For The Best

"You want us back," Rhea repeated, slowly, her astonished voice breaking through the quiet of early morning that had settled over her bedroom.

Lonan chuckled, something soft and low that had once made her belly flutter with delight but now served as a painful reminder of what had been.

"Is it so hard to believe?" He questioned with a lift of his brow.

"It is," she responded with a hard nod. "Especially when your pregnant mistress is sleeping only a few doors down, in your bed..."

"Rhea..." He sighed as he turned away from her, his lips curling in simmering annoyance.

"In your bed," she forged on, "In our home that I had worked tirelessly to build and maintain in the face of your indifference and belittlement! How can you claim to want us back when you behave like there had never even been an !"

Lonan remained silent, his eyes staring out the large window and into the dark sky.

His disassociation hurt as much as was expected, and Rhea had to look away from him and collect herself before she said something he would make her regret.

The large bedroom fell silent as the couple stewed in their thoughts, the soft ticking of the wall clock breaking through the monotony.

"Am I a joke to you?" Rhea asked after what felt like hours had gone by, her voice small and fragile. "Does the life we built together mean nothing to you?"

Lonan finally turned to face her, his hands supporting him as he leaned back and made himself comfortable.

"Why would you think that?" He asked, perfunctory with little interest in the conversation, his eyes half-lidded with sleep and face blank.

Trying to communicate with him was a stressful endeavour that Rhea regretted attempting, and yet she foolishly longed for a reaction, anything to put a crack in that mask of indifference he had donned.

"It does not matter, anyway. The papers have been signed and I will be leaving tomorrow morning, with the Grand Duke."

Her confession did the trick as Lonan shot up from his recline, his face twisting with betrayal and a fierce rage that had her tensing and holding her breath.

"What did you just say?" He asked, his voice heavy with deceptive calm but the twitching of his right eye and his fists clenched so hard, Rhea swore she saw blood, gave away his impending explosion.

"Y-you betrayed me, Lonan." She whispered, her hands fiddling with the soft fabric of her nightgown. "You brought this woman into our home and you...."

A cry was forced out of her as Lonan pounced, his large hand grabbing her hair, causing her bruised skull to throb with pain, and forced her down on the bed.

"So you whore yourself out to the first man that tolerates you!" He thundered as he climbed on top of her, his face pepper red and teeth bared, like a wild animal.

"W-wh.... N-NO!" Rhea cried out as she grabbed his wrists with both her hands, the familiarity of the position causing her chest to heave as she took panicked breaths.

"I did not do anything with him... I wouldn't dare!"

"Under my very roof," he snarled into her face, too convinced of his delusions to listen to her. "After everything I did for you! For your family! I made you a Countess when you had been nothing but some lowborn slut who would have been the mistress of some old fuck if it were up to Mother Dearest." He taunted, a cruel chuckle leaving him when her lips trembled and tears filled up her eyes.

"And yet I took you in, despite of all.... "

"I did not have sex with the Grand Duke! I swear it on my life!" Rhea insisted, through soft sobs, her hands clenching around his wrist.

"You swear it," Lonan repeated, the madness in his eyes fading to contemplation, as his hand released her hair.

"I do," Rhea affirmed as she pulled her trembling hands away from his retreating wrist and back into her chest, her wet eyes not once leaving Lonan who remained hovering over her.

He suddenly snapped out of his thoughts and his eyes trailed down to her thighs where her nightgown had gathered around her waist, in the struggle.

"You did not sleep with him?"

Rhea nodded shakily, confused eyes watching as he nodded in understanding and placed his hands on her thighs.

"Then it should be fine if I checked."

"No! Lonan, wait!"

Rhea tried to protest but his hands were already, pushing her dress up her waist, and making to pull her underwear down.

Panic gripped Rhea as she struggled against Lonan's insistent hands. Instinctively, her leg kicked out and her heel connected with his jaw, forcing a cry from him as his lip caught on his teeth and blood dribbled out of his mouth.

"Son of a...."

Lonan cursed as he yanked himself away from her flailing legs, his hands cradling his bleeding mouth that sprayed blood on her white sheets.

"Gaea!" She exclaimed, reaching out to her injured husband. "I am so sorry, My...."

"Don't." He warned, his words muffled by the blood that dripped down his chin and neck, staining his nightshirt red.

Rhea worried her bottom lip as she watched him take a seat at the edge of the bed, and lean over so that the blood dripped onto the hardwood floor.

Quietly, she poured a cup of water for him and handed it over, trying her best to remain small and unobtrusive.

The blond man received the water without a single word and downed the whole cup, blood and all.

This was the first time in seven years of marriage that Rhea had ever hit him and it left both stunned and out-of-depth.

Reconciliation after Lonan's outburst was a well-practised routine. Rhea would sulk for a couple of days as he showered her with presents and affection, and then everything would go back to normal.

But outbursts by Rhea were uncharted territory that neither had thought they would ever have to brave.

Somewhere in the distance, a cock crowed as the sun began to rise, warm yellow tendrils creeping into the quiet room and staining black yellow.

Rhea's body felt stiff and she swayed from exhaustion but she could not lay down and rest while Lonan was clutching his bruised mouth and staring at the floor with a worryingly blank expression.

"Lonan," the tired woman called out softly as she shuffled closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

A red-stained hand rested on top of her own and gave it a hard painful squeeze, that trapped her in place.

"You can't go with him," he declared, his hand clenching a little tighter around hers. "I will not allow it."

Rhea sighed tiredly and placed her forehead on their joint hands resting on his shoulder. 

"Maybe it is for the best...."

Lonan's head snapped to her, his brows pinched in astonishment. "For the best? Do you hear yourself, Rhea? You think ending our marriage and running off with a man you just met is for the best."

"That is not what I meant..."

"Have you thought of what would happen after everything settles? When he gets bored of you and moves on to his next damsel in distress? When he caves under the pressure of his circle who see lesser lords as unworthy, let alone some merchant's daughter." He spat like being the daughter of a merchant was the worst thing a person could be. 

"What will happen when he tosses you aside and you have to go crawling back to your family, used and discarded? Have you once thought about what people would say when they find out you were not even willing to try to keep our marriage together after I offered you a chance?"

"A chance," she repeated with humourless laughter, her tired eyes staring at the man like he had lost his mind. "What you are offering...."

"Is the best you are ever going to get, Rhea, and you know it." He fired back, a confident smile growing on his lips when her face fell and she shrunk into herself.

He placed a hand under her jaw, reddened by his abuse and lifted her face, forcing her eyes to meet his.

"Tell me, wife-dearest," he whispered, his thumb gently stroking the curve of her trembling lower lip, "Are you willing, with all your pride and stubborn perfectionism, to go from Countess to soon-to-be-forgotten mistress, just to get away from me?"

Rhea forced her chin out of his hold, refusing to play his sick game, but they both knew what her answer was. What her answer had to be.

Lonan's breath tickled her sensitive skin as he stepped up behind the silent ravenette and pressed a kiss to her cheek.

Rhea's fists clenched on the windowsill as she resisted the urge to break out of his hold and go chasing after the car slowly driving out the open gates and down the smooth country road that led to the Montgomery estate.

"He is probably off to his next dalliance with a woman far more powerful than both of us combined," Lonan 'comforted', with another soft kiss pressed against her neck.

"It is for the best," Rhea said, more to herself than Lonan, as she watched Augustus' black car disappear into the horizon, taking with him a piece of her that she would never get back.