MINE

PROLOGUE The sound of a table smashing haunts the entire room as soon as Rhys throws Irina against the glass center table sitting in the room. Irina screams her lungs out in anger and pain, "You cannot be the man I fell in love and got married to. All these years, I have been so stupid, and you have fooled me so easily by pretending to be my long-lost husband. Tell me, who the hell are you?!" "Really? So sure, eh? Looks like somebody's memories came back!" Rhys smirked from the corner of his lips and stepped closer to Irina, who was clearly seen bleeding from the corner of her lips now. "TELL ME THE TRUTH DAMN IT!" Irina demanded. Rhys chuckled, "You're right. I'm not the man you fell in love with. I was never the man you could fall in love with." Even though Rhys said it while laughing, his expressions when he said those words conveyed the opposite. Irina backed away from him, "So then, who ARE you? Where is my h-husband?" Rhys looked at her and laughed in a twisted way. Hearing her calling someone else as her husband sure hurt him, but it looked like he was used to this. "Shawn? Oh yeah. I killed him." Irina gasped for some air as her eyes got heavy. She couldn't believe it was so easy for this man to kill and tell. "Sh-Shawn Jenkins?" She couldn't believe how familiar this name sounded to her. Shawn Jenkins. Her torn distorted memories had this name embarked on them. "See? No matter how hard I tried, it was only his name that rests in your heart. Just like before. No matter how the fxck harder I tried, it was always him, it's always Shawn!" Rhys stepped closer to Irina as she kept backing away. Finally, her back met up with the wall and Rhys took a seat right before her on the floor. "You were obsessed with me, and when you could not get me to love you back, you KILLED my husband?! Irina asked him unbelievably. Rhys scoffed and reached out his thumb to wipe off the blood from the corner of her lips and then said, "It's a little more complicated than that but in short, yes!" Tears rolled down Irina's cheeks as she started to find it difficult to breathe suddenly. The only thing that bothered her right now was she could barely even remember what the love of her life looked like, thanks to her memory loss a year ago. "And now, even though I somehow managed to erase your memories a year ago, you remember everything now." He said in annoyance. "I- I don't. Remember. Everything." Irina said, taking pauses in between, trying to close her eyes and force herself to remember something. Anything. Even the face of her daughter's father. "What about Iris? What did you do to her? Is she our daughter or some sort of stupid ploy you put together to play against me?" Irina asked. She was afraid that even her daughter was a lie that Rhys told her. "Iris?" Rhys looked up towards the corner of the room near the door opening where he could see the one-year-old coming crawling and then slowly stood up. "Sure, she's your daughter. Yours and Shawn's." He took Shawn's name with so much hatred that it hurt her ears. Irina saw her little baby in the room and covered her mouth, started to cry. "I thought the accident would kill her too, but it didn't. You were pregnant when the accident occurred and were on the way to the hospital delivering his baby. My car crashed into yours and Shawn died. You gave birth to your beautiful little replica who looked exactly like you, just her hair is like her dad's. When I learned you lost your memories, I initially thought I'd give her away and start over with you. But then, I looked at her and..." Rhys caressed the face of Iris, going closer to her, "How could I give away something so beautiful that looks like you?" He said. More tears flew down Irina's cheeks as she bit her lower lips, scared of Rhys hurting her daughter while this monster was touching her. "So, I thought maybe we all could live together as a family, you know? But your stupid brain kept fxcking with you and in one year you never gave yourself to me!" Rhys continued. "I lied, made you believe that I was your husband, the father of your child. I tried everything to prove that I was your Shawn but, fxck, your nightmares kept coming in the way." Rhys scoffed again, this one was an extremely sad one and looked at Irina, "And one year later, here we are. Why didn't you love me Irina? I did everything for you, even waited for so long... Why can't you ever see me? Why can't you ever see my love for you?" "You're a sick bastard! I can't believe anyone can be as malicious as you are. I hope you rot in hell!" Irina started to curse at Rhys with all her heart. The curses were all coming straight from Irina's heart. Meanwhile, Rhys, who was still standing near the little kid who was about a year and half old, scoffed and looked at Iris who was confused and scared, hiding halfway behind the curtain. "Before I go to hell, don't you think, baby, you'll go to hell and pay for everything you did to me and my innocent love for you?" Irina couldn't believe this man. He was starting to sound absolutely nonsensical to her. "What are you even talking about?!" Irina asked him. "Is it MY FAULT THAT YOU MET HIM FIRST?!" Rhys practically screamed at Irina standing close to Iris and that made Iris petrified, and she started crying. "Iris..." Irina tried to get up and approach her crying baby, but before she could do that, Rhys picked Iris up in his arms and kicked Irina back on the ground with a lot of force on her stomach. Droplets of blood came out of her mouth, the kick was so hard. Watching all this, little Iris started to cry even more loudly. "Iris..." Irina gasped to her little baby, "Rhys- Hand her to me, she is crying." Irina was famished with pain, opening her arms in air, towards her little girl. "It's all about Shawn, Irina. You don't ever care about me, DO YOU?!" Rhys yelled and kicked Irina's stomach once again with the exact same force. More blood was spit out her mouth, but Irina only cared about her crying baby right now. She was continuously mumbling with her arms up in air. "Iris... Baby... Mommy is here. Shh... Come to me." Watching this made Rhys extremely furious. The bloodlust was rushing back into his head. He wanted this heartless woman before her to die at his hands. Today. Right. Now. He practically threw Iris seven inches away from where Irina was lying on the ground all in pain and went towards his table to grab a knife. Meanwhile, Irina and Iris were both trying to share a moment called motherhood. But before Irina could overcome the pain and hold her little baby in her arms, Rhys stormed towards her and penetrated the knife right into her stomach. Before Irina could handle that pain, another sharp attack was welcomed by her stomach. With wide eyes open she looked at Rhys. She never thought this man would actually kill her. She had for real started to fall for this man since the very last week. "You know what the good news is Irina, baby?" Rhys asked her, "Now, I can finally get over you." Saying this, Rhys left the house and the crime scene, where there was a one-year-old crying looking at her dying mother and her mother was trying hard to creep closer to her child in her last moments alive. "Shh... Shh... Baby don't cry. Let me sing you a song." The dying mother told her child, who didn't know any human words yet, but she still understood everything her mother just said, as she was speaking the language of love. "Rock a bye baby... Rock a bye baby... On the tree top. When the wind blows... the cradle will rock. When the bough breaks... the cradle will fall." Irina's voice had the magic that made Iris stop crying and even though Irina was bleeding severely, this little baby girl came near her mother's warmth and lied down on her body. Irina slowly started to lose her breath and soon Iris heard the last lines of that rhyme her mother ever sung to her, "And down will come baby... cradle and all."