"I'm not."
"You are. You hate them. You've always hated them."
"I do," I admit without hesitation. "But I love you more. And if keeping them alive makes you happy, then fucking fine, they'll live to shit again"
She shakes her head. "I don't believe you."
"Then don't," I say, shrugging. "But it's the truth. I'll do anything for you, Iris. Anything. Even tolerate your family." She slides down the wall, sitting on the floor with her head in her hands.
I move to sit down beside her, not touching her. Just being close. "I just want a peaceful life," she whispers, her voice breaking with exhaustion. "Is that too much to ask?"
"With me, yes," I say honestly. "My life will never be peaceful. There will always be danger. Always be blood. Always be chaos. But I promise you this. I will protect you. I will keep you safe. And I will love you until the day I die."
She lifts her head, tears streaming down her face. "I don't want protection. I just want to be normal, Ilay. I want to live a normal life."
"What does that even mean?" I ask, genuinely curious.
"It means waking up without worrying if someone's going to shoot at me that day," she says, her voice rising with desperation. "It means going to work at a law firm where the biggest drama is office politics, not whether my client is going to have me killed. It means coming home to a house that isn't surrounded by armed guards. It means marrying a normal guy. Someone who works a nine-to-five job. Someone who doesn't have blood on his hands. Someone who takes me to dinner without checking for snipers first. Having normal conversations about normal things. Maybe having normal babies who won't grow up learning..."
My hand shoots out, grabbing her throat and push her against the wall.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?" I roar, my vision going completely red. Her eyes go wide with shock and fear, her hands coming up instinctively to grip my wrist. "Ilay..." she gasps, her voice strangled.
"A NORMAL GUY?" I bellow, my face inches from hers. "YOU WANT TO MARRY A NORMAL GUY?"
"I didn't... I just meant..."
"You just meant WHAT?" I snarl, my grip tightening slightly. "You just meant you want some other man? You want HIS babies? You want HIM to touch you?"
"No! I didn't mean it like that!"
"THEN HOW DID YOU MEAN IT?" I scream, and I can feel myself shaking with pure rage. "Explain to me how you can sit here, in MY house, after admitting you LOVE ME, and tell me you want to marry someone else!"
"I just want a normal life!" she cries, tears streaming down her face.
"WITH ANOTHER MAN!" I roar back.
I release her throat only to punch the wall right next to her head with all my strength. The drywall crumbles under my fist, leaving a gaping hole and white dust everywhere.
She flinches violently. "How DARE you," I say, my voice dropping to something low and deadly. "How fucking DARE you."
"Ilay, please..."
"You think I saved you just so you could run off and marry some boring, pathetic, NORMAL man?" I ask, laughing bitterly.
"That's not what I meant!"
"That's EXACTLY what you meant!" I shout, my voice echoing off the walls. "You said it! You said you want to marry a normal guy! Have normal babies! Live a normal fucking life!"
I grab her face with both hands, forcing her to look directly at me. "Let me make something very clear to you, angel," I say, my voice shaking with barely controlled rage. "There will NEVER be another man. Do you understand me? NEVER."
"You're hurting me," she whispers, more tears falling. "Good," I spit. "Because you just ripped my fucking heart out."
I release her and pace away, running my hands through my hair roughly. I want to break something. I want to destroy everything in this room. I want to find this imaginary normal man and kill him a thousand times. The thought of her with someone else.
Some normal, safe, boring man putting his hands on her. Kissing her. Fucking her. Getting her pregnant. Making her happy in ways I never could. I spin back around, and she's still pressed against the wall, crying and shaking.
"You want to know what will happen if you try to marry someone else?" I ask, my voice eerily calm now. "I'll kill him. I'll kill him slowly. I'll make him suffer in ways that will make Hell look like a vacation. And then I'll kill everyone he's ever loved. His parents. His siblings. His friends. His coworkers. Every single person who ever mattered to him."
