President's Daughter's Bodyguard-Chapter 73: Where Monsters Are Born

Chapter 73: Where Monsters Are Born

Danielle’s cheek felt like it was being roasted from Ethan’s slap. Her ears started to ring and the lights above her hummed like insects feeding on her fear.

The strap pressed into her ribs so tightly that each breath felt like a battle lost before it even began.

Ethan who was standing before her and admired his work like a sculptor who believed pain was art.

Danielle’s pulse fluttered weakly. She wished she could hate him without shaking, wishing she could erase the fear stuck in her bones. But everything about Ethan was designed to break strong hearts.

"Every time you speak back to me," he spoke gently, "someone pays. Sometimes you pay. Sometimes someone else pays. But someone always pays."

Danielle lowered her gaze, but not to submit, but to remember that she still had something inside herself to protect-dignity, identity, and hope that Theo lived.

Ethan noticed her silence and smiled. Not pleased, of course...but he was curious.

"You want to know why I became this? Why I do what I do. Why you will never escape me."

Danielle swallowed hard and said nothing. She didn’t want to know him, but he wanted her to understand who held the power in this room. Ethan wanted to show her the foundation of cruelty and call it truth.

He stepped away and turned his back to her. His voice began like a bleeding memory crawling back into the present.

"Not so long ago, there was a boy who thought the world was fair. He thought that if he followed rules and protected the weak, then he would be loved. Because that is what stories teach children. That good boys are rewarded."

Ethan paced slowly.

"But in our country..." he continued, "the weak are prey. The good die first. And powerful men rewrite truth with their own lies."

Danielle felt something cold grip her spine. He was not speaking to her. He was speaking to himself. The pain was not a performance, but stitched into his skin.

"I trusted a man...who was supposed to protect me," Ethan looked above. "He was powerful. He had a uniform. He had the country in his pocket. He promised to protect my mother and me. My mother was forced to pretend she was grateful to that man to survive."

His jaw tightened as his hands curled into fists.

"One night...she refused him."

Danielle felt her chest go still.

"He came drunk. He demanded she serve him like she was a pet. She said no. She said no so loudly that even the maida heard her. And do you know what he did?" Ethan asked.

His voice shook as rage twisted his features...

"He hit her...Right in front of me. I held her while she fell apart like glass. I begged him to stop. I begged him to let her breathe. But he looked down on us like we were ants. And he said..."

Ethan’s voice darkened. "Life only has value when I decide it does."

Danielle felt tears prick her eyes. She didn’t pity him. She feared what trauma could mold a human into.

Ethan corried on with the story..

"I learned that night that rules are illusions. Justice is a puppet, and children are just toys for powerful men."

He turned to her again. Danielle saw the boy he used to be. A boy covered in blood he could not wash off.

"That man was the first person I wanted to kill..I wanted to slit his throat with the same knife he used to threaten her...wait until he was asleep with a smile on his face."

Danielle shook her head as tears slipped down her cheeks. "Who is he...?"

Ethan’s smile returned and it was not bitter this time...

"The former President," he said. "Your father’s ex best friend. The one he replaced."

Danielle’s breath collapsed. "My father... knows him."

"Yes...And your father never punished him. He covered it up. He let my mother be humiliated. And then Elias took control of the country like a king who stole someone else’s throne."

Danielle felt her heart tear open. Her father already terrified her. Now he haunted her.

"So do not tell me I am the villain here," Ethan whispered. "I am the consequence. I am the answer to men like your father."

He reached out and wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of his finger.

"That is why you are not allowed to hate me," Ethan murmured. "You and I are made from the same crime. You suffer because of him. I kill because of him."

Danielle tried to speak past her pain. "You... are nothing like me. You choose to hurt people. I choose to stop people like you."

"If you were strong enough to stop me, you would not be tied to this chair."

Danielle forced herself to meet his eyes. "Theo will come... and he will kill you."

"Theo is bleeding out in the street like roadkill. He will die long before he reaches you."

Danielle’s heart sank like an old ship but she didn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing it break.

Ethan stood up and signaled two men. They approached her with new equipment. Sharp metal glinted under the lights. The straps on her chest tightened again...

"We will go live tomorrow morning in front of the entire country...But tonight... Tonight is for us."

He circled behind her and his fingers brushed the back of her neck. She felt bruises blooming before his touch even landed. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"You will learn to break beautifully," Ethan hushed into her neck. "And your father will watch every second."

Danielle closed her eyes and pictured Theo’s hands on hers. His voice calling her bunny and the promise he made even in the middle of death.

’I am coming for you, Danielle...’

She repeated the words in her mind like a prayer or a spell...

Ethan leaned close to her ear and his breath chilled...

"Cry," he murmured. "Because I am not done yet."

Danielle refused. Her tears stayed in her eyes, trapped by the fire that still lived inside her.

The men around them waited for Ethan’s signal.

And Ethan smiled like the wolf he had always been.

"Let us begin." He gave her a kiss on her neck.