There were so many questions that Alex wanted to ask but he couldn't bring himself to open her wounds even further. She looked so fragile right now, so pained, that he regretted ever making her start the story.

Will, on his side, was similarly having complicated feelings. Never in his life would he have imagined that she went through something like that.

'Is this why she is so different? Is her experience what shaped her the way she is now?'

He wanted to know more but was afraid to hurt her. He so wanted to be in Cain's place now: embrace her, kiss her and support her.

But he wasn't and it was upsetting him so bad his heart was on the verge of bleeding.

Meanwhile, Cain was continuously whispering to her, sometimes one could even see a small arc creeping on his lips. Whatever he was saying to her seemed to work, as she started to slowly lift her head from his embrace. Taking the tissues that Arthur quietly offered her, she sniffed a few times and finally talked again, with Cain still kissing her forehead,

"Sorry, I think I have ruined your s.h.i.+rt..."

In response Cain simply continued exploring her face, and went on to gently kiss her eyes, her cheeks and finally her lips. After pecking on her lips for a brief moment, he separated himself and said with a mischievous smile,

"You sure did. And it was one of my favourites too. So, I just collected my deposit expecting a full refund later."

Sia rolled her eyes at his shamelessness, and couldn't help but retort,

"You profiteer!"

Achieving his aim to lift her mood, he said with a doting gaze,

"This way is much better, Queenie. Now, if you don't want to continue anymore just stop, okay?"

"It's fine, I am stronger than this and I can do this. Moreover, you are here with me now," she smiled, her answer filled with resolve.

She ultimately turned to face the other men in the room and after taking a few deep breaths, picked up her wine gla.s.s from the table. Taking a sip, she continued in a resolute tone,

"So, yeah, to summarise, they did both invasive and non invasive experiments... I can't go in much detail about the specifics... it hurts just remembering them... I truly hope one day I will be able to freely talk about them... but for now, I really can't."

She stopped and irked closer to Cain, who readily tightened his arms that were wrapped around her.

"I was there for about three months. My parents didn't suspect anything and the rest of the people were but beggars that were taken from the streets. In addition, they were being financed by one of the underworld families with big influence, so, to cut it short, the chances that I would be rescued were almost non existent.

I lost all hope and all I started to wish was ... simply to die," her voice quivered, but after a few quick breaths she spoke again,

"It was the same h.e.l.l all day, every day, until one day armed men broke into the lab. I was sedated when they came in so my memory of the following events is quite fuzzy. All I remember is that they had military uniforms and they were there to save us, well, those of us who were still alive.

My parents... when I was returned to my parents, they didn't even know what to do. Don't get me wrong, they loved and still love me, but they started blaming themselves for whatever happened to me and it didn't help me in the slightest. They were scared to face me and evoke even worse reaction from me so, once again, they hired professionals. Nevertheless, the numerous psychiatrists they hired didn't do well in helping me out of my suicidal thoughts. I continued to stay non-responsive, like a living doll with one aim in her mind: I ..." she rolled her long-sleeved hoodie to reveal her wrists on which one could see many fine scars upon closer inspection,

"I tried to end my life quite a few times, so they decided that the best course of action for my own good would be to be under 24/7 supervision in a mental hospital where I couldn't access anything that I could use to harm myself," her memories shook her again and after some comfort from her pillar of support she got back to her story again;

"The plan backfired again, as the white walls reminded me of the tortures from before, and now I would desperately search for other ways to end my life. It got even worse when I accidentally heard from the doctors that all the other people, who had been there with me, died in miserable ways.

I despised myself for not dying like them, with them... With every cell in my body I wanted to end the nightmare that became my reality.

It was at this point that a man in military uniform approached me. He told me that he needed my help to find all the people who were responsible for these horrible experiments. He tried to convince me, that I had to get revenge for everyone who suffered and to prevent anything similar from happening in future.

But even he was not able to make me talk," her eyes slowly began coming back to life, and a smile started blooming on her face.

"The guy didn't know what else to do so he gave me his phone saying that the person, who was responsible for rescuing me, wanted to talk to me.

I took the phone in hopes of using it for suicidal purposes. Next second, it got my attention, as the first thing I saw when I took it was the name of whoever wanted to talk to me: it read 'THE DEVIL KING'. It was all in capitals making it stand out even more. Not a promising name, is it?"

She chuckled turning to Cain, who, in response, merely rolled his eyes at her. Smiling even further she said, poking Cain's chest,

"Well, this guy was horrible at how he interrogated people, I mean, he even refused to talk to me and just texted. I can still recite his first message directed to me," she said and proceeded in a monotonic mechanical voice,

"Help me find all the culprits and I will give you a quick and easy death." - THE DEVIL KING"

She chuckled even more, but the rest of the room fell into dead silence, not finding anything funny about it.

Everyone was sh.e.l.l-shocked: wasn't this supposed to be their love story? What was with him killing her? Why did she even love him?