Lord Lonan Montgomery's Wrath

Warning: This chapter contains disturbing themes, please proceed with caution.

Rhea remained frozen by the half-open door to Lonan's study, one hand on the doorknob while the other was squeezing the fluffy skirt of her dress

Lonan, whose eyes glowed with barely concealed rage was the first to break the silence.

"Why are you here, Rhea?"

"I had hoped to speak to you but I see you are busy so I will take my leave," Rhea rushed out and tried to make her escape.

Unfortunately, it was not to be as Augustus' voice, tinged with muted amusement and something hard she could not decipher, forced her still.

"Do not leave on my account, my lady. I would not want to get in the way of you speaking to your husband."

"Ex-husband. Grand Duke Holloway," Lonan corrected with a tight smile, "a sentiment that former Countess Rhea does not seem to comprehend, seeing as she came all the way here, unannounced." He spat, cruelly, his eyes glaring daggers into Rhea.

The hurt she felt was overshadowed by the realisation that she was not supposed to be anywhere near the Manor, as far as the Grand Duke was concerned.

Lonan hated appearing foolish or incapable, an insecurity that stemmed from being a small Lord in a nation like Euthoria known for its powerhouses.

If she wanted to convince him to keep their marriage alive, Rhea knew the last thing she should be doing was giving him a reason to resent her.

Blue eyes flitted over to the dark-haired man who was watching the scene with an expression that gave nothing away. When his eyes met hers, and a brow quirked in question, she mouthed 'please', hoping it would be enough to get him to play along and say nothing about their meeting.

"I was under the impression you were in the gentle care of your parents, nursing the wounds of your divorce." He said to Rhea, but his eyes turned to Lonan who tensed under the accusation.

"She was supposed to be, My Lord." Lonan agreed, his smile growing tighter. "But Rhea has never been known to have sense. It is one of the many reasons our marriage met such an undignified end."

Rhea flinched like she had been slapped, wide blue eyes staring at her husband who stared back in challenge.

His aim was to humiliate her to soothe the burn of his embarrassment and sadly, it was working.

Rhea felt like an even bigger fool knowing she had been intimate with the Grand Duke just last night, like some overzealous prostitute trying to make her way up in the world after being discarded.

The Grand Duke probably thought the same too, and the disgrace of it caused tears to sting her eyes and her cheeks to turn red. It gave her the resolve to not meet his eyes and confirm her fears.

"I- I will take my leave," she whispered with her head down, to hide the way her voice trembled and her eyes watered.

"Lord Holloway. Lord Montgomery," she said with a low bow to each man, still not meeting their eyes, and slithered out of the room.

One of the two must have called out her name, but Rhea was unsure which, too consumed by her sobs as she hurried down the hallway, back to her bedroom.

"Oh God," Rhea wailed as she slammed her bedroom door behind her and bolted over her to bed.

She flopped face down on it, and muffled her screams into her pillow, the soft satin growing wet under the force of her tears.

"Foolish! Foolish! Foolish!" The humiliated woman screamed, giving her dark hair a hard yank as each word tumbled out.

It was supposed to be forever. A fairytale that would come to an end only when they took their last breaths and their graves sat next to each other as the late Count and Countess.

And now look at her, an eyesore to her Lord-husband, and reduced to a pathetic shell of a woman who sleeps with her guest the very night of his arrival.

"What will people say?" She sobbed into the pillow, the mocking faces of her enemies, all the people she scorned and those who did not see her worthy of being Countess, appearing before her eyes.

"A divorced whore," she mourned with empty laughter and rolled over to blink up at the ceiling.

Everything was suddenly gone, the anguish, pain and shame, leaving behind a numbness that ushered in confusing thoughts.

"I might as well be dead." The words escaped her lips, and Rhea froze, frowning in puzzlement at her admission of defeat.

The plan was to win Lonan back, but his disdain towards her and ease in publicly humiliating her, something he had never done in their years of marriage, was too concerning to ignore.

It felt like an anchor sat atop her chest as she sat up and shuffled to the edge of the bed where the divorce papers sat on the nightstand.

Rhea gathered them up, noticing the wrinkles that now covered the once-smooth papers.

Pulling one hand away, she slid her bedside drawer open and fished out the black pen that was reserved for signing official papers brought to her first thing in the morning, before she got out of bed.

In all the signing she had done with it, Rhea had never once thought that it would be used to enact the end of her marriage. Yet here she was.

The pen tip touched the dotted line and Rhea paused.

She should have her team of lawyers look it over and negotiate the terms of it. It would be the business thing to do, as her father always said.

But Rhea was tired and she decided it was best to get it over with, and move on, hopefully regaining some of her dignity and pride along the way.

Rhea pressed down, a black dot forming in place, and then began to form her curling signature.

The bedroom door suddenly slammed open, causing her to startle and she lifted the pen away from the paper to avoid any mistakes.

With a reprimand on her lips, she turned to take a look at the intruder.

Her eyes met Lonan's rage-filled eyes, then flitted to his clenched fists as he marched closer to her, and she jumped to her feet, suddenly filled with the urge to run.

"Lo..."

The sound of skin meeting skin echoed in the room as the back of Lonan's hand connected with her cheek and sent Rhea crashing onto the bed with a startled scream.

She felt as he climbed on top of her, his larger frame, pushing her into the bed, and her hands instinctively came up to protect her face when he turned her onto her back.

It was no use as Lonan captured both her wrists in one hand and pressed it high above her head, forcing her to meet his red-tinged dark blues.

"You stupid, inconsiderate little parasite," he hissed to words, slow and low, his breath ghosting over the reddening bruise on her cheek.

"I gave you one instruction. ONE. SIMPLE. FUCKING. INSTRUCTION!" He thundered, his free hands landing slaps on both her cheeks at the yell of each word until Rhea was left a trembling, teary-eyed and swollen-cheeked mess beneath him.

"I had not known he would be there. I swear if I had I would not have shown my face," she pleaded through soft sobs, her wrists aching from how hard he held them.

But Lonan was too far gone and it was near impossible to earn his forgiveness when he was like that.

Nevertheless, she tried with a whispered 'I am so sorry', from bruised lips, broken after being cut on the edge of her teeth.

Her apology only seemed to anger Lonan who clenched his hands wrapped around her wrists, forcing a pained cry from her lips.

Before Rhea could react, his hand left her wrist and grabbed a hold of her hair which he used to yank her up from the bed.

She whimpered as her knees hit the hardwood floor, hands wrapping around the hand in her hair to cushion the pull on her aching scalp. He began to pull her across the floor, her bare legs scraping painfully against the roughness.

"I have been too lenient with you," he growled as he dragged her struggling form towards the bathroom, unconcerned with the worried group who had gathered by the open bedroom door and were silently watching with horrified eyes.

"Too relaxed in my discipline, for you to have the audacity...."

"It was an honest mistake, Lonan! Please!"

"THE EFFRONTERY," he thundered, kicking the bathroom door open and dragging her across the cool tiles, "TO DISGRACE ME LIKE YOU HAVE DONE TODAY."

Lonan suddenly let go of her hair and moved away, leaving Rhea to sob as she stared at the loose strands of hair that fluttered to the ground around her.

The sound of water pouring into the bathtub alarmed her and she turned to the man who was returning to her, with a confused frown.

"What are you doing?" She questioned, her voice hoarse and trembling, as he picked her up and made his way back to the porcelain tub

Lonan's eyes were hard and unfeeling, his nails digging bloody crescents into her soft skin, for the hell of it. "Teaching you a long overdue lesson."

Before Rhea could begin to guess what he was doing, Lonan got into the tub with her, his back to the edge of it and hers to the flowing faucet.

Her dress quickly grew wet as he began pushing her backwards, and it took a second too long for her to understand what he was about to do.

Blue eyes widened in horror and she made to scream for help but it was already too late as Lonan held her under the spray of warm water, by her neck, and her face and lungs were flooded.