Beneath The Gilded Floor

Chapter 8: Velvet Cage

"You are out of your mind..!! My dad will sue you!! He will come here and kill you!!! Cassius!!! Let me go, you monster!!"

***

A dark, humorless smile touched the corner of Cassius’s mouth, entirely devoid of warmth as he hauled her toward the heavy double doors, ignoring the frantic, clawing, desperate steps of his brother echoing from deep within the walls behind them.

"Let him try," Cassius snapped, his voice a low, lethal hum that vibrated directly against her ear. "My family built this city's foundations, and your father's wealth is entirely tethered to my approval. No one is coming for you, Natalia. You are ours now."

He kicked the library doors wide open, dragging her out into the high-ceilinged corridor, cutting off her frantic screams as he hauled her deeper into the inescapable maze of the Everton estate, sealing her fate behind thick oak and iron.

"Natalia...!"

Hansel cried out, his voice breaking raw and desperate as he stumbled hard onto the Persian rug, his bare hands gripping the edge of the mahogany table to steady himself.

He watched in absolute horror as the heavy double doors slammed shut in the distance, cutting off the echoes of her voice and plunging the library back into a suffocating, dead silence.

His chest heaved with ragged, uncontrollable sobs, his fingers curling white-knuckled against the polished wood. He took her away. He locked her in the cage right alongside me.

A manic, feverish light burned in the back of his eyes as he turned slowly back toward the dark, open seam in the wainscoting.

"He thinks he won..." he whispered into the empty, echoing room, a chilling, unhinged grin spreading across his tear-streaked face. "...He doesn't know the walls have ears. And I know every single way out."

"Cassius..! Please..!! Just let me go… I swear..! I swear I’ll keep quiet..! I swear I won’t tell anyone..! Please let me go…! Please..!"

The sound of her voice—cracking, pleading, desperate in a way no Everton bride had ever lowered herself to be—only made Cassius's grip tighten further. The heavy oak doors of the private residential wing slammed shut behind them, cutting off the outside world entirely, while her sobs and frantic struggles echoed off the high, ornate ceiling of his study.

He hauled her down the dimly lit hallway, his footsteps ringing out in a steady, unyielding rhythm that mocked every frantic promise she was making.

"Keep quiet?" Cassius repeated, his voice a cold, razor-thin whisper right against her ear as he shoved open the heavy door to his private study and dragged her inside. "You think this is about a secret, Natalia? You think I'm worried about what you'll tell the gossips in the city?"

He shoved her gently but firmly backward until the back of her knees hit the edge of a velvet-upholstered settee, cutting off her escape. He towered over her, his hands braced on either side of the cushion, trapping her completely in his shadow. His face was inches from hers, dark, unblinking, and entirely devoid of mercy.

"Secrets can be buried. People who know too much can be silenced," he murmured, his gaze locking onto her wide, terrified eyes with absolute dominion. "you aren't a secret. You are my fiancée. The ink on the contracts is dry, your father's signature is secured, and your future was written the moment you stepped onto this property. You are never leaving this house, Natalia. So stop crying, stop bargaining, and learn to accept the only reality you have left."

"Hic… Cassius… please… I won’t… I won’t leave… just… don’t lock me up… please..! I can’t… I can’t stand this cage…"

The raw terror trembling in her voice—the genuine, breaking realization that the gilded cage she had walked into had just become a permanent prison—finally slowed his relentless pace. Cassius stood over her, his hands still braced against the settee, looking down at the way she shrank back against the velvet cushions, desperately trying to fold into herself.

For a fraction of a second, the harsh, manic fury in his chest receded, replaced by a cold, absolute resolve. He reached out, his fingers wrapping firmly around her chin, tilting her face up so she had no choice but to meet his dark, unblinking gaze.

"You called it a cage," he murmured, his voice dropping into a low, hypnotic hum that brushed against her skin like ice. "It isn't a cage, Natalia. It's a sanctuary. Out there, you were just another pawn in your father's games, exposed to a world that would chew you up the moment it suited them. Here, behind these gates, behind these walls—you are untouchable. You are safe."

His thumb brushed roughly across her cheek, wiping away a stray tear with a touch that was entirely devoid of gentleness, yet possessed a terrifying, possessive finality.

"You won't be locked in a dark room like my brother. You will walk beside me in the light, wear the family jewels, and rule this estate by my side," he continued, leaning in just close enough that she could feel the steady, unnerving calm of his breath. "So wipe away the tears. The moment you tried to call for help and run from your place, you sealed your fate. You belong to me now, body and soul. Get used to it."

"You… you are… a psycho…! Did you… ever think of your brother?… did you lock him up for more than two decades?!… and now you want to lock me too?!"

A sharp, cold laugh escaped Cassius's throat, echoing off the high, dark bookshelves of the study as he stepped back, looking down at her with a mix of pity and absolute disdain.

"A psycho?" he repeated, the word rolling off his tongue like a foreign concept. "No, Natalia. I am a realist. What you call 'locking him up' was mercy. My father wanted him erased entirely—disposed of before he could ever take a breath, because a cracked foundation brings down the whole house. I kept him alive. I gave him walls, food, and a place in this estate, hidden away where his weakness couldn't destroy everything we built."

He leaned down again, his dark eyes flashing with a dangerous, unyielding intensity as he placed a heavy hand on the arm of the settee right beside her leg, caging her in completely.

"And as for you, you aren't being locked in a basement," he whispered, his voice dropping into a lethal, quiet rasp. "You are my equal. You share my table, my name, and my bed. The only difference between you and the rest of the outside world is that no one will ever be able to hurt you, manipulate you, or take you away from me. Call it whatever you like—a cage, a palace, a prison. It is your home now."

"No… you are f*****g crazy..! Did you see your brother's eyes..?! Those eyes are not.. not human..! Is that why you locked him up??! You’ve never looked at him clearly, right..?!"

A sharp, sudden silence dropped over the study, heavy and absolute, slicing right through the tense air.

The cold, calculated mask Cassius wore like armor—the one that hadn’t cracked once in twenty-five years—suddenly shattered. His hand froze on the arm of the settee, his fingers gripping the velvet fabric so hard the seams groaned under the pressure. A dark, violent shudder racked his frame, and for the first time since she had walked into this room, the color drained entirely from his face.

His dark eyes narrowed into lethal, trembling slits, and he leaned down so close their noses nearly touched, his voice dropping into a ragged, breathless whisper that vibrated with a terror he had kept buried as deep as his brother.

"You think I didn't look?" he hissed, the quiet venom in his tone laced with a sudden, raw edge of hysteria. "You think I didn't spend my entire life staring at a mirror that cracked and bled? His eyes... they aren't human because there is nothing left in him to be human about. He is a parasite born of my father's sins, a rotting shadow that feeds on the air of this house!"

He yanked back, straightening up abruptly as he ran a shaking hand through his dark hair, pacing a single, furious circle across the Persian rug before turning back to glare down at her with wild, unhinged eyes.

"I didn't lock him away to be cruel, Natalia," he snapped, his voice rising, losing its polished edge. "I locked him away because every time he looks at me with those empty, dead eyes, I see what I was supposed to be! And if I let him out—if I let him wander free like some sick, twisted joke of nature—he would tear this entire empire down to the studs just to watch us burn in the ash with him!"

"What’s his name..? Hansel..? Did you forget..? He is your twin!! Cassius!! YOUR TWIN..! Why do you treat him like that..?!"

A harsh, ragged breath hit the back of Cassius's throat, the name bouncing off the walls of the study like a curse.

"I didn't forget a damn thing," he snapped, his voice trembling with a sudden, violent fury as he stopped pacing and towered over the settee once more, his hands slamming against the backrest to box her in completely. "You think I woke up twenty-five years ago and decided to bury my own reflection? You think a twin is just a cute word for two people who share a birthday?"

He leaned down, his face inches from hers, his eyes burning with a dark, manic intensity that mirrored the very ghost they had been fighting over all night.

"My father didn't want a pair. He wanted an heir. One strong enough to carry the weight of this family without flinching, without breaking, without rotting from the inside out," he hissed, every syllable dripping with a lifetime of inherited madness and cold, suffocating pressure. "Hansel wasn't born a person, Natalia—he was born a weakness. A deformity of soul and mind that would have dragged the entire Everton name into the dirt before we even reached our tenth year."

He gripped the velvet cushion so hard his knuckles turned stark white, his chest heaving as he glared down into her defiant, horrified face.

"So don't you dare stand there and lecture me about brotherhood," he whispered, lethal and quiet, the final thread of his patience snapping entirely. "I survived by making the choice my father was too weak to finish. And if you ever say his name in this house again, I will make sure the only voice you hear for the rest of your life is mine."