Chapter 3

Renee

"No, I'm sorry but I can't let you in," the stony-faced castle guard at the gate said.

"Excuse me?" I asked, brows inching up to almost my hairline, "What do you mean by that? This is my home. It's me, Renee, Levi’s wife”

If I was expecting the man to suddenly start apologizing and opening the gates, I was sorely disappointed. He stared at me with irritation, "We have clear orders from his highness not to let you in. And to remove you through any means necessary if you try to defy his orders”

Shock rendered me speechless for a few moments, "No. This is impossible! It has to be a mistake. Call Levi. Or Rosalie, even the maids. They will confirm that I'm supposed to be in there"

"You're creating a scene. You are not supposed to be in there”

"And I'll continue to create one till this mistake has been cleared up," I said desperately. It had to be a mistake. The guard had to have gotten me mixed up with someone else.

Even as I assured myself with those words, a strange feeling had began to settle in the pit of my stomach and there was an awful niggling in my head. Something was wrong.

Something was really really wrong.

"What's all the noise about?" Rosalie's high-pitched voice snapped.

I glanced through the bars of the high gate and saw her approaching in a black skin-tight leather jump suit and high heels. She looked even more sexy and breathtaking than usual, but there was a cruel smirk on her mouth that was foreign on her face.

"Rosalie," I let out a breath of relief, "I'm so glad you're here. I woke up at the healing home and you weren't there”

She unlocked the gate and to my surprise, she stepped out and latched it behind her, "What are you doing here, Renee?"

"what do you mean by that? This is my home”

Her face screwed up in an expression of disgust, "Your home? You're mistaken. You don't have a home. You're a penniless, street rat with a hideous face who should have been put down like a dog years ago”

I staggered back as the force of her words hit me and I rushed to brush my long hair forward to cover the left side of my face which had the majority of the scarring. Suddenly, I felt like the me of a year ago again. The Renee who had walked around with her head down, weak, terrified and miserable.

"Wh-what are you saying? This isn't you? Where's my husband?”

I felt the sting as her knuckles smashed against the side of my face, knocking me down to the ground and ridding me of my words.

"Don't you dare call him yours. Levi is mine!" She snarled, "Do you know how disgusting it was to watch you everyday stare at him with your moony eyes? How humiliating it was to pretend to be his friend? You can't imagine what I've been through for the past year while a hideous creature like you wrapped her hands around my man repeatedly in my presence”

My mind was trying and failing to compute what I was hearing and seeing. My husband was her man? How was it possible?

"You're lying! Why are you lying? Stop being so cruel”

Her eyes flared with hatred, "shut up! I feel like throwing up just looking at you. How could you ever think that an heir, good looking man like Levi would ever, ever, stoop so low as to pick an interest in you and marry you? How delusional of you”

Something caught my eye over her shoulder and I looked past her to see my husband leaning against the a pillar, puffing on a cigarette. Since when did he start smoking? Had everything I had known about him been a lie?

"Why did you do this?" I screamed at him, "If I was so disgusting to you, you should have just left me alone to continue my suffering!”

He rolled his eyes and tossed his cigarette to the floor, "Stop wasting time, love. Get rid of her”

"No!" I screamed, trying to scramble to my feet, and race after him, "I love you. Please don't do this. Don't break the last pieces of my heart. I'm your wife, your mate! You felt the bond too didn't you? Our bond!"

Letting out an annoyed growl, Rosalie caught my hair in her hands and yanked me back. I screamed, falling back to the ground.

She stared down at me with amusement, "You're not his wife, bitch," she raised her hand to showcase a heavy diamond ring sparkling on her fingers, "I'm his wife. His true mate! You didn't feel any bond, you were only convinced you felt something because he is handsome and he gave you butterflies! We were married long before you came into the picture. And I'll continue to be his wife long after you leave the picture. The marriage documents you signed were all fabricated, the vows, all lies!”

Tears streamed down my eyes freely, blurring my vision and I felt my stitched together heart rip all over again. I had been played for a fool, and it was all my own fault for having big dreams and hopes.

"My child," I whispered, "Just give me my child and I'll leave"

Rosalie threw her head laugh and a peal of laughter tore out of her painted red lips, "You should really have died in that home. I had a feeling you would be trouble”

The words I had thought had been from a horrible dream echoed through my head, 'Leave the bitch to rot' It hadn't been a nightmare after all.

"I just want my child," I sobbed.

Laughing, she turned to the guards standing behind her, "Finish her off"

Before I realized what was happening, kicks and punches were raining down on me from every direction. I screamed and sobbed and begged till I couldn't do them anymore, and then I curled into a ball on the ground and prepared to die.

"Ugly little monster," Rosalie hissed, "I'm doing you a favor by ending your miserable existence. There's nothing left for you anyways"

And then she bent to her knees and reached for my hair.

"No, please," I croaked weakly as I felt the first snip, my long hair falling off my head as Rosalie sliced through it, ignoring my weak pleas.

"And as a parting gift," she drawled, voice full of delight. A burn of pain ripped through my face as she dragged the sharp tip of the scissors down the unscarred side of my face, engraving a thick line from my hairline down to my jaw.

I screamed in pain as blood began to pour down my pain.

"Rest in pieces, Renee"

I lay there, feeling my life slip away, too drained to even cry. I may have lived my whole life with a horribly scarred face and been branded a monster, but that day, I realized that there were people worse than monsters.