EIGHTEEN: Torture and Truth

LUCIEN HAD RETURNED back to his mansion and went down the stairs to the basement of his house. A basement that was nothing short of a dungeon. He walked into the dark hallway and stood in front of a cell. There was a man hanging with shackles around his wrists. His feet were barely touching the dirty concrete floor.

Once he saw Lucien, he looked up with his bloodied and bruised face, "Alpha, I beg your forgiveness."

Lucien sneered at him, "I expected better from you Luke, I really expected more out of you."

Luke Johnson had blood covering his naked body a look of pure horror was flashing his eyes. "I don't know what happened, alpha. I..." He began sobbing, "I lost control. I couldn't see anything straight, I don't even remember what happened exactly."

Lucien opened the cell flashed before Luke before his fist punched the wall right next to his head, "But this isn't only about last night." He held his gaze and looked like he was trying to contain his anger, "A little bird told me that you started the whole rumor about Ms. Cooper."

Luke shook his head vigorously, "I swear I didn't. I know better than to speak badly of the girl you care about, Alpha." He then swallowed and added, "For all I know she could be our Luna in no time."

For some reason, anger burned Lucien's insides through gritted teeth he said, "You should have known better, indeed."

Then everyone in the mansion could hear the loud screams of Luke, who despite his wolf healing, couldn't stop bleeding.

...

When Cornelia saw Jerry, she expected him to say anything about her absence to scold her for sneaking out. However, he regarded with a small smile, and Oly asked her about what happened to her neck.

"I burned it with the curling iron." She said the first thing that came to her mind.

She wasn't sure what hurt her more, the fact that her own father didn't notice her absence for an entire night, or the fact that he believe such a lie.

And then she tried to figure out why she had lied, why hadn't told him the truth of what had happened. She told herself that what happened was close to impossible and probably her dad would blame her for even going to the woods.

She couldn't stop the small part in her that whispered the thought that Jerry wasn't even worthy of the truth.

That night she cried herself to sleep. Cornelia had always felt alone, even with the company of everyone, she felt slightly stranded in her own mind, especially after Julia's death.

It was perhaps why she had sought the company and approval of every single one in town. It was why she had always wanted to have people around her, no matter what.

It had been a while since she thought of Julia's death and how it had impacted her. It had been a while since Cornelia thought of Jerry's negligence. She sobbed her sorrow, her fears, her worries, and her anger.

...

The second Cornelia entered the school building all eyes were on her. It was even worse than before. Once she was in the hallway, Abigail grabbed her by the arm and rushed her into the bathroom.

"What's going on?" Cornelia asked her with a worried tone. She could clearly see the look on Abigail's face, it told her that something really bad was going on.

Abigail looked around the bathroom and checked that all the stalls were empty. "You ask me what's going on?" She hissed, "People saw Lucien Amarok driving you home early morning. It confirmed the rumor further, you are actually sleeping with him!"

"What?" Cornelia didn't know who saw her, it was so early in the morning and she was almost sure that no one was awake yet.

"No, I should be the one asking you what the hell is going on with you?" Abigail retorted angrily, "You lied to me, Lia. That's like a no no in this friendship. And going around with an older guys is generally a no no."

"I'm not sleeping with Lucien!" Lia exclaimed loudly. She then let out a sigh, and tilted her neck slightly to show Abigail the bandage on her neck. "I will tell you what happened."

After Cornelia was fine Abigail gave her a disbelieving look, "This is the craziest thing I've ever heard. You know the Formid Root has no wolves, the last recorded wolf in town was back in the 1800s so what the hell are you saying."

"Believe me I don't know what happened either." Cornelia shook her head sadly.

"Well, just be prepared for the hell you're about to face." Abigail said and the two headed to class together.

...

Calling it hell was an understatement. It was barely lunch time when Cornelia rushed to the bathroom with tears in her eyes. She had become a recluse in her school. It went as far as people avoiding touching her or even getting close, like she was holding some sort of a contagious disease and everyone was afraid of catching it.

She was in the bathroom stall when she heard the door to the bathroom opening followed by some giggles.

"I can't believe she's actually doing him." A girl said.

"Well, he's hot and rich, so I can totally see her reasons." Another replied with a giggle.

"Yeah, and she always pretended to be such a good girl." She scoffed, "The things that people do for money."

"I heard from Lana that Mr. Cooper knows about it, don't you find it strange that he hadn't left a finger?"

"You know how he's like, dude only cares about two things, money and connections. Well, his daughter is bringing him both in a silver platter."

Cornelia put a hand over her mouth to contain the sob that was about to left her, and she heard the sound of water running before the other girl retorted, "Maybe he's the one who made her do it. I mean that family is already regarded like royalty in town, so maybe Jerry Cooper want to be part of that."

"Guess you never know."

When Cornelia heard their footsteps followed by the sound of the bathroom door closing she got out of the stall and looked at her red eyes in the reflection of the mirror. She bit her lower lip and washed her tearstained face.

She took a shaky breath, "It's okay, you can do it." She mumbled the encouraging words to herself, despite not believing them.

She knew that from there on, nothing would be okay. She knew her entire life would never be the same.