REBORN: Claiming What's Mine

01 – Selling Me Out To A Womaniser. Slap!! Mr. Cox’s hand went flying through the air; like a thunderstorm, crashing like a harsh wave on Marie's cheeks, which instantly burned with deep crimson red, her hands clutching her cheeks that ached with intensified pain, with wide eyes staring profusely in shock at her father. “You are getting married to Archer Robert, and that's final!” Mr Cox, Marie’s father, raged with fury, his eyes bloodshot with anger. “You intend to sell me off to a womaniser?” Marie managed to ask, her voice breaking, with tears welling up in her eyes. Her heart aching with pain that clutched in deeply, like her breath was slipping away from her in a daze. “He is the only hope to save my company,” Mr Cox snorted in exasperation, not daring to look Marie in the eye. “Hey Marie,” Mrs Judy, Marie's stepmother, called out in a smothering calm voice, like that she meant well. But Marie knew that was all for camouflage. “You wouldn't want to see your father behind bars? At least you should consider doing this for us as a family,” she said, tying her hands gently in between Marie’s hands with a feigned motherly care, her lips huddling up with a smile that would make one think she is a saint but is a she-devil, hiding her wings. “Family? That's the biggest joke of the year!” Marie sneered at Judy, snapping her hand out from her grip. “Father!” Marie probed softly, immediately clutching down to her knees, her hands clenched a handful of her maxi-pleated skirt, in frustration. “Please, I don't want to marry him. Marrying a man who sees women as a thing to play with is no husband to be,” Marie pleaded, grabbing her father's legs, with tears rolling down her face. “Look, Marie, you should be thanking me for keeping you in my house, feeding and clothing you after killing my dear wife.” Mr Cox wheezed in anger, looking down on her, with hatred. “In three days you get ready to leave my house as Archer's wife, and that's final!” Mr Cox affirmed in a strong, coarse voice, with a scrutinizing gaze imbued with disgust, and chugged his feet away from Marie grip, averting up the stairs, darting towards his room. Marie crumbling her head to the floor, hot tears streaming down her cheeks, wishing her mother was alive– perhaps things could have taken a different turn. It all happened fifteen years ago, when Marie's mom had her car crash with a fast-moving truck on a rainy Saturday while rushing Five year old Marie to the hospital, who had a severe stomach ache and was coughing out mini blood. “You devil! “Get away from me!” Mr Cox furiously barked, his eyes filled with dread, staring at his five year old daughter, his eyes burning with agony, and stern. “You killed my wife, you despicable thing! You should have died in that crash and not her,” he blurted, his face covered in his tears, glaring at Marie, wanting to grab her by the throat and put an end to her life. “Ohhh dear stepsister,” Nicole sneered, abruptly grabbing Marie's jaw with her hands, twitching it with her sharp nails, with a mischievous grin curled at the corner of her lips. “I can't wait to have you out of here; then everything that will be mine, and I will be the only heiress,” she whispered into Marie's ears, with a haunting grin escaping her lips, trashing Marie with full force to the floor, and walked away. ***** “Miss Marie, do you lawfully take Mr Archer Robert as your husband, to love and to cherish till death do you both part?” the priest, in his white robe, asked, raising his gaze to Marie, who was hesitating to respond. Marie bit under her lips. Her heart was pounding with terror as she stared at Archer's face through her white veil. “Miss Marie!!” The priest called out for the umpteenth time, jerking Marie out of her thoughts of despair, and sorrow she was getting into. “Yes, I do,” Marie replied. At the corners of the seat in church, her father's lips sneered into a warm smile, his once frowned face shimmering with jubilation at Marie's responses. “Now I pronounce you husband and wife,” the priest declared. “You may kiss—” The last few words were left hanging on the priest's lips, as Archer immediately spun around on his legs, making for the door. In a brisk manner, Archer grabbed the door of the Rolls Royce and stepped into it. “Get me out here!” He commanded his driver, his voice fraught with anger and stern. “What about your bride, sir?” The driver asked, his eyes staring at Marie who ran like her breath was slipping away, clutching her hands on the old-fashioned wedding dress that was falling off from her shoulder. “What a slow dummy!” Archer breathed under his breath, his eyes cold and distant, his face brewed with grimace as he stared at Marie getting into the car. Soon the Rolls-Royce roared to life and zoomed out of the church. “Seems like Marie will be experiencing hell again, Mother,” Nicole whispered into Judy's ear, her eyes swirling with enthusiasm. ********* “What the hell are you doing?” Archer asked, his brow furrowed, as Marie trembled in fear at the dread that lingered in his terrific voice. “I… am… trying… to… change… into… something… comfortable… This dress is itchy,” Marie stammered, slowly taking a step back in horror as Archer dragged his feet closer to her, like a predator about to have his prey for dinner. “Change?” Archer muttered in a low tone, placing his hand over Marie's head, her back abruptly hitting the wall, her breath faint. “Let me help then,” Archer offered, his eyes hovering over her skin that was barely visible in the wedding dress. In a split second, his hand immediately reached for the dress and shredded it into tonnes of pieces. Marie's eyes flashed wide in fear, darting her hands to cover her exposed body. She felt humiliated, even though the man before her was already her husband, but to her, he will remain a beast. “Take off your hands!” Archers roared in rage, his hands brushing through the atmosphere, slamming at Marie's cheeks like a flash, sending down hot tears to stream from her eyes. He leaned forward towards her ear. “Nice body, just like I wanted it,” he whispered. His fingers trailed her body slowly, tracing from her neck down to her breast, and immediately his lips flashed a cocky smile. Marie's heart pounding profusely, her body fidgeting as the rush of terror coursed through her nerves. "You see that over there?" he said, his voice low and deliberate, almost reverent. Marie followed his finger to the large cabin in the room, with a white container on it. “Those are contraceptives, you take them once we are done, I don't want some b***h of my enemy bearing my offspring,” Archer blurted, his voice deep, and coarse with cold.