Inaya's POV

I blink open my eyes slowly, noticing that I'm sitting on a chair.

My head's aching from the split pain in my stomach. It almost feels like I got kicked in my guts.

As my eyed begin to settle around the dimly lit room, I slowly begin to recognize it.

It's Dominic's chamber... the one he uses for his enemies to torture them...

I pull on my arm but it's tied behind my back. There's a faint taste of blood in my mouth. When I lick the corners of my mouth, the rusty taste heightens and it stings.

Suddenly, my body goes into straight panic mode. My arms and legs thrashing to be let go but there's no hope.

My heart's pounding in my chest, my breathing quickens. Every inch of my body is screaming for an escape route.

"Inaya?" A voice calls out from the corner of the room.

He calls out my name as if he's not sure, as if he's taking a guess because he can't see me.

I squint my eyes to try to focus on the figure because I actually can't see him. But it's too dark, the one lightbulb in the room isn't lighting up the huge room enough.

But the voice... it's one I haven't heard from in a while...

"Nicholas?" I call out.

His silhouette shuffles slightly. "Yes! Oh my God! I thought they killed you, I thought you were dead!"

"W-what are you doing there?" I ask him, knowing well that he was supposedly kidnapped.

"I'm... tied to a chair." He sighs.

"How long have I been here?" I ask.

"About three days. They've been..." He pauses and cuts his sentence off. "You know what? Never mind."

"They've been what, Nick? Tell me." I push him to tell me what happened.

"They... you're beat up pretty badly." His voice is quiet.

"How badly?" I ask just as quietly.

"I don't know. I really wish I could tell but it's too dark. It didn't sound good when they were beating you up. I tried to stop them but I think–I think I might've only made it worst." He sounds like a helpless puppy.

"Why... why can't I feel much?" It's true. I could barely feel any of the pain.

There's a splitting headache, the throbbing of my stomach and the taste of blood but nothing major. I don't feel any broken bones... or is that I can't feel them?

"They also doped you up a lot. It was to get you to tell them some information about Dominic but you didn't budge, not even under chemical influence. It was pretty badass." He chuckles.

I sigh. I guess, in a way, it's good that I have all these drugs in my system or else only God knows how much pain I'd be feeling.

"Wait, Dominic... Where's Dominic?"

Isn't it weird that we're in our home yet he isn't here?

Nick gives a sad laugh. "They sent him on a goose chase; they told him they sent us abroad."

All of a sudden, anger rises through me. "You drugged me and you sold me off, didn't you? You mixed something in Dominic's drink that night and took those pictures to pit me against him? You couldn't stand to see your brother happy for once! Just this once, you couldn't let him have what he deserves, just one bit of happiness!"

I shouldn't have snapped at him like that. I should've kept myself content but I couldn't help it. I was so frustrated, I have so much irritation bottled up within me that I burst the second Nick rolled out his words.

"Inaya! Listen to me!" He yells for me to stop.

His yelling is a success because I quiet down.

"I didn't. I didn't do anything. I did take those pictures but one of my father's men told me that Dominic went off to whore around again. I took those pictures for your sake! I didn't know Dom was completely out of it!" And he goes silent for a second as if something just clicked in his head. "Wait, drug Dominic? Drug you? What are you talking about? Why would I ever stoop that low?"

There's genuine confusion in his voice. In fact, he sounds absolutely shocked.

"You–you don't know?" I ask.

"Know what? What the hell is going on?" He asks.

I tell him what had happened to both Dominic and I.

"That's fucking insane. Who in their right mind would drug Dominic, let alone get close enough o actually do it? That's asking for death! I swear to you, I didn't do either of that! I would never... I'm sorry... I didn't mean to hurt either of you like this. If I would've had a single clue about father's plans—"

"You would've done what, my son?" A deep voice asks from near the entrance.

I'm sure the colour from my face drains because I feel my blood go instantly cold.

"My sweet daughter-in-law, you thought my son Nicholas has a single manly bone in his body when it comes to the people he cares about? He'd never hurt Dominic or you. But me, on the other hand..." he chuckles sinisterly.

"Father, let her go! She doesn't know anything." Nick pleads.

"I'll never tell you anything even if I knew!" I spit on his shoes.

His father only scoffs. "You're useless either way. If you has information, you tell me and I kill you. If you don't have information, you don't tell me and I you her. The ending is the same either way.

My eyes widen and my mouth goes dry.

K-kill m-me...

The father begins to hum to himself as he hovers his fingers over something on the table to my far right.

Once his hand stops on top of something, he reaches out and picks it up. The edge of the object shines as light hits its surface.

"Ah... my favourite. I'm glad Dominic knows this one's worth." He smiles a sickening grin.

"Father... just think about it! She'll be a good use as bait." There's sheer terror in Nicholas' voice. He wasn't even able to hide it.

His father only chuckles. "I taught you and Dominic all about knives. Now, I'll teach her."

He brings the object in front of me, dangling right before me. It's a knife, long and sharp with a slight curve.

"This," he twirls the knife around to show me, "is a boning knife."

I only blink at it because I have no idea what that means, however, it does sound painful.

"No, it's not the type of boning kids talk about nowadays. That's a kink I would never judge, though." He laughs. "This is my favourite type of knife. It's originally meant to separate the meat off of animal bones but it penetrates through bones, slicing them in a swift motion beautifully."

I only gulp at the sight of the knife. I tried to not act afraid but it's impossible, this is terrifying and I'm scared.

"You've made my son weak, inadequate, and dare I say it, delicate." He takes the tip of the knife and slowly carves it across my cheek, drawing blood. "He can't think properly because of you. He's neglecting the most important part of his life: his work. Why? Because all he can think about is you."

"It's hurting your feelings that your son is acting like a human?" I bite back with my words. "You must have won Father of the Year for many years, then."

With one swift motion, he slices across arm lightly enough that it doesn't reach my bone. But with enough pressure that blood gushes out of the wound as I scream because of the burning that shoots through my whole body.

With another slashing motion, he slip his knife across my thigh. This time my scream was so loud that I hadn't even realized it was coming from my own mouth.

"You're going to fucking kill her!" Nick yells helplessly.

"That's the point, son." His father says.

It wasn't a pain that one can feel from a needle to the arm but it feels like the scalding force of boiling water being thrown onto me, except boiling water seems like the better option. The continuous burning making every part of my body curl up from extreme discomfort. I'm in so much more pain than I could possibly imagine or even handle.

At this point, a bullet to the head would be a mercy to my soul. I'm praying my body releases some kind of morphine to cope but that feeling of it is too unbearable for anything to decrease it.

"The first one was for taking away my son and the second one was for disrespecting me." He says. "Now, we could do this the hard way or the easy way. I can torture you to my heart's content because you're a stubborn bitch or I could give you an immediate, painless death because you're a smart bitch. Your choice."

I clench my teeth down as hard as I could to stop myself from bursting into tears. I only look at him with hatred burning in my eyes.

He holds the knife against my throat with enough pressure that it's cutting through my skin to let droplets of blood escape.

"Well?" He asks as if the look in my eyes weren't good enough. "Will you tell me his plans with the Outfit and Camorra or are we doing this the hard way?"

"I already told you, I don't know anything! Even if I did, I wouldn't tell a mentally insane person like you!" I grit my teeth through the pain vibrating through my body.

A look of disappointment crosses his eyes but he only shrugs his shoulders.

"It would've been absolutely remarkable if Dominic were here to see this show. He would've loved watching me slit your throat. It's his favourite sport." The disgusting smirk on his face as he says those words only makes me wish he'd slide through my neck faster.

But another part of me is drowning in regret. I didn't get to hold Dominic in my arms one last time, I didn't get to kiss him one last time, I didn't get to tell him I love him one last time.

There's chaos in the background, my own whimpers mixed with the screaming and yelling of Nicholas and the sinister laughter of his father.

The knife against my throat edging deeper into my skin, the metal stinging through me.

I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for death to be handed to me.

- - -

A/N: Dom's dad be a whole demon. 🤡

So sorry for the late update! I just finished 2 presentations, 2 essays and 3 short assignments. I still have readings to catch up to in my classes.

I'm about to die from stress. 😗✌🏼

Next Update: Wednesday, January 29, 2020.