Rose and Thorns

Chapter 2

Warning: This Chapter contains disturbing scenes. Skip it if you like. And if you decide to read it, please try to keep a broad mind. 

JASMINE

“Momma, butterfly..” Miguel proudly displayed his artwork to his mother who was sprawled beside him on the floor.

“Wow, Migu! You are becoming a great artist day by day..” Jazmine got hold of the sheet and commented, looking mesmerized by her baby’s scribbling. “We will frame this and hang it in your room, what say?”

Miguel nodded with a wide smile liking the idea. “Yes, momma..” He clapped his tiny hands together in excitement but his expression soon turned upside down when the door was thrown open and there stood his father, looking dark and dangerous like always. The little boy began to tremble upon seeing his father’s scary smile that was plastered on his lips.

His father never smiled and was always cold to him. Miguel wondered how his dad would look when he smiled but now that he was seeing his smile, he thought he looked even more threatening this way.

“Take him out, Mina..” Victor Commanded Miguel’s nanny who was standing in the room.

“Yes, Patron..” She bowed and carried Miguel out of the room to give the couple some privacy.

Jazmine slowly got up on her feet, her fingers fiddling with one another. The last few days were like heaven for her without having to see this cruel man. She got to know from Sarah that he was on a deadly mission.

How much she prayed for the mission to really turn deadly so that this man would never return back home but like always God turned a deaf ear towards her.

“I’m very happy today..” He strode in front of her and his hands traced her slender neck, then traveling down to her chest where he gave a harsh squeeze. Jasmine closed her eyes and tried to remain calm. Her skin crawled under his touch.

Jazmine Garcia was born into an influential mafia family in Venezuela where men were treated like gods while women like shit. The women had no say or power like the men in the family. They were bred like cattle, just meant for a powerful marriage alliance and to bore power-hungry heirs to the family.

However, Jazmine was different from all those women around her. She despised being born into such a family whose hands were tainted with innocent blood. She wanted nothing but to escape this hell. 

Since she reminded her father of his late mother, he was a bit lenient to her when compared to his other two daughters. Taking advantage of that, she grew up to become rebellious and stubborn. The man who was cruel to everyone around him showed love for her openly and let her do what she liked. She was the only woman in her family who was allowed to get basic education and also the only one who could handle arms and ammunition, but the situation didn’t go on like that forever. The moment the old man was killed, he was succeeded by his eldest son.

Jazmine's brother never liked the special care and treatment that she was getting from his late father. She was becoming a nuisance and a poor example to the other woman in the household. The first thing he did was forcefully marry her to Victor Gonzalez, a union that was really essential for both the families. From one hell she ended up into another one, a more dangerous one. 

Jazmine had come across many monsters in her life. Her father, her three elder brothers, and two brothers-in-law were all monsters but no one was a match to what Victor was. He was a ruthless, insane, and sick beast disguised in the skin of a human. There were no words to describe his animosity.  

She had been living with this man for four years now and in all those years she had tried to fall in love with him. She tried to look for anything, even the smallest good thing that would make her fall in love with him but all in vain. There was nothing good about this man. He was purely deluded, diabolical and a despicable man who possessed a black heart.

“Now, won’t you ask why?” He demanded.

Jazmine let out a trembling yelp when he pinched her taut bud. She felt like vomiting every single time he touched her but the years have taught her that disrespecting the merciless Victor would end very badly for her.

“Why?” She asked in a monotone, even though she had no interest in getting to know the reason for his happiness. What could be it other than Victor harming a poor soul and taking pleasure from it?

Thankfully he withdrew his hand away from her body and took several steps backward and stretched his hands out, “I am now the new Mafia boss..” He announced audaciously.

“Aren’t you happy for your husband?” He walked around her, his eyes remaining fixed on her tanned skin which shone even under the dim lights above them. Her thick black waves cascaded down to her curvy hip which never failed to make him lose control. Victor’s hand outlined her delicate and petite figure from behind her which was fanning his lust for her.

The first time he saw her, Jazmine was just eighteen. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid eyes on. His first thought was to claim her as his property.

He needed a wife who would be a slave, his personal whore and basically someone who would jump into a pyre without a second thought if he asked her to but Jazmine turned out to be a total disappointment.

He had never come across anyone like her. Every woman he had known feared, obeyed, and respected him for what he was. Most of them offered themselves on a platter to Victor happily. They were dying to sleep with him but Jazmine was the only one alive who had challenged him with her feistiness.

On their first night, she didn’t want him to touch her and he had to take her by force. She gave up at the end but not before putting up a fight with him. That day he had possessed her body by force but that was not enough for Victor. He wanted to possess her mind and soul as well. He wanted to break her confidence that she held very highly but he knew it wouldn’t be so easy. It would take years to tame this fierce bitch but he wasn’t one to back away easily.

Rape, physical torture and mental torment, Victor had done everything in his power to inflict pain upon her. Any other woman in her place would have given up and submitted to him long ago but Jazmine was the epitome of endurance. She had been to hell and back but never once bent down to Victor. She learned that he was a dangerous psychopath who liked to feed on others' pain and fear but she wasn’t going to give him that pleasure too easily. She would die before something like that happened.

If Mafia blood ran in Victor’s veins, so it did in her veins too. Every time he broke her, she collected her broken pieces and rose even more powerful than before.

Victor had to admit, he admired her courage and the will to fight back. That became the driving force for Victor to torture her even more than the previous day.

Just like he desired, he was successful in enslaving her mind a year after their wedding, when he got her pregnant with their first child. Personally, Victor despised children. He wasn’t particularly interested in having a child but he was sure his son was his only means to destroy Jazmine’s mind and soul which she was too proud of. 

Jazmine felt utterly disgusted to carry the child impregnated by that bastard. She wanted nothing to connect her life with that monstrous human being. She felt like she was carrying a leech inside her and immediately wanted to get rid of it. But all her plans became failures and she ended up giving birth to their son, Miguel.

At first, she hated and rejected him. He was a constant reminder of her ruined life and so she turned her back on the poor baby.

Even though she was a strong-headed woman she wasn’t cruel like Victor to ignore her own baby. She couldn’t continue to act coldly towards the baby forever. He was innocent and she didn’t want him to suffer for something which was not his fault. She learned to love her baby boy. Miguel was the only part of Victor that she couldn’t hate and had accepted over the years.

That turned out to be in Victor's favor. As years passed, Victor used Miguel to make Jasmine submit to him and it thrilled him beyond explanation.

“Why should I be happy for it?” Jazmine remained unaffected under his vandalizing eyes. She knew how this night was going to end but she was prepared for the worse for the sake of her son. Years of living with this man had taught her to sacrifice.

Miguel was growing faster and he was smarter than any other child of his age. She could see that her little boy had started asking her questions every time he noticed his mom’s reddened and swollen eyes. He somehow felt that his father was behind his mom’s pain and he had begun to hate him for that.

Jazmine was aware that Miguel would someday become part of this treacherous mobster family but that didn’t mean she wanted him to turn into a devil, like his father. She wished his childhood to be happy and normal even though the chances were very slim. She didn’t want her child to worry about his parents so she put up a happy mask in front of him.

“Strip..” Victor’s cold voice fell into her ears causing her to gulp. She watched how his face turned hard all of a sudden. She quickly went to close the door.

“What are you doing?” He stopped her by gripping onto her wrist.

She flinched in pain, “Going to close the door..”

“Did I ask you to do that?” He asked, rubbing his slightly bearded cheek.

“No..” She replied gruffly and remained rooted in the place.

“Good, just do what I said..” He peeled off his suit jacket and hurled it on the sofa.

Jazmine’s heart thudded against her sternum to think of having sex with the door opened.

What if Miguel or someone else walked in? 

Oh god please save me.

What better way than to beg?

I am doing this for my child.

I am doing this for my child.

She kept repeating it mentally.

“Please Victor, let me at least close the door. Please..” She begged, shoving aside her already damaged pride.

Victor came in front of her, loosening his tie and touched her cheek which had a deep cut, “Hmm, you know I love to see you beg like this. It makes me go hard for you.. but no amount of your begging is going to make me change my mind..”

“Victor, Miguel might see us..” She tried to make him understand and didn’t hesitate about it.

“Then let him. One day or another he will grow into a man and he needs to know all these things..” He claimed without a bit of shame.

Jazmine cringed at his sickening words. “I’m not letting you touch me unless you close the fucking door..” She hissed.

“Do you want me to fuck you in the living room? You know I would do it if I want and you can do nothing about it..” He snarled, displaying his perfect set of teeth. “Don’t make me repeat my words..”

With that said, Jazmine shut her mouth. He snapped the knot at the nape of her neck, making the thin satin material gather at the floor and exposing her honey-colored skin which was marred with scars. He didn’t feel sorry for giving her those marks because he believed she deserved every single one of them for disrespecting him.

Jazmine’s hands came up to cover her nakedness while Victor perched on the couch running his eyes all over her. The muscles at his arms stood out and flexed under his white shirt but nothing worked on Jazmine. She hated his mere existence and no matter how attractive he looked on the outside, it couldn’t change her opinion about him or make her fall for him.

 “Come, ride me..” He ordered crudely. Jazmine wanted nothing more than to disappear into thin air.

With gritted teeth, fisted palms, and chest rising and falling out of fury, she went to straddled him just the way he wanted her to. Her eyes remained glued to the door, praying silently that no one entered through it.

Anger, hurt and sadness were all suffocating her. She concealed the emotions that were scattered everywhere around her.

Victor released his fully stretched manhood from his pants and made her sit just where it would give him pleasure. He bent forward and inhaled her sweet scent. Like her name, she smelled of newly bloomed Jasmine along with a tinge of orange and lilac.

Without warning, he entered her. Since she wasn’t aroused, his intrusion was unbearable for her. Jasmine had to hold on to something to steady herself but even if she was going to fall into a deep hole, she would happily fall but not touch him.

“Start moving..” He groaned. Jazmine squeezed her palms into a ball on her sides and obeyed him.

She bit her lip to stop any sounds from escaping her mouth. If she made any sound it was because of the pain he was giving her but this psychopath would stupidly assume that it was because of pleasure and she didn’t want to give him that fake satisfaction. She knew how much he hated it when she didn’t respond to his touches and she was going to do that exactly.

Suddenly his hand came up to curl around her neck when he saw how lifeless her eyes were. It pissed him off but he didn’t want to ruin his mood by dealing with this adamant bitch. Closing his eyes, he buried his face into her perky breasts and the softness of her hardened peaks drove him crazy. Ignoring Jazmine’s needs, he kept chasing after his own pleasure.

She waited for him to be done with her soon so she could end her misery. And very soon she sighed with relief when she felt him stop moving inside her.

Finally.

She was going to move away from him when he grabbed her waist harshly.

“I have another reason to be happy today.” He grinned evilly, “I have successfully broken you completely. You have finally learned to obey, respect, and worship your husband after so many years. Now your body, mind and soul are my slaves. I can do whatever I want with y..”

Spit

He was mid-sentence when Jazmine shocked him by spitting on his face. She herself didn’t understand from where she got so much courage. She hurriedly got up and pulled a robe over her body. “I will never be your slave. Feed that in your messed up brain..” She yelled.

Victor brought his hand up to wipe the spit off his face before slowly getting up on his feet. The hard tick of his jaw muscles was proof of his fury and that made Jazmine swallow hard and take a step back.

He quietly went to the fireplace and took hold of the fire rod which is used to adjust the coal and wood. With his fatal glint still piercing on Jazmine, he placed it into the fire for a couple of minutes.

“I will teach you a lesson today so that you will never think of doing something like this again..”

Jazmine took a sharp inhale when she realized what he was planning to do with the burning red iron. Victor didn’t give her time to even breathe before he hauled her on the bed, simultaneously pulling both her legs up in the air so that the sole of her feet was facing him.

“AHhh…” She screamed her heart out when the blazing hot rod came in contact with her skin, immediately burning the area under her feet.

“Does it pain? No?” He walked back to the fireplace and heated the piece of metal.

“No.. please.. Don’t do it.. Leave me..” Jazmine began to crawl back on the mattress but with her burnt feet it was becoming a difficult chore.

Holding her ankles, he jerked her to the edge of the bed and pressed the rod once again on both her soles, making her cry out loud. Tears started to roll down her cheeks this time.

“Pl-please, I’m s-sorry..” She couldn’t form words yet forced herself to beg him. The pain was intolerable and heart-wrenching. She couldn’t handle it anymore, after all, she was just a normal human being made up of flesh and bones.

“You should be.. Fucking bitch..” He cursed as he threw the long rod harshly, which made a loud clanking noise as it hit the marbled floor.

Her body shook as she tried to swallow her cries and overcome the shooting pain which radiated throughout her body. She didn’t want to show her weakness in front of this sick son of a bitch. She flinched when she heard the loud bang of the door and when she turned back, Victor was nowhere in the room.

Now that she was left alone a series of wet cries escaped Jazmine’s lips before she completely broke down.

“God, it hurts.. Really hurts..” She whimpered when she folded her legs to inspect the burn wounds. The skin was peeling off and she could see the tissue beneath. It was clear that she wouldn’t be able to walk until it healed.

“Why? Why did you do it? Why didn’t you just let him insult you? This isn’t something new to you? Then why?” She scolded herself and fell back on the bed. She tried to sleep but the soreness was so great that it couldn’t be ignored.

She placed her heels down on the floor and tried to reach the closet where she had stored the first aid kit. She stumbled a couple of times but somehow managed to grab it and come back to the bed.

“Let god punish you for this. I hope you die badly. May you be granted with death even worse than a dog..” She kept mumbling curses from the bottom of her heart while applying the ointment on her burnt feet.  She winced and cried every time the cool gel touched the injured skin. She popped a painkiller into her mouth.

Even in the pain, she worried about what she was going to tell her son when he asked about her condition. She was certain the little fellow wouldn’t believe in her lies. She carelessly wiped her fingers on her robe to clean the gel off it and laid her head on the pillow. The effect of her medicine kicked in and soon she fell asleep.

****************************************************************

The next day when she woke up, her heart almost burst out in shock. Victor was coolly sitting on the couch with Miguel standing between his legs, eagerly exploring a semiautomatic pistol in his small hands.

“Miguel no..” She screamed. Totally forgetting her bad legs. she jumped out of the bed but soon fell on the floor with a loud thud. The sharp pain shot through her body and that’s when she remembered the events from the previous night. “AHh..”

“Momma..” With the gun still between his hands, Miguel came running to his mother.

Jazmine knew how dangerous a semiautomatic pistol could be. Just a wrong touch and it could turn out into a bloody hell. She didn’t care about herself and quickly yet carefully grabbed away the gun from his hands.

Her eyes traveled to the devil who was watching it all with a fascinated smile.

“Have you lost your mind to let him touch it?” She yelled at him, pulling her son closer into her chest. “What were you thinking, Miguel? From where did you get that?”

The little guy didn’t get to answer when his dad interrupted, “He will be my heir to my empire and I don’t want him to grow up without knowing how to use a fucking pistol..” He spoke in a collected tone.

“And what made you think I will let him follow your path?” She seethed angrily.

“I will not regret breaking your mouth which is currently spatting only shit..” He warned in his murderously cold tone.

She turned to her son and held his tender shoulders roughly, “Look here Miguel, promise me you will never touch that thing again. Promise me..” She screamed, causing his to weep.

“Remember, he is as good as dead if he doesn’t touch that thing sooner or later..” With one large step, Victor was crouching in front of them with the pistol now pointed at her forehead. “..and when something like that happens, I will fucking kill you. Understood?”

He stopped and took a long breath, “Stop demanding such promises from him. He is a Gonzalez. Part of his blood belongs to the Garcia’s. Death and sin run in his blood side by side. Whatever you do, you will not be able to change what he really is..” Victor’s words managed to shake Jazmine’s hope for her son. Flashing an evil smile at her, he walked out of the room.

Jazmine’s shoulder fell to the sides. She felt exhausted both physically and mentally.

Was there anything she could do against him? No.

Then what was she struggling for?

Was it all going to go in vain?

What if Miguel turned out to be just like his father who was nothing but just a heartless killing machine?

Was there a point living this life? No.

Jazmine promised herself that she would never let him win by ruining her child’s life, even if it meant killing her baby boy to save him from this cruel world.

Three days later:

“Why did you want this for?” Sarah, Victor’s only sister asked Jazmine handing her over a small brown bottle.

“The maids told me they help heal burn wounds faster..” Jazmine lied and tucked the bottle containing the juice of a poisonous plant under her pillow.

“Jazmine, why do you fight so hard? You know what Victor is like. He wouldn’t rest until he breaks you..” She took the peacock feather and smeared the herbal medicine on Jazmine’s feet.

“Then what do you want me to do, Sarah? Giving in to him? Submit to him? Just because I am a woman should I tolerate this toxic relationship that I was forced into?”

Sarah’s heart twisted into knots. Jazmine was a good woman and she didn’t deserve to live with her monstrous brother. She was actually ashamed of calling him that. He never treated Sarah like his sister and always watched her with hateful eyes. She loathed him but unfortunately, she wasn’t brave enough like Jazmine to go against him.

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean that..” Sarah apologized, looking down shamefully.

“Don’t worry. It will be over soon, anyway..”

“What do you mean, Jazmine?”

“I’m talking about the pain in my legs. It will be over soon. So, don’t worry.” Jazmine spoke with an assuring smile. “I want to sleep now, Sarah..”

“Ok I’ll leave you alone then.. Sleep..” She touched her hair softly.

“Sarah, can you send Miguel here?”

“Sure..” She said and walked out.

**************************************************************

“Jazmine, Miguel doesn’t drink milk at this time of the day..” Miguel’s nanny looked confused as to why Jazmine suddenly wanted him to drink milk in the afternoon.

“I am his mother. You may leave now..” Jazmine barked at the poor woman.

“Yes, Mam..” She bowed and left the room but something felt wrong with Jazmine, she thought.

“Momma, I don’t want to have milk..”

“Miguel do you love your momma?”

“Yes momma, I love you very much..”

Jazmine’s eyes welled upon hearing that. Pressing her lips into a sad smile, she brought the glass of milk near his mouth, “Then, drink this, my darling boy..”

“Okay, momma..”

The little boy grabbed the glass and was about to have the first sip when loud sounds came from the living room. It sounded like yelling, gunshots and breaking of furniture. More precisely the older Gonzales was the one making the sounds.

“What the hell is happening down there?” Jazmine mumbled, letting her boy down on the floor.

She couldn’t stand up and walk to the living room but her curiosity was killing her. She patiently waited for someone to come and tell her what was going on. And that's when Sarah came running into Jasmine’s room.

“Jazmine..” She panted loudly, her body trembling like ribbon. “V-Victor.. Vic.. He..” She was hyperventilating.

“Sarah, calm down? What’s wrong?”

Sarah breathed in and closed her eyes. “Victor is dead..”

“W-What?” Jazmine’s eyes widened and the glass of milk which she held slipped out of her hands.

He is dead? 

Victor the great is dead? 

Victor Gonzales, who thought he was above the gods is dead, after all. 

When she came back to her senses, her lips curved up into a full-blown smile which almost touched big golden eyes. “Hahaha..” She couldn’t control herself and burst into rivers of laughter. And why wouldn’t she? At last, God had decided to answer her prayers.

Her eyes moved to her son who was still holding the glass of milk tightly, watching her mother like she had lost her mind. His expression mirroring his aunt’s.

Jazmine continued to laugh so hard that her eyes began to water and her stomach began to ache. She grabbed the glass from him and threw it on the wall, “We don’t have to drink this anymore, baby. Our bad days are finally over. We live and he dies.." 

A/N:

Hi Readers!! I know this chapter was a bit disturbing but this was to show you what Victor is capable of. I hope you liked it. Leave your comments and feedback for faster updates for this book. 

SwaRam