The Selection without America?

Don't Cry

Maxon's POV

I've been hyping myself up for so long about talking to my father. I wasn't scared of him. Not anymore. I shouldn't be afraid of my own father. It took me a day to convince myself to talk to him. I called a meeting with him at my office. The office that used to be his.

Sometimes I would be reminded of the horrible things my dad has done to me in this very room. I need to also breath in and out and push it out of my mind. There are more important things at hand, I also told myself.

Mom and dad still lived at the palace for now. They want to be here for the birth of the child and they are staying to help take care of him or her as well.

I hear a knock at the door and my dad just comes in without any Okay from me.

"Welcome father." I smile and he just grunts like he doesn't want to look at a failure like me. "Well you might be wondering why I called you here." I push on.

"Yeah. Something like that." He says finally and takes a seat across from me. "So what is it you wanted to talk about?"

"Kriss's coronation."

"What about it?" He asks with a sudden anger in his voice.

"I don't want her to be queen. That's what." I say like I rehearsed it. I wouldn't let my father boss be around. I was king know. A king wouldn't be scared of anyone. Not even his own father.

"She's your wife Maxon! She will be queen. Maybe she won't be your queen but she will be illéa's Queen. I don't give a flying duck who you consider as your queen. Have it be the god damn America for all I care. But if you ruin this coronation I will Maxon, I will swear to end your reign." My father yelled at me and stood up in his chair and leaned on my desk. "And how dare you threaten Kriss's spot in the royal line.

His words made me shiver against my will. He was scary. Even his son would be afraid of him. And believe me he was. My father must have sensed my scaredness, that was his sixth sense, and so he threw his head back laughing.

"Oh that's cute. The great and powerful King Maxon is shivering in fear under his father like he always had. You made a very, very wrong move of bringing this up with me." He smiles wickedly. I hate that smile so much. It means just one thing. "Take your shirt off and get in the middle of the room my dear Maxon." He yells his orders at me. I abide by his orders.

I felt like a robot only able to move when my master said I could. Only do what my master orders of me. I'm useless when it came to my master. I couldn't fight him. I couldn't do anything.

I take my shirt off and he gets out the whip. I've forgotten that he hasn't cleaned out all of his things yet. The whip being one of them. I close my eyes and hold back my screams of pain and tears that want to run down my face. I don't even count the whips this time. I just try to keep breathing.

I thought it would end after the selection. It didn't. I thought it would end after marriage. It didn't. I thought maybe it would actually be done when I became king. It didn't. I guess this will never end. Well until my father died. But sadly even if he died the pain would live on. Maybe not the pain of the whip hitting my bare skin. No, the pain of having this horrible as a father.

After my father thought he was finished, for now, he put the whip back in the closet and left. He left me there all alone in my pool of blood and that's when I let one single tear escape my closed eyes. I collapsed to the floor and just lie there for a minute. I don't know how long it was, it could have been hours or seconds, who knows? I felt gentle hands on my face. The hands were cold. But the coldness of them soothed the heat in my face.

America's POV

I needed to talk to Maxon. We haven't talked in so long. I wanted to make sure he was alright. I wanted to tell him how I was and I just wanted to talk to him.

I haven't known where we have stood with each other for a long time. I plan to figure it out. Aspen was on duty and so I thought it would be the perfect time. Not because I thought aspen shouldn't know about it, more because I want to spend time with him when he is off duty.

I didn't send Maxon a letter to ask when we could talk because I didn't plan that far ahead. I guess if he really wanted to talk to me, which I hope he does too, then he would make time for me and him to talk.

I walk to his office and like always there are two guards stationed outside the doors. The look at me and don't do anything.

"Umm hey!" I say awkwardly. They keep staring at me.

"State your business." One finally said. I recognized him. He was one of Aspen's friends.

"Uhhh talk to the Prin- I mean King. What else would I be doing at his office?" I laugh nervously.

"He's in a meeting with his father." They both said together.

"Oh. Okay. Do you know when they would be done??" I ask.

"They usually take a while." One of them said. "Also you're Aspen's wife. Right?"

I was caught off guard by the subject change but I went along with it. "Yeah. We are married." I say proudly. We were finally in a good part of our marriage.

"Well not to burst your really really pink and shiny bubble but Aspen is still seeing Lucy, I mean they are just talking but he's still seeing her. If what I heard is correct you asked him not too." The guard said. I was surprised that he was actually having a normal conversation with me.

"I'll deal with that later. Also you're a horrible friend. I mean thanks for telling me this, but you're still a bad friend. Anyway did you hear about the break I'm in Kriss's room? The rebels broke in and disabled the alarms." I lie. The Garuda look at each other and nod and run down the hall to Kriss's room. Idiots.

I peek into Maxon's office. It was huge. But that's not why I was surprised. There in the middle I see Maxon with his shirt off and his father with a whip, whipping him. Maxon wasn't shedding a tear. That's how strong he was. He wasn't yelling in pain. He wasn't even flinching. He just let it happen. Maxon's father does seven more whips that I can see, no, more like hear, because I was disgusted by how cruel his father was and I couldn't watch Maxon suffer that pain. I closed my eyes and unlike Maxon I flinched every time there was a whip on skin sound.

Finally I don't hear that deafening noise anymore and I open my eyes. I see Maxon's father going and opening a cabinet and placing the bloody whip in the closet and walking towards the door. Where I was standing. He hasn't seen me yet so I dash down the hall and pretend I'm looking out into the garden.

Clarkson passes me and just snarls my way but keeps going.

"Darling where have you been!" I hear Amberly say and I look down the hall. She rushes into Clarkson's arms and kisses him. He does seems to love her. Even though I hate Clarkson I still admire Amberly. She loves Clarkson even for all his flaws. And let me tell you, there are a lot.

I go back to Maxon's office. Instead of standing he's on the ground and it looks like he's sleeping. I rush to his side and check his pulse. It's still there. I touch his face. It was burning up. Blood covered the floor. He slowly opened his eyes.

He whispered one thing. "America."

Hey!! Sorry I wasn't able to post earlier I didn't have WiFi and it wasn't connecting!! I hope you liked... I mean I hope you didn't like that Maxon got beaten during this chapter, but I hope you are enjoying the plot and where I am taking this story so far! Please please comment and vote!!

I will post again 7/22/18

Spoiler: America takes care of Maxon.