Unable to breathe freely, color began to flush on Niamh’s cheeks, but she refused to beg or make a sound.
Ryan wanted to tighten his hold so that he could control Niamh with fear, but he found himself unable to do so.
He refused to admit that he loved Eveline. At most, he only fancied her—at least that was what he hypnotized himself to think.
Logic told him that he would lose this game the moment he fell in love with Eveline.
Watching Niamh go short of breath, Ryan finally let go of her.
Niamh slid down the wall and fell onto the icy floorboards. “Cough, cough…”
She coughed severely but refused to back down.
Ryan squatted to grab Niamh by the back of her neck and pulled her toward him.
“Stay here and think clearly whether you want to be my wife or not! My patience is not boundless!”
Every word he barked out as a reminder was accompanied by the flames of rage in his eyes.
Niamh pushed him away and tried to support her body into an upright position with difficulty. Stubbornness and strong will flared in her eyes.
With the storage door closed, Niamh was left with the glimmer of light from the only window inside.
She sat against the wall, her feet frosty and her body cold.
Niamh’s eyes grew wet as she stared at the ray of light.
“I’ll wait for you, Kendrick. I promise I will…”
She closed her eyes to take a rest in exhaustion. After who knew how long, she heard the door open.
Niamh found that the sky had darkened by the time she opened her eyes. A maid walked in with food in tow. She took a look but did not move to eat at all.
Soon later, Ryan came as well.
The man’s expression was cold at the sight of the untouched food. He squatted to take the utensils before placing a spoonful of food by Niamh’s mouth.
“Open up.”
Niamh pulled her pale lips away and turned her face.
Ryan’s gaze hardened as he grabbed Niamh’s jaw with one hand and tried to force-feed her with the other.
Niamh broke out of his grasp. “Don’t touch me. I’ll eat, okay? Jeez!”
Ryan’s gaze turned gentle at her compliance.
Niamh took the food. Just as Ryan thought she was going to eat, she suddenly threw the bowl harshly at his feet.
The broken shards cut the back of his hand, leaving a red trail in its path.
Rage erupted from the man and Ryan grabbed Niamh’s jaw. “Eveline Montgomery!”
Niamh let Ryan throttle her as he wished as her gaze remained unfazed.
“Kill me. I might as well die if I can never see Kendrick again. There’s no difference between the two anyway.”
She smiled bitterly. Ryan had already sanded her sharp edges away over the past few days, so she no longer had the strength to fight back.
Ryan could not bear to accept such words coming from Niamh at such a time.
“Why must you force me, Eveline? Why do you have to force me?” A look so angry it seemed wretched and horrifying overtook Ryan’s handsome’s features.
He pressed Niamh against the cold floorboards and pounced on her like an unrestrained tiger, ripping her clothes apart brutally.
“F*ck off!” Niamh resisted with all her might.
Yet Niamh’s hands were in a deadlock in Ryan’s hold and one of his hands was forcing Niamh’s head to meet his thin lips as he leaned down to kiss her.
Niamh turned her head to avoid it but was not completely successful.
Ryan’s lips touched her cheek. The warmth and soft contact seemed to have ignited the feelings Ryan had been suppressing over the years.
Desire filled his eyes, and at that moment, he fully believed that he had fallen for Eveline. He wanted to have her, not just to take revenge on Kendrick, but to satisfy the innate and true desire within him.
However, his touch had also triggered something within Niamh.
She bit Ryan’s arm and took the man’s dazed lapse as an opportunity to get up and run out of the storage room.
After two steps, she ended up stepping on the broken shards of the bowl she had thrown. As she was barefoot, the sharp pieces pierced into the bottom of her feet and made her shiver in pain.
Still, Niamh ignored the pain and continued to run through the broken pieces. The raging panic within her at that moment screamed, telling her to escape Ryan’s control and run as far as possible.
She had not even made it out of the storage room when she felt Ryan lifting her from behind.
“Let me go! You bstard!” Niamh yelled as she hammered her fists against Ryan as hard as she could. “You crazy son of a btch! Let me go, you f*cking *sshole!”
Ryan remained impassive to Niamh’s hitting and scolding.
He carried her to the bedroom and threw her onto the bed to press her down.
Niamh pulled her feet in and pulled out a shard from the bottom of her feet through the pain. The moment Ryan pressed down over her, she placed the shard against Ryan’s neck.
Ryan felt a small stab of pain shoot up. He knew that the shard must have sliced the skin around his neck.
“Don’t you dare, Ryan Jones.” Niamh’s gaze was determined. She appeared fully ready to kill him even if it was at the cost of her life.
Ryan had not expected Niamh to be so difficult. Her lively and beautiful eyes were red, emphasizing the hollow and pale complexion of her face.
He lifted his hand to take the shard from Niamh’s hand, but her grip was unrelenting. Even if it was at the cost of a bleeding palm, she refused to let go of it and kept it pressed against his neck.
“Stay the f*ck away. I don’t want to see you!” Physically, Niamh was in horrible condition, but that did not dilute the determination in her tone.
Ryan knitted his brows and dragged Niamh’s hand with brute force as his gaze sharpened.
“I told you that I’ll let you do what you want as long as you listen to me. I’ll even let your parents go back to Glendale, so why can’t you just bow down to me? You’re the one who’s forcing me here, Eveline.”
“Hah.” Niamh scoffed bitterly as a tear trickled from the corner of her eyes. “Will you actually let my parents go, Ryan? Who are you kidding here? You’re just going to use them to control me again so that you can achieve whatever vile goal you’re aiming for!”
Ryan’s expression darkened. He seemed moments away from erupting in anger when he suddenly loosened his grip.
Niamh fell onto the bed limply. She pushed herself back to stare at the man sitting by the bed guardedly. She did not let go of the shard in her grip.
It was as if the shard was her life force and the only thing keeping her from bending under Ryan’s brutal behavior.
Ryan stared at Niamh with displeasure for a few seconds before he suddenly yelled for a maid, “Have Doctor Brown get here, quick!”
The maid nodded and acknowledged, then frantically looked for Adam who was currently in the underground lab.
Upon entering the room, Adam was met with Niamh bleeding from her hands and legs as she sat on the corner of the bed. There was a large patch of blood on the mattress. The sight of it was bone- chilling.
“Dress her wounds.” Ryan pressed a hand on his forehead and left the room with an exasperated expression.
Adam immediately reached for his medical kit and frowned as he stared at Niamh who was mentally exhausted but also taut.
“I told you to stop acting so rashly, didn’t I?” Adam deliberately lowered his voice and glanced at the door from the corners of his eyes. “Why can’t you and your husband just stop being so stubborn?”
Niamh’s gaze shifted as she looked at Adam’s indifferent expression. She did not know who this ‘husband’ of hers Adam was referring to.
Adam noticed the change in Niamh’s expression but did not react.
“Keep water away from your wounds. You’re going to be the one suffering if they get infected.”
Ryan then appeared by the door just as he finished reminding Niamh.
Niamh looked wary as Ryan approached her. She wanted nothing more than to further distance herself from the man.
Yet Ryan continued to walk toward her and princess-carried her against her will.
“What are you doing? Let go of me, Ryan!” Niamh was terrified that the man would force himself on her again. She wanted to escape.
Ryan remained silent and carried Niamh to his room. He threw her onto the bed and turned to leave with a frosty look on his face.
Niamh ran after him on her tiptoes as her legs were bandaged, but Ryan had already locked the door.
“What do you want from me, Ryan? Don’t you dare hurt my parents!” Niamh shouted with all her might from the other side of the door. Her heart was racing past the tempo of what it could sustain.
“Do you hear me, Ryan? Ryan Jones!”
Niamh called out his name but was not given any reply.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.