudden, she didn’t have the time to protect herself. Only on the second blow did she put her arms up to protect her face, curling inward into a small ball to avoid getting hit to vital organs. Even so, every single blow was painful. One more than the other.
She drew pained breath after pained breath, almost suffocating under the biting pain of the belt. Welts appeared on her arms and her legs, but it was her back that took the brunt of it.
Blow after blow, he hit her across her back and lower, down to her ass.
He hit her so hard, she knew the skin had broken, blood pooling to the surface.
He hit her so goddamn hard, it was becoming harder and harder to maintain her consciousness.
The pain… The pain was just too much.
It was a hardship to even blink even though the tears wouldn’t stop leaking from her eyes.
Yet in all this time, she didn’t make a sound.
She didn’t cry. She didn’t yell. She didn’t yelp in pain.
She bit her tongue until blood flooded her mouth, but she would not give him the satisfaction of hearing her beg for mercy. Not when she realized it was what he wanted.
‘Are you going to talk back again?’ He asked as he swung the belt back before using all his strength to strike again. The metal buckle was oriented towards her this time, and Noelle was unprepared for that cruel kind of pain—the type that made her moan in distress, a low, pitiful cry that she barely managed to contain.
‘Let’s see if you talk back again when you can’t move for a fucking week,’ Sergio continued. ‘Because of you, I missed the timing. I missed the fucking time,’ he yelled a minute later, redoubling his efforts to hurt her.
Noelle tried to crawl away from him, but he wouldn’t let her. He simply followed, striking her with the belt across her back until there was not one inch of flesh that remained untouched—not one inch that didn’t bleed.
The material of her dress was soaked at this point, blood seeping through and flowing freely down her body.
She was so sticky from the viscous substance, she was horrified to think just how badly he’d hurt her…
It felt like an eternity later that he finally stopped. When she could no longer move.
He was breathing hard, his chest rising and falling from the exertion of beating his new wife half to death.
Noelle lay on the ground, blood slowly trickling down her forehead and getting in her eyes.
Oh…he hit me in the head too…
She no longer had the strength to be surprised by it.
She just lay there, unmoving, as her entire life flashed before her eyes.
She saw the good, and the bad. But more than anything she saw the missed opportunities.
Blue… Would he remember her?
Did he miss her? Was he curious why she never showed up for their date?
Would he…mourn her?
A whizzing sound escaped her lips, half-cry, half-moan, as the anguish in her breast became stronger than the pain of her flesh.
I love you, Blue. I’m sorry I wasn’t stronger…
Was she dying? She didn’t know, but the odds were not in her favor.
More than ever she was aware she was purely on her own and no one cared one whit what happened to her.
If she died right this moment, she had no doubt Sergio and the others would make it look like an accident and no one would be the wiser.
Why couldn’t she act faster? She’d learned how to fight. Why couldn’t she fight back when she had the change?
All these questions went through her mind as Noelle became increasingly disappointed at herself and her weakness.
She’d been too stunned to do anything. And if she were honest to herself, after the first few blows, she’d been terrified.
For all her training with Yuyu, she’d never faced a real-life situation. Not like the one she found herself in. How the hell could she have acted any differently when she was just an eighteen year old who was more talk than action? A girl, not yet a woman, who weighed less than a hundred pounds and was just shy of five feet tall.
What the hell did she know?
Noelle cursed her arrogance as much as she did her situation. She’d been so confident in herself that she’d dared to hope she could take the reins of her own destiny—master her fate and not let anyone else decide anything for her.
Yet here she was.
On the ground.
Bleeding.
Barely breathing.
She’d already lost control of her body. Soon, she’d have her dignity stripped from her and she couldn’t stop wondering what she could have done more?
‘It’s fucking eleven,’ Sergio gritted out, kicking her in the stomach—the only place he’d yet not touched.
Her lungs constricted as her breath suddenly stopped.
Noelle gasped for air, her eyes wide with fear as her nails scratched at the wooden floor in an attempt to hold onto something—ground herself when she thought her soul was about to fly from her body.
Turning, Sergio barked some orders to Caro in Spanish that Noelle could no longer focus to decipher, after which she heard the rustling of clothes.
True terror assailed Noelle as she could no longer discern whether it was her clothing that was being removed or not. So paralyzed with fear and pain she was that all sensation blended together until there was only pain.
Within moments, though, it was clear what was happening as loud, shrieky moans permeated the air.
Noelle finally managed to get her breathing back together as she slowly dragged herself towards the source of the noise. She witnessed one of the girls, Caro, on all fours, with Sergio mounting her from behind.
He had his pants around his ankles, his shirt half-open. His hand was in Caro’s hair as he held tightly onto her scalp, pulling her back as he thrust savagely into her. He was grunting and moaning, his eyes half closed as he continued to fuck her.
The other girl was on the floor, her legs wide open for Caro to touch and kiss her.
Noelle was shocked at the sight.
At first, she felt relief that it wasn’t her body he was violating.
But then that relief gave way to anger which promptly turned into pure rage.
How dare he…
How dare he hurt her like that?
How dare he expect her to take everything in and become his biddable little bitch?
In that moment, everything she’d held in until then suddenly exploded.
All the anger she’d bottled up at her family, at her circumstances and now at Sergio finally reached the surface, bubbling up like an explosive volcano.
Adrenaline rushed through her veins, and though there was not one place in her body that wasn’t hurting, she somehow overcame it.
She had one shot and she wasn’t going to miss.
It took superhuman strength for Noelle to crawl off that floor. It took even more willpower to bring her hand to her breast where she’d hidden the steak knife. And finally, it took Herculean force for her to stagger to her feet and attack.
Blood was pouring out of her wounds.
Down her back and legs. Down her face. She was one with blood.
But if she died that day… If she died, then she would take him with her.
By God, she would take him with her.
All her accumulated strength and years of stifled anger came to the surface in one brutal cry of war.
Noelle launched herself at Sergio, faster than she should have been capable considering her condition, and managed to catch him unawares enough to cut.
Both hands were on the handle of the knife, tightly held within her grasp, tightly wrapped in her rabid rage.
She didn’t care where she hurt him as long as hurt him she did. She needed blood. His blood, as payment for her own.
Raising the knife up high, she built momentum, knowing she only had one shot at this. And as she reached her target, she swung it down with enough force that it cut through flesh.
Everything happened in a flash.
One moment Sergio was busy fucking Caro, the next Noelle was between them, her knife flashing in the air just as Sergio was thrusting out of Caro, the angle perfect to sever a good chunk of his erect penis.
Pulling back, Sergio barely had time to realize what was happening as he looked down at his dick, blood pouring out of what was left of it.
Caro screamed as she fell down, half of Sergio’s penis slipping deep inside of her.
Pandemonium erupted, just as everyone panicked.
Sergio barked some orders, his voice teetering between a terrified scream and a pitiful cry. Caro was begging Isabela to take the dick out of her.
And Noelle…
A satisfied smile pulled at her lips as she met Sergio’s disbelieving eyes.
‘Now who’s breaking who?’ Noelle asked with what little strength she had left.
She wobbled on her feet, and when the blow from Sergio came, it was enough to knock her out of it, her consciousness finally slipping from her.
Still, no one could wipe the smirk off her face, or the smugness at having the last word.
I might die, but I’m taking everyone with me, too.
Yet even in those precious little moments she thought she had left, her thoughts were still on him. Always on him—her little piece of heaven.
Wait for me, Blue!
We might not meet in this life.
But in the next…
