The Blood Debt, My Pain and His Promise

Chapter 4 Fury Unbound

Hunter spun around, seething with outrage. "Who the hell dares to—" His words were cut off as a devastating kick slammed into his gut, drawing a pained howl from his lips.

Michael's cold, unyielding expression mirrored fury itself as he mercilessly pummeled Hunter's midsection with relentless kicks.

"Michael, have you lost your mind? You'll kill him!" Chloe burst into the room, placing herself between the two men. "Riley went with him of her own free will! This isn't my uncle's doing!"

Despite the lethal glare in Michael's eyes, he stepped away from Hunter, who lay crumpled and motionless on the floor. With hands still stained with blood, he tenderly brushed away Chloe's tears. "She went willingly?"

Tears rolled down Chloe's face like petals in a storm. "I saw it myself. Riley chose to be with Hunter. No one made her do it!"

Riley, barely covered by a sheet, had just risen when Michael seized her by the neck, dragging her towards the bathroom with an iron grip.

"You dared to betray me? You're digging your own grave!" he snarled.

He threw her into the bathtub with brutal force. As she fought to rise, Michael forced her head down, submerging her beneath the water.

The icy water surged into her throat, the icy grip of death closing around her.

Just when she thought this would be the end, Michael yanked her up, allowing her a life-saving breath of air, which burned hot in her lungs.

But her relief was brief. Michael plunged her back underwater almost immediately.

After a few grueling rounds of this, her strength waned, and her consciousness slipped away into the oppressive void.

But just as she resigned herself to her fate, the pressure vanished.

Coughing up water, she crawled out of the tub, gasping for air. Turning her head, she saw Michael standing beside her, his normally indifferent eyes ablaze with a terrifying intensity.

"I didn't seduce him," Riley rasped, her voice thick with despair as she faced Michael.

Michael tightened his grip around her throat, pinning her against the tub with a vicious hold. "You drugged me and sneaked into my bed back then. Have I not made you scream with pleasure enough? Haven't I satisfied you in bed?"

Riley's gaze froze in utter disbelief. It was undeniably Michael who had been drugged that fateful evening, forcing himself upon her in a haze of intoxication.

In the days that followed, he developed a voracious appetite for it, clinging to her incessantly.

Convinced it was her ploy, he believed she had slipped him the drug to facilitate her own advances.

As a result, their encounters became a cruel game, with him relentlessly pressing on until she was reduced to tearful pleas.

In her innocence, she had thought tender gestures symbolized affection, never dreaming they could serve as tools of torment.

How naive she had been!

Tears escaped her eyes, cascading into the water, each droplet creating ripples that mirrored her anguish.

Michael loosened his tie, using it to bind her to the bathtub's handle, and joined her with ruthless intent.

"Bring in her mother!"

Michael's eyes flared with rage as his bodyguards dragged Mary in, slamming her to the cold, hard floor.

"Ri! No!"

Mary's voice, soaked in terror, echoed in the room.

With a gritty voice, Michael hissed maliciously, "You have a knack for being with others, don't you? Wish granted!"

Desperately, Riley thrashed against her bindings, tears flowing unchecked down her cheeks. "Michael, I'm begging you, not in front of my mother, please!"

But he was relentless. His teeth sank into her neck, the metallic tang of blood spurring him on.

Grasping her chin roughly, he swung the bathroom door open wide. "Let your mother witness how her daughter cowers beneath a man, just like she did before you."

"Release my daughter! Let her go!" Mary cried out, her attempts to intervene thwarted by Michael's guards.

Her fragile frame could do nothing against their brute strength, and she slumped to the floor, overcome by helplessness as she watched her daughter being tormented.

Hearing her mother's heart-wrenching cries, Riley felt an agonizing pain sear through her very being.

Michael had never shown such cruelty, exposing her deepest weaknesses in front of her only kin.

At that moment, it became glaringly apparent that the love she imagined was nothing more than a childish illusion.

If Michael had ever had an ounce of compassion, he wouldn't have subjected her to such shame in front of others.

In his cold eyes, she was worth even less than a plaything.

Gazing down at the fractured reflections in the water, Riley felt a shift deep within.

Along with the shattering illusion of love, her affection for Michael crumbled into nothing.

Determined, she promised herself she would take her mother and escape, leaving Michael behind forever.

Yet Michael knew every inch of her, and despite the chasm in her heart, her cries and pleas continued unabated.

Bang!

The sudden sound cut through, resonating ominously.