After I Finally Became His Perfect Donna Chapter 05

After I Finally Became His Perfect Donna Chapter 05

When his kiss landed, I endured it obediently the entire time. I didn’t flinch.

He looked at my face, pale with pain, and let out a low laugh.

“The Academy really did tame that temper of yours. In the old days, if I’d hurt you like this, you would’ve

kicked me off the bed.”

He buried his face in the curve of my neck, his voice barely above a murmur. “After all these years, you’ve

finally learned to behave.”

“Lyra, as long as you stay this obedient, the position of Donna will always be yours.”

“Later, I’ll have Mike transferred to your name. We’ll raise him together. The three of us, a real family. How

does that sound?”

I stared at the ceiling. “Sounds good.”

Whatever he said sounded good.

The knock came while he was still in bed. Dorian stopped.

Mike stood in the doorway clutching a pillow, sobbing so hard his voice was raw. “Daddy, I had a nightmare. I

want Daddy to sleep with me.”

Dorian glanced at me, then finally pulled on his clothes and stood up.

“Get some sleep. I’ll go check on him.”

The door closed. I sat up and cleaned the blood from between my legs.

I was on my way downstairs to get medicine when I ran into Mireille.

She was standing at the top of the staircase, as if she’d been waiting for me.

Her gaze traveled slowly from the marks on my neck to my face, lingering there.

“You know, these past few years while you were gone, Dorian was very good to me.”

Her voice was soft. “So why did you have to come back?”

Before I could answer, she shoved a knife into my hand, then grabbed my wrist and drove the blade into her

own forearm.

Blood sprayed out, warm, spattering across the back of my hand.

“Dorian, help me…”

By the time Dorian burst out of the nursery, I was still holding the knife.

Mireille lay in a pool of blood. Mike ran out barefoot, screaming for his mommy.

“Lyra, what the hell did you do!”

Mireille’s eyes brimmed with tears. “Lyra, why do you want to kill me? Can you really not stand me being

here?”

It wasn’t me. She grabbed my hand and did it to herself.

I opened my mouth. “It wasn’t me… she did it herself…”

The slap came, and I turned my face with it.

Blood seeped from the corner of my mouth. I tasted iron.

Dorian towered over me, his eyes full of that familiar fury and disappointment.

“You’re going to tell me she grabbed your hand and stabbed herself?”

“Lyra, there’s a limit to how much you can lie.”

He crouched down, lifted Mireille with exquisite care, and tore his own shirt to stanch the bleeding.

When he looked at me again, there was nothing left in his eyes but ice.

“You saved Mireille last time. I thought you’d really changed. I started to wonder if the Academy had mistreated you, if you’d been suffering. I sent people to investigate. I even regretted sending you there.”

“But you…”

He turned his face away, as if he couldn’t bear to look at me for one more second.

“Go back to the Academy, or just go ahead and die. Lyra, don’t make me choose for you.”

I went numb. My body shook with terror.

I didn’t want to die. I didn’t want to go back to the Academy. I didn’t want to choose.

I searched Dorian’s face in a panic, tracing every line from his brow bone to his eyes to his clenched lips,

looking for any sign of softening.

There was none.

He meant it.

When I didn’t move, he lost patience. His eyes went dark and venomous as he gave the order. “Take her away.

Send her back to the Academy. Tell them to discipline her properly. And if they still can’t fix her…”

Before the guards could drag me out, my head was spinning, and I stumbled toward the door in a daze.

All the composure and obedience I’d spent years learning seemed to evaporate in that moment.

In my panic, I tripped over something. My knee split open andbled, but I didn’t care.

There was only one thought in my head: I cannot go back there.

Even death was better than being locked inside that place again, where even the number of breaths you

was counted.

I didn’t want to be examined like livestock anymore. And I didn’t want… to love Dorian anymore.

Behind me, Mireille let out a soft whimper, as if the pain was too much to bear.

took

All I heard was Dorian calling her name, urgent and tender. “Mireille, hang on. The ambulance is almost here.”

Mike stood barefoot on the cold floor, crying out, “Mommy! Mommy!”

Everyone was gathered around Mireille. No one looked at me.

Outside was Manhattan at night, the streets nearly empty. I walked along the road until I reached the river.

Beneath the bridge, the water churned fast and dark. I climbed over the railing and took one step forward.

Then I jumped.