𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 | 𝟏𝟖+

LILY

018. PANDORAS BOX

"Let me get this straight. You're telling me he's here," I blink coldly at her.

Kim's expression was the same as when I had woken in a cold sweat, speechless. "I didn't know where Royce was going. He just left without explanation."

I cross my arms, fuming at the information that spilled from Kim's mouth. When I woke again, Kim had been sitting beside me with red-rimmed eyes. My hand in her grasp flinched, alerting her that I was waking up. She went ballistic, going on and on about Royce, and I pounced as soon as the name, Xavier, escaped her mouth. I cut off her ranting. "Kim, I can't do this right now. Are you saying he's in the house? In this house?!" My voice spiked in volume, and my heart twigged when she flinched at my aggression but hardened again at the thought of Royce bringing him here. "WHAT THE FU-Where is Royce? And don't lie to me, Kim," I say lividly.

Kim hesitated, shaking her head rapidly. "Kim," I sigh in exhaustion. Her expression was skeptical, but she gave in once seeing my unwavering expression.

"They're in the basement," she whispers.

I shot out of my seated position and raced out of the door, becoming deaf to Kim's pleas. I was infuriated, livid, and rabid.

Stomping my way to the basement door and swung it open so hard it bounced off the wall. I came down like a bull on a rampage, and it didn't take long to find them because of how small the space was.

"What the actual FUCK, Royce!" I shout.

Royce tilted his head in my direction but said nothing, a silent acknowledgment of my presence. My chest heaves and I brush past the pain as I walk up to him and forcefully turn Royce around.

"Hey babe, nice of you to join the party," Axel speaks up over the tense silence from Royces' left.

"Shove it, Axel." I clench my teeth. He defensively raises his hands, leaning against the wall behind him. I narrow my gaze display in front of me. "Doesn't this seem like a similar scenario?"

Royce remained cool as a cucumber. "So it seems, Lilian, so it seems."

"Why the fuck is he here?" I gritted my teeth tighter.

Xavier raised his head at the apparent attention, giving me a bloody smile with a twinkle in his once pristine eyes. "Princess, welcome to the party." His eyes trailed over my body with swollen eyes, analyzing me as I got closer. I stopped a short distance beside Royce and glared at them both harshly.

"I want to kill you both right now. You know that, right?" I directed my question to Royce while staring hard into Xavier's eyes. Royce chuckled half-heartedly. "I figured as much."

I huff. "You didn't answer my question." Once I gained his full attention, my breath hitches in my throat. He looked the same as I last saw him, only he was rugged, splotches of blood coated his usually pressed shirt. His skin shined with a thin layer of sweat, and the wrinkly white button-up strained against his solid arms. His stance was tense and unwavering, brimming with hostility. My resentment wavered at the murderous glint in his eye, but I refused to step down until I got answers. Dad always said I had my mother's stubbornness, same with Winnie.

"We were just having a friendly discussion la mia rosa," Royce says nonchalantly, tugging roughly on the back of Xavier's head of bloodied hair, causing him to grunt in pain. Royce's hardened tone made goosebumps rise everywhere as he gazed my eyes with his chiseled jaw clenched vehemently. I had the urge to trace it. "Why is he here?" I press.

"We went to his house searching for answers and came up empty, but...." Axel began to speak, but his tone was hesitant. He glanced at me, noting my suspicious gaze. "What?" I persisted. Sure, Axel was playful most of the time, and I've seen my fair share of seriousness, but Axel, hesitant? This must be serious, and the idea unnerved me.

"We found him in a basement with a woman around your age. He had drugged her and was using her against her will," Royce spits, tugging Xaviers' hair again.

That was the tip of the iceberg. I stood frozen, my blood turning cold. Suddenly all those nightmares I tried so hard to forget came rushing back. My heart rippled harshly and I shudder as my body flinches.

He raped her.

He drugged her.

He had drugged her and used her against her will.

Royce's voice replayed in my mind in violent tremors, a virus that didn't want to leave and permanently implanted itself into my head. Itchiness flanked my skin like hives, and I began to pick at the skin around my fingernails. A habit I had picked up back in middle school when I had horrible social anxiety.

Pick.

Pick.

Pick.

I stopped, wincing when I unintentionally pulled the skin too far back. How could something hurt so good?

"Before we left, I rechecked for any information and found these," Axels' deep voice brought me back from my thoughts, and what he presented on a table made me stiffen.

A white box.

I know that box. It had my name on it, and I feared what was inside.

Axles eyes furrowed. "I picked it out from a metal cabinet in the basement." A grimace pulled on my lips, and my chest constricted.

I had told myself to be brave and smart, but most of all, to be kind. I thought I'd prepared myself for almost anything thrown in my face, but not this. My walls began to dissolve under pressure by the unsettling feeling that pooled into my stomach and flooded my lungs.

"Lily, Why is your name on these tapes?" Axel asks.

There it was. The wall had crumbled and disintegrated into nothingness. I had told myself I didn't deserve love and fidelity for the longest. Over time, my heart had creased into specks of what I used to be because what I am now is a façade. I was ruined by a man who didn't deserve me, and I allowed it because I was scared.

I exhale shakily at the shimmer stirring in Xavier's blackened eyes. "I see you remember the good times, sweetheart." He smiles sickly with bloodied teeth.

"Shut up," I seeth, clenching my fist until I felt the crescents of my finger nails.

Axel groaned in disgust. "Oh god, I forgot you slept with the enemy. Sex tapes? Lily, what were you thinking?" His words, unbeknownst to him, cut like a knife.

Yeah, Lily, what were you thinking?

The voice constantly taunted me to remind me what I felt, how I let him come onto me. Royce's gaze changed significantly when he noticed I was struggling, and I begged myself not to look in his direction. He shifted towards me quietly, his brows furrowed deeply with an ounce of concern. Oh god.

"Lily?" Axel's voice spoke with worry.

I opened my mouth to say something-anything really, but nothing. I allow my built-up anger to consume me. A burning began in my gut, expression blank, eyes cold, and a tremendous rush of reality swam into me. "Those aren't sex tapes....those are rape tapes."

The silence that came after was deafening, and all I could do was stare blankly at the giant white box that had essentially held all the trauma I endured in my two-year relationship with Xavier.

"Oh shit," Axel whispered.