Yvan laughed mockingly. "Since you already call me cruel, I feel like I'd be letting you down if I didn't live up to that title."
Matilda tried to wrench herself free, but Yvan grabbed both her wrists. She screamed, "Let go of me!"
She was thrown heavily onto the couch. Yvan ripped her blouse and used it to tie her hands behind her back.
His face was a terrifying mask of anger. "Beg me, Matilda! Beg, and I might spare you."
"Are you insane?" Matilda tried to sit up, but Yvan pinned her down. "Is your ego so fragile? Do you think I'm still that naive girl who once loved you?"
Her words cut Yvan deeply, and his eyes turned red with rage. "This is not a place for your tantrums, Matilda!"
He forced her face down into the couch, lifting her shirt to reveal her slender waist and... a cursive tattoo.
NIGHTMARE
Each letter was etched into her skin, woven into her bloodstream.
There was a band named NIGHTMARE from Suntopia Country, and Matilda felt that name had truly become her own personal nightmare.
Yvan's gaze fixed on the tattoo, and all at once, his movements halted.
Time seemed to stop as breaths were held and pulses slowed. His pupils dilated and then contracted sharply at the sound of Matilda's choked sob.
"Don't you dare touch my tattoo with your filthy hands!"
Yvan recoiled as if he'd been electrocuted, staring at his fingers, still warm from her touch. He couldn't understand his loss of control, the mere sight of his name on Matilda's body...
It was a mark of a love that had once been, now a cruel joke.
Tears rimmed Matilda's eyes. "Let me go."
But Matilda laughed.
"Love? Yvan, you destroyed my love with your own hands."
It was as if a thousand arrows pierced his heart.
Yvan let her go, then in a panic, grabbed her again, flipping her over as he loomed above her. His handsome face was frosted over with a terrifying cold.
"If you think you need to break me to have me, you're wasting your time!" Tears still lingered in Matilda's eyes as she mocked him with a bitter laugh. "Why don't you just build a kennel and lock me up? Yvan, you have room for everyone in your life but me!"
Her audacity was growing, using such words to provoke him!
"Don't think I won't do it," Yvan's fingers tightened one by one. She dared to provoke him because there was nothing left for him to threaten her with! He had already lost everything in her eyes, even his son!
"I'm telling you, try and push me again. I've got nothing left to lose, and I'm capable of anything!"
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