have me, so you faked…my slavery. Then you turned around and—and sold me. I…” She was shaking now. But she never ceased to amaze him. She was no longer overwrought—she was furious.
She walked up to Sidonia. She reached down to help the old woman to her feet. But then she rounded back her hand and slapped the woman hard across the face. The old woman staggered back against a piece of furniture.
“Oh, and that smarts. Trust me—I know.” Nero snickered. “And that sounded like a good one.”
“I…I’ve heard as much as I care to hear. I need to—I need to go—”
And just as quickly as her anger came, he watched it devolve into grief. She tucked her head down to hide it behind her hair and stormed from the room.
Nero walked up to the woman and loomed over her, grinning sadistically. “Listen to me, you piece of shit…if you ever try to speak to her again, I will tear out every single one of your teeth one at a time. And if you don’t have any of those left, I’ll rip off your fingernails and make you swallow them. You are no longer the Mother Arkhiereus. You are to leave this place—leave Rome, leave the whole Dominion—go to fucking Africa, for all I care—but you are exiled. Or else I’m going to kill you. And I will enjoy it. Do you understand me?”
“Y—yes—I—I did this out of love.”
“No. If you loved her, you would have kept her as a daughter. You would have stepped down from your title. You kept her as a pet.”
“Like you do now?”
Nero snarled and lifted his fist, meaning to smash her head in. But he stopped. The old woman was bad sport, and Hope would be mad at him. He lowered his hand. “I kept her because I was forced to. Because you can’t release a born slave. The only reason you’re going to get to walk out of here alive and unharmed…is because you’ve given her the one thing I couldn’t ever give her. Freedom.”
He leaned down over the old woman.
“Now get the fuck out of my house.”
Hope went to her room—one she hadn’t used since she and Nero had begun sleeping together. One she hadn’t even thought about until this moment. But now, she wanted to be alone.
She locked the door behind her and collapsed on the bed and did the one thing she swore she would never do again.
She cried.
There was a knock on the door. She knew who it was by the sound of it. “No, Nero. Not now.”
“I’m coming in there whether you like it or not. You might as well save me having to replace the hinges.”
He wouldn’t be crazy enough to kick down the door, would he?
At the first heavy thud of a boot on the wooden surface, she shot up from the bed.
In the cosmic debate of “is Nero crazy enough to do the following?” the answer was always “yes.” She had to come to terms with that. She rushed to the door and unlocked it, throwing it open.
“Stop it, you lunatic.”
“It worked.”
She turned from him and hid her face in her hands. “Please, go away…”
“Why?”
“I don’t—I don’t cry. Not anymore. I spent too many years weeping. I spent too much time feeling like I had been—been thrown away.”
He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her to his chest. He rested his cheek on the top of her head. “You can cry in front of me. It doesn’t make you weak. It makes you the strongest person I have ever met.”
“She…”
“I know.”
“I…”
“You’re free, Hope.”
She shuddered in his arms and turned to face him, tucking her head into his chest. She wept. He picked her up and gently lay down on the bed with her, holding her close and letting her cry into his chest.
“You can do whatever you want now,” he said quietly as her sobs began to fade. “You can leave the city. Go live whatever life you want.”
“I…I want this life.”
“You only want it because you didn’t have a choice. I came steamrolling out of nowhere, snatching you up, and spoiled you until you didn’t have another option. If you had been free—really free—you never would have stayed here.”
“Nero?” She felt him cringe.
“I know what I’m saying. But it’s a choice that wasn’t ever given to me. I’ve always had decisions made for me. First as a child, then as a slave, then now as a Cardinal. I’m not