For Better, For Worse: The Serpent's Contract Wife

"Wakie wakie, Ana."

I heard a sing-song voice that pulled me from the darkness.

What’s happening? Where is that pain coming from? And God, that fucking headache like my head was about to explode.

A thick pain shot across my face, as though it had been slammed straight into a wall and crushed to bits.

I did my best to focus on opening my eyes, and when I did, I could barely make out anything.

There was bizarre spinning, swaying me until I actually thought I was swirling in the air with no gravity to hold me down.

I’m tripping.

I grunted when a hand seized my hair and forced my head up.

"Wake. Up!"

At the harsh tone that caused me to wince, my lashes fluttered open, greeted by a blur of light, along with an intense pulsing that made my eyes feel as though they were about to fall out of their sockets.

"C-Clara," I managed to say when I got a good look at her.

Judging from her attire, she had clearly attended the Gala, yet I didn’t catch sight of her the whole time.

What’s she doing here?

Smirking, she released me, and the force earned a pained groan from me.

"There you are. I was thinking you had left us so soon."

"W-What..." In my hazy state, I passed a look around the room, which resembled the ballroom because of the matching colors. It looked more like a storage where they kept the extra chairs and stuff.

The last thing I remember was the back of a hand slamming right into my face, and the next was the hard impact of the wall, and everything went dark.

W-We were attacked! And... and Luca!

I rasped, shooting my head upwards, my eyes searching the room until I saw him across from me, tied up to a chair and unconscious.

My panic increased, but I couldn’t get off the chair I was suspended to.

I threw a look over my shoulder, but I couldn’t see my hands, and struggling got me nowhere. They were bound by something thin and tight, digging into my wrists every time I tried to jerk out of them.

"Don’t waste your time. It’s no use."

I darted my fervent gaze to Clara.

"You bitch—"

Slap!

My head snapped to the side. When I turned back, another hit landed, followed by several more until my face throbbed with raw pain, a metallic taste in my mouth.

"That felt better than I expected," she said in a harsh breath. "I have always wanted to do that. Payback for hitting me that one time."

I licked my bruised lip and tossed my head back, sweeping my hair away from my face.

Despite the cluttered ache piercing through my face, I didn’t let it control the situation. My nostrils flared as I pinned Clara with a pissed look.

"Does it hurt?" she teased, and I wanted to claw at her fucking eyes out and shove it down her throat.

She raised her hand and hit me again, until I lost count, but not once did I cry out in pain.

I spat out a mouthful of blood, my anger rising.

"It does, doesn’t it?" she added with a satisfied smile.

"Good. Because I want you to feel every second of it, you’ve always walked around like you’re untouchable, and that ego of yours only grew bigger when you married the Serpent. The Don’s wife. Not so much of that now, are you?"

Her heels clicked sharply as she walked to one of the three men present and took his gun.

Gulping, I darted my eyes to Luca, my worry spiking. Oh god, there was blood on his side profile. He wasn’t knocked out by the gun. Those pieces of shit must have smashed him hard on the head with something.

I struggled against my restraints, the chair legs screeching across the floor, making my attempts sound pointless.

At the sharp cock of the gun, I snapped my eyes to Clara pointing the pistol at me.

"I told you it’s no use, but you just love making everything about you, don’t you? Just like the Gala. They all crowd you like you’re some saint."

She stepped closer until the muzzle of the gun pressed against my forehead.

"If they knew half the truth that I do, then they’d know how much of a sorry excuse of a human being you are."

"Cut the theatrics. How about you tell me what this is really about?" I asked, trying to remain calm, knowing panic wouldn’t do me any good.

"Do you expect me to believe that you don’t know?!" she hissed, rage plastered across her face like a flip of a switch.

I have seen Clara become a lot of things, but this was just psychotic.

We were still in the building for fucks sake, with a lot of people around. This was a half-ass plan that was gonna bite her in the ass.

Zade. My heart ached at the thought of him. He probably knew something was wrong by now. I hadn’t returned from my supposed trip to the restroom.

"You have me lost," I replied to her earlier words.

"Don’t toy with me!"

"You’re the one who attacked me. You have a gun to my head. The least you can do is tell me why."

"My life is ruined. Don’t tell me you don’t know that."

"R-Ruined?"

"After what you did!" She seethed.

"Trust me, Clara, I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"Oh, yes you do! This has everything to do with you! You’re the one who gave Shane the flash drive!"

"Flash drive," I murmured.

That same flash drive?

"It was a fucking trap," she said, her voice heavy as tears welled in her eyes. "Whatever was on that flash drive... shipping records or something... he was supposed to get it. But..." Her voice broke. "Now he’s missing... and presumed dead!"

I had wondered why Zade easily let Shane get his hands on that drive. This explained everything.

Clara took a deep breath, looking up for a second to stop the tears from falling. "Now tell me. What happened to him? What did your bastard husband do to him!"

"I don’t know!"

"Liar! Do you expect me to believe that you didn’t know the flash drive was a trap?"

I gulped.

"Say something! This is your fucking fault!"

"My fault? Shouldn’t you be grateful?" I countered.

"Excuse me?"

"You got out of this unscathed; not many can testify to that after playing dangerous games. Which is exactly what you have been doing all this time with Shane!"

She clenched her teeth.

"What exactly did you think would happen? That somehow your plan was gonna work, and you’d live happily ever after with your daddy?"

I was seriously pushing my luck, but if it brought me some time, then it’d be worth it.

Clara could have shot me since the moment I opened my mouth. But she was stalling because we both knew she didn’t have the guts to do it.

In the end, she was just the same sheltered girl that I was, running on an emotional fuel.

The second I saw her grip tremble, I continued.

"You know, I heard Shane’s not officially affiliated with the undercity. That seems like a big deal, and it means he stuck his shoe in a hole thinking he could crawl back up, but he thought wrong."

"Shut... up."

"Open your eyes, Clara."

"You know nothing!"

"I know Shane never loved you."

She froze.

"The only reason he put a ring on your finger was to use you to get to me. He needed someone unnoticed from the academy. Think about it. I know the thought must have crossed your mind. He used you."

"S-Stop."

"You can end this, Clara, before it’s too late because the moment Zade finds out I’m missing—"

Slam!

I sucked in a sharp breath as the back of her hand collided with my face.

"You think I care what happens to me?" She gripped my hair and forced me to look at her. "You wanna know what I found out after Shane’s disappearance?"

"T-The fact that you couldn’t get an o-orgasm without him?" I forced out despite the pain pulsing between my teeth.

She chuckled, but the sound was dead. "Something I think will blow your mind."

I narrowed my eyes.

"In my desperate search for Shane, I found out he had a source, or rather a support system. Can you imagine my shock when I found out who his benefactor was? The very reason Shane was so obsessed with bringing Zade down?"

I thought he was obsessed after what happened at the Night Chamber. However, with Clara’s words it didn’t seem like that anymore.

Then why was Shane determined to destroy Zade?

"Annabeth."

The name hit me like a train. My breath caught, and every thought in my head simply... stopped.

"No," I whispered, the word escaping before I even realized it. "That-That’s impossible."

Suddenly the door swung open, alerting us toward Catherine waltzing in, but then she stopped in her tracks.

"Oops! Looks like this isn’t the restroom."