Reaching into his waistband, he retrieved a blade, part of me wondering how the fuck he got through security with it. My heart drummed in my ears as he slapped the cross on the countertop.
“Wait,please, give it back! You… You can’t take it.”
He didn’t hear me. He didn’tlisten.
Instead, I watched in horror as he flipped the knife in his hand. With one downcast arc, he drove the hilt into the last piece I had of my mother. Everything in me shattered as my comfort splintered into fractal remains beneath Thorne’s wrath.
It was a slow realization as the pieces scattered around the bathroom, the sound echoing in my ears. I didn’t even register when I began crying. The room blurred, and my soul became heavy with a feeling I’d never experienced. It was worse than grief—a hollowness that the physical scratching of my chest did little to fix.
I collapsed to my knees, unable to procure the strength needed to hit him, to tear him apart as I tried to rake my fingers through my hair. When that didn’t work, I instinctively reached for the necklace, but it was there on the floor, shattered.
I bit my lip, a sob escaping through them despite my best effort. I reached for a piece, but Thorne shoved it away with the heel of his boot.
Nothing.
I had nothing.
“Pathetic,” he snarled, throwing the now-empty chain to the ground in front of me. “You wanted me to break you, right? There you go, Oren Valens. You havenothingleft to honor your mother. Her memory, her mark on this world, erased because ofyourstupidity.”
I leaned over, sobs wracking my entire body as I hardly heard what he was saying. “Please, get out.” A blubbering mess of a response.
“Or what, Valens? You’re too weak, too fucking feeble to stand like a man,” he spat, his saliva landing on the largest shard, taunting with the poison he spewed. “This?Her death? All of it? It’syourfault.Youleft to get that water bottle.Youdemanded I fracture your barely put-together soul.Yougot your fucking wish.”
“I know it’s my fault!” I shouted, nails tearing into my arms. “All of it, so getout!”
He scoffed, a humorless laugh leaving him. “Good. I’m glad you finally see your worth in this world. You should’ve killed yourself that night. You would’ve done your father a fucking favor.”
With that, he stepped around me, driving his heel into some of the pieces as if I hadn’t already crumbled enough beneath his wrath. Tearing the door open, the club’s atmosphere attempted to flood the bathroom, but the only sound I heard was a familiar voice.
“Commander?”
Simon.
“Get thefuckout of my way,soldier.”
He must’ve obliged, because Thorne’s looming presence vanished completely, replaced by a warmth that came with a gentle hand against my back.
“Oh, Oren…”
I turned to his side, the ability to hide any of the roaring inside gone. “He broke it. Hebrokeit.”
“Shh… You’re okay. I’ve got you.” He raked his fingers up and down my back, trailing up to the base of my neck to rub there. “I know how to epoxy things. I can make something out of these pieces for you. I know it’s not much, but it’s something.”
I gave a slight nod, as if it’d fix the problem. He could fix it, but something told me Thorne would break it over and over until nothing remained.
He’d successfully broken me—allof me because it was true. I was worthless, pathetic, a shell harboring nothing good.
Maybe I needed to kill myself in retribution.
Maybe then I’d do something good for the world.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THORNE
Iwas a vile piece of shit. Everywhere I walked, every step I took, only spread disease, poisoning everything and everyone I touched. I deserved nothing in this life, for my darkness suffocated the very essence of it. I’d known that since the day I was born, but the depth to which my corruption resided hadn’t become clear until that moment.
Until Oren looked up at me, shattered by my volatile nature and broken beyond repair.
