by Anna Edwards
“Do you remember the names of any of the men he kept close?” Nicholas asks while keeping his eyes on the road.
I shake my head and swallow down the rising bile. I don’t know the names of any of the men. I blocked out what they called each other. I had to after they gang raped me.
“I’m sorry. I…” My voice breaks.
“It’s ok.” Theo brings my hand up to his lips and kisses it. “We’ll make them all pay.”
“I’m sorry to ask you, Joanna, but is there anything else you remember? Anything that could be helpful regarding the way he works.”
I take a deep breath and try to think, but only one thing comes to mind.
“I think they’ll be kept somewhere dark in the house…maybe a cellar if it has one. It’s his way of disorientating you. He’ll want Tamara and Victoria confused and scared. It’s the way he breaks you.”
William nods his thanks at me and pulling out his phone, he dials a number. It comes up on the Bluetooth in the car.
“Carter.”
“Do you know the layout of the house?” William asks.
“It’s in front of me. What do you need?”
“Does it have a basement or cellar?”
“Yes.”
“That’s where they are.”
The cars stop outside a large country house in the middle of a busy area of London. It’s surrounded on all sides by other properties. Two men stand guard outside. Within seconds, the people in the other car are out, and the two men are disarmed and secured. I’m shocked at the speed of it all. One of the men, a massively built man with a commanding look mixed with dreamy brown eyes, nods at Nicholas.
“Clear,” he mouths, and we all get out of the car and follow behind the large man and three others. I’m surrounded by William and Theo. My gun is in my hand, and in my head, I’m running through all the things I need to do to ensure it works properly if I need to shoot it. The tension in the air is palpable. The door is kicked in, and two men standing in the hallway are shot with silenced guns. I pull my lips together tightly to stifle the scream threatening to escape. We need to be quiet.
“Please, let them be ok,” I whisper a prayer to myself as we make our way through the house. We reach the kitchen via the entrance to the hall, and there, in the middle of the floor, lies a woman with blood pooling around her from a wound to the head. Her eyes are open but dead. I instantly grab hold of Theo’s hand. I know who the woman is. His mother. A single tear tumbles down his cheek before he mouths.
“Let’s end this. My father dies today.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Theodore
I try my hardest not to look down at my mother. I know she’s a person who for many years I’ve held hatred for because I thought she’d abandoned Victoria and me, but it was all lies. She was escaping the real villain in this story. I need him gone.
Matthew Carter presses a device against the door of the cellar and holds a finger up to silence us.
“Three men, two women,” he relays back to us. “We need to go in quickly and hard. It’s my guess the men will be armed. Two of them will make a grab for the women and use them as shields. They won’t kill them, yet. They lose the bargaining chip if they do. Hamilton will no doubt have one of the ladies. Give me a few seconds, I want to try and ascertain their positions better.”
We all nod in agreement with him, and he goes back to listening at the door. A few minutes later, his eyes go wide with fear, and he drops the listening device and pulls out his gun.
“We go in now. One of the women is about to be raped.”
“Tamara,” Joanna gasps from beside me, and Nicholas and I both step in front of William. I can physically see a change come about him. He’s been calm and collected, up until this point, but his pupils darken to the point where I’m unable to see the color of his irises. He surges forward, but his brother and I hold him in place.
“Out of my way,” William growls.
“Joanna sing hush little baby. Quickly, if he loses it when we go down there it could be the end of Victoria and Tamara,” Nicholas orders as Matthew prepares his men, and they smash through the door into the cellar.
“Wh-What?” Joanna stutters in confusion.
“Do it!” Nicholas shouts.
“Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,
Mama’s going to buy you a mocking bird.
And if that mockingbird don’t sing,
Mama’s going to buy you a diamond ring.”
Joanna sings, and William goes limp in our arms. His pupils shrink back, and his brown eyes reappear.
“I want my wife,” he informs us, and both Nicholas and I step aside and allow him down into the cellar. I pull Joanna to my side and follow them down. The basement area is damp, and the smell of mold invades my nostrils. Is this similar to the place Joanna was hidden away? I turn back to her in the dim light of the stairway and can see the hesitance in her eyes, but then it’s instantly masked with a determination so strong I can’t help but feed from it.
We reach the bottom of the stairs and are faced with a stand-off. Matthew and his men are pointing guns at two men: one my father and another I recognize from visiting him. They each hold one of the women. My father stands behind Tamara, and the other man is behind Victoria who looks dazed and confused. A third man lies unmoving on the floor—blood has started to pool around him from a wound to his chest. I’m left in no doubt that he’s dead or nearly there. It’s a fatal wound, but I feel no sorrow for his death.
“You’ve changed your hair,” William speaks first and cocks his head to where Tamara stands, wearing a wig of thick black hair.
“It wasn’t my idea.” She tries her hardest to struggle against my father’s hold, but he’s too strong for her, and there is a hesitancy in her movements, probably because of the child within her stomach.
Nicholas takes control of the situation with his commanding presence.
“It’s over, Hamilton. Let the ladies go.”
“It’s not over until the blood in your body flows all over this floor,” my father retorts and moves his gun from where it’s pointed at Tamara’s head and aims it straight toward Nicholas. He doesn’t pull the trigger, though. He knows the speed of the men who have guns pointed at him is far superior to his own. He’d be dead before the bullet leaves the gun.
I push Joanna closer to William, and he tucks her behind him, so I can step forward to join his brother.
“It’s over, Father. You’ve made too many mistakes. Put the gun down.”
A lecherous sneer crosses his face.
“I see you’ve brought my little whore with you. I underestimated her ability to escape the way she did. I guess I’ll have to work harder at breaking her when you’re lying dead next to the Duke. So many titles for me to take. A whole new world to rule over.”
“You sure it’s only cigars he smokes and nothing a little stronger?” Matthew raises an eyebrow over at me.
“I’m beginning to wonder.” I shrug my shoulders.
“Enough.” My father steps forward with Tamara in front of him. His weapon is pointed at us, and we perform a dance around the room. He’s working his way toward the door to escape. The trained men in our entourage try to prevent this, but there’s little they can do with my sisters in the line of fire.
“We have to stop them,” Joanna whispers behind me, and I look carefully over my shoulder to reassure her it’ll be all right, but she’s already moving forward to where my father stands. I instantly want to stop her, but Nicholas prevents me from moving.
“Give her a chance. She needs this.”
Joanna walks between Nicholas and I and slowly lowers herself to her knees in front of my father. She bows her head, and a triumphant smirk crosses his face.
“Maybe I underestimated my skills, after all. Once a slave always a slave. Tamara and Victoria will make great pets for their new owners. Come here.” All I can do is stand by and watch whatever Joanna’s plan is unfold. She gets to her f
eet with her head still bowed and makes her way to stand next to him. At the same time, I see out the corner of my eye one of Matthew’s men step closer to where the second man has Victoria. He’s the weaker of the two and will be easier to take down. Nicholas slightly nods his head, and in the blink of an eye, the man holding Victoria is on the floor and dead with a bullet hole to his head, and she is free and in her husband’s arms. With the distraction, Joanna pulls her weapon from where it was hidden in her thick jumper and points it at my father’s head.
“Drop your gun,” she orders. He doesn’t move at first, but William and I descend on him with our own weapons drawn.
“It’s over,” I repeat. “Drop you weapon.”
It seems like an age, but eventually my father accepts defeat and lowers his gun. He lets go of his hold on Tamara, and she runs to William while I take the weapon from my father.
“Why?” I ask him.
“Because I could,” my father replies.
I shake my head and turn to give the weapon to one of the trained MI5 men in our group. My father uses my distraction and pushing past me, he tries to race up the stairs. He’s not quick enough, though. A weapon fires, and the bullet goes straight into his leg, causing him to collapse down onto the ground. When I look down, there’s smoke emerging from my own gun. It was me who shot him. Joanna comes quickly to my side while Nicholas and William leave Tamara and Victoria to drag my father back into the center of the room. He’s screaming in pain. Nicholas removes the tie my father is wearing and stuffs it into his mouth to shut him up.
Matthew comes over and secures my father’s hands with cuffs.
“I’ll leave you six to finish this. We’ll start cleaning upstairs. What do you want done about the woman?”
Nicholas looks at me, and Victoria lets out a cry.
“With Theo and Victoria’s permission, I’d like to bury her with my mother and Tamara’s. The three women who’ve given birth to the new generation of the society all together. While the three men: my father, Joanna’s, and eventually the scum at my feet, who gave nothing but their sperm, will be forgotten for the evil deeds they committed.”
“Please, Theo.” Victoria begs as she slides down to sit on the floor. She looks exhausted and weak.
“Of course,” I reply instantly and go to help support her. Joanna comes with me and sits down next to her.
“Is Rose ok?” Victoria asks immediately.
“She’s fine. She has more guards around her than we have here.” Joanna smiles weakly. She’s exhausted as well.
While Matthew and the other men leave the six of us alone with my father, William and Tamara speak quietly in the corner of the room. Pulling the wig from her head, Tamara drops it onto the floor. Then William places his hand over her stomach, and she reassures him she’s all right and wasn’t hurt.
Nicholas stands over my father and addresses us, “I don’t think I need to tell you what happens next. In order to put an end to this, I need to send a message. If you don’t want to be involved, then you may leave with no questions asked. Victoria?”
She shakes her head. “I need closure.”
“Tamara? William?”
“I want to see him suffer,” Tamara announces through gritted teeth.
“I’m with the wife,” William smirks.
“Theo? Joanna?”
I look down at my wife.
“I want to stay.” She gets up from her position where she’s sat beside Victoria and goes to stand in front of my father. He looks up at her and spits. Nicholas kicks him in his wounded leg, and he lets out a scream of pain.
“On your knees,” Joanna commands, standing tall in front of him with her shoulders pulled back, and her head held high. He doesn’t move, so she repeats her order, “On your knees.”
Nicholas grabs him and pulls him up so that he bows low before her.
“If I could keep you here and subject you to what you did me, I would, but I don’t think any of us want to keep you alive for that long. You don’t deserve a moment more of our pain and worry. I will, however, thank you for one thing. For giving me Theo. My soul mate, and my savior. Despite who his father is, he’s the kindest man I’ve ever met. I know we’ll be gray and old, and in our bed together when we die. It will be peaceful and painless. Not like your death.”
Tamara comes to Joanna’s side and takes her hand.
“You stole my mother from me, and in a brutal way. She should be here to see the child I’m carrying welcomed into the world. You are a sick old man with twisted views on what is acceptable. In no way would your depraved thoughts about me ever be reciprocated. I’ll enjoy your death. I hope you rot in hell.” She pauses a moment. “But I also have to thank you. You didn’t give me William. Well, I suppose you did in a way with your treatment of Victoria, but no, my thank you is for something else. You gave me an education, and one I’ll use to ensure every trace of you is removed from the records. You’ll be nothing. A nobody for eternity.”
I help Victoria to her feet when she holds her hand out to me and assist her over to where the other two women are standing. With Tamara on one side of Joanna, Victoria stands on the other side of my wife and takes her hand.
“You stole my innocence from me, and my belief in a world that was better than the one I lived in. You destroyed my past so you could have a future. It’s a shame you never realized how strong the daughter you raised actually is. I survived being given away like a possession to a wicked and ruthless society. I found my husband and my love, and as the Duchess of Oakfield, I’ll bring peace for generations to come. That is what I thank you for. For being my father, in just the way you were. You created what you see in this room right now. Every action you’ve ever undertaken has led to this point. The point of your death and our triumph.” My sister looks to me. “Do you want to say anything, Theo?”
I look at my father who has managed to spit out the tie that was stuffed in his mouth and is now starting to beg,
“Please, Theo, you can stop this with one word. I’ll do whatever it takes. Don’t be the monster these people have tried to turn you into.”
I let out a laugh—it’s a long barking one, and the entire room falls silent.
“You still believe after all of this you’re innocent, don’t you? That what you did was for the good of a future where women would be preyed on and abused.” I pull my fist back and send it slamming into his face. My knuckles are still sore from my attack on Joanna’s father and instantly smart. But I don’t care when I see my father’s nose break.
“Pull his shirt off,” I order Nicholas who eyes me suspiciously. But when I unbuckle my belt, he realizes exactly what I mean to do. He strips my father of his crisp white shirt, which has been marred with a splattering of blood, and I take my belt and bring it crashing down on my father’s back. He yells out and tries to shift, but William comes forward and holds him down. I repeat the process twenty times, harder and harder each time until his back is littered with cuts, oozing blood.
“Is that how you think a woman should be treated?” I ask my father, and he spits at my boot, so I kick him in the face. “Did you do that to Joanna?”
My wife comes to my side and places her hand on my shoulder.
“Yes,” she tells me.
“Was there more?”
There are various sex toys littered around the room, which the men had planned to use on my sisters. I grab a large one and ram it down my father's throat.
“How about that?”
Joanna nods.
“Maybe I should go further? Make you truly understand what it’s like to be a woman in your world.”
William bends down and picks up a particularly large phallic shaped object.
“If you do, I say we use this one.”
I shake my head.
“It’s not something I particularly want to see, thank you. No, I think he gets the message. His actions have created a better man in me than he ever was, and that’s why Joanna is now free. She’s learn
ed what happiness is, despite the demonic actions of a mad man who has half the balls I do.”
“Phew.” William wipes his brow. “I was worried. I’ve seen some sick things, but I’m getting too old for this shit. I’d rather just go home and fuck my wife senseless.”
“William.” Tamara whacks him on the shoulder.
“Sorry, can’t help with the truth.”
Nicholas coughs.
“Are we done?” he questions, and we all nod yes. “Who wants the honors?”
“Me.” All three women say in unison. It’s like a melody in my head. The three women left distraught at the hands of my father are ready to take back their power.
Joanna pulls her weapon back out while William hands Tamara his, and I give Victoria mine.
Nicholas positions my father on his knees and steps away from the path of any possible ricochets.
“Arthur Hamilton, former Viscount. I, Victoria Cavendish, Duchess of Oakfield and founding member of the new society of Oakfield find you guilty of offenses against our charter including the rape and murder of Elsie Bennett.” Victoria points her weapon at our father.
“Arthur Hamilton, former Viscount. I, Tamara Cavendish, Countess of Lullington and founding member of the new society of Oakfield pass sentence of death upon you for offenses against our charter.” Tamara follows suit.
Finally, Joanna steps up and points her weapon at my father.
“Arthur Hamilton, former Viscount. I, Joanna Hamilton, Countess of Linton and founding member of the new society of Oakfield strip you of your name and power by acting as your executioner.”
Three guns fire and hit their target. My father slumps down to the ground—dead. Each woman places the gun down on the floor and walks over to their respective partner. Joanna nestles into my chest.
“Can we go home, now?”
