The CEO's Rose

Vivian’s POV

This man is going to be the death of me. Vivian had had that thought many times when it came to Bryce. Back then, she had thought that his constant belittling and all of the cheating that he did would be what finally ended her.

But now she was being proven wrong in the worst way possible. As it turned out, Bryce was going to kill her himself with his own two hands. Her scream cutting off Vivian tried to get her breathing under control as she realized that she had somehow managed to dodge Bryce’s lunge. He was standing where she had been a few seconds before. Pulling his fists out of the hole that he had made in the wall, he turned to her, slowly massaging his knuckles.

"You should not have done that. If you had stayed in place, this would have been over much quicker. Now you have just made things more difficult for yourself," Throughout the years, Vivian had been disgusted by Bryce. She had been angry at him and she had been sick and tired of him. But never had she felt the unrelenting terror that he was currently inciting in her.

Was he truly intending to kill her?

"Bryce, listen to me, you do not have to do this. I will not be pressing charges over that whole defamation thing. I’ll let it go," As she spoke, she was slowly moving to the side, headed towards the door, even though she knew that it was useless since it was locked from the inside. Well aware of this, since he was the one who had done it, Bryce simply tracked her with his eyes.

"As tempting as that offer is, dead women can’t press charges either," And once again Bryce moved, this time Vivian was not fast enough to dodge. He swung his hand and his palm connected with her cheek. The slap was so hard, it made her ears ring, making Vivian spin until she found herself rolling off the couch.

As bad as it was, Vivian knew that she was lucky because she had moved with the strike. Reducing the damage that could have been done to her. It still hurt though.

Blinking stars out of her eyes, she looked up just in time to see Bryce’s fist headed towards her face, and she did the only thing she could in that moment. Which was to raise her leg and kick up as hard as she could. Her leg connected with his balls and he went down fast, his hands cupped over his private parts. Her back against the couch, Vivian got to her knees, trying to stand and make it to the door. But Bryce recovered faster than anticipated.

Out of nowhere she felt his fingers go around her neck, and then he began to squeeze.

"You are nothing more than a whore. How dare you think that you can be better. How dare you!" Standing, he forced her to her feet with the hand around her neck. The pressure so intense that Vivian felt it getting harder and harder to breathe.

"Die, you bitch," He hissed, glaring down at her, and Vivian felt a spark deep within her. No, no, no, NO! She could not go down like this.

Ryan.

Thinking of her man, the spark turn into an inferno and she stopped clawing helplessly at Bryce’s hand. Instead, she balled her hands into fists. Ignoring the darkness at the edge of her vision, she swung as hard as she could, her fist connecting with the side of his head. The force so great the man’s neck actually made a cracking sound.

Having not expected pain, Bryce released her, yelping loudly as he did so. It was so tempting to just fall to her knees and gulp in the precious air that she had just been starved of. But Vivian forced herself to remain standing, her stance widening as she raised her arms the way Ryan had taught her.

"How dare you!" Before he could say any more, Vivian was upon him.

She had not had many boxing lessons with Ryan, but she had learned the basics that he had taught her well enough to defend herself, and defend herself she did.

Punch to the right cheek, knuckle sandwich to the left, a jab to the throat, and as many other hits as she could land while the man struggled to regain his composure.

For someone who had enjoyed inflicting pain upon her, Bryce did not seem to have much of a pain tolerance. Knowing that she stood no chance of doing much damage to his torso, given the strength of his core, and her weaker body. Vivian kept her shots aimed mainly at Bryce’s head, again and again, she struck. Dancing out of the way when he cried in pain and swung wildly trying to catch her.

The extra weight that he had always made fun of her for was suddenly a very big problem for Bryce and a huge advantage for Vivian as it provided the extra mass to add more power to her blows.

Again and again, she pummeled Bryce, barely feeling the sting of the injuries that she had received beforehand. She channeled everything she had into her defense. Bringing out all of the pain she’d endured from him and pouring it out on to him.

She had never thought that she had violence in her. But as she brought the pain to Bryce she wanted to roar with it.

***

Feeling herself begin to tire, Vivian grabbed the nearby lamp and brought it down on him hard. Bryce, now hunched over, wailed loudly at that, covering his eyes as glass shards flew everywhere.

Vivian barely paid any attention to that. What mattered to her was that the keys had fallen out of his pocket during her attack. Picking them up she ran towards the front door.

She had opened that door millions of times before. But in that moment, she found herself struggling, the key unable to fit into the hole. She had just gotten it in when she was suddenly dragged backwards by her hair. Screaming Vivian tried to turn back around, but Bryce yanked her and she hit the floor...hard. Thrashing wildly, to get away from his reach, Vivian managed to block his hold. She crawled to get away from him, ending up behind the couch, but the man was not too far behind.

He pulled at a leg and no matter how hard she kicked at him, he would not let go. He dragged her until she found herself beneath him. His hands once again settling around her throat. This time there was no playfulness when he began to squeeze her. He came at her full force, and instantly cut off Vivian’s air supply. Her eyes wide, Vivian fought with everything in her. She tried to knee his balls, to poke out his eyes, but Bryce was relentless.

Lips pulled in a feral grin, eyes wild, he looked down at her as he continued to add more and more pressure, and Vivian felt herself losing the fight with consciousness.

It was a battle that she fought fiercely, knowing that the moment she let the darkness win, she would most probably never be waking up again. But it was all too much. Her body no longer able to take the lack of oxygen, she began to shut down. Unable to speak, she looked straight into Bryce’s eyes, and the man grinned like he had a demon in him.

Then out of nowhere, the pressure around her throat released, and Vivian coughed as she finally got in a few lungfuls of air.

"Beg me and I will let you live," Bryce said.

Even as she struggled to get her breathing under control, Vivian knew that she would not be doing that. No matter what she did, the man above her was not going to spare her. And if he had intended to, she would never beg him, those days were long gone.

With a raspy voice, Vivian accepted her fate by saying a single word. "No," Bryce’s hands were back around her throat so quickly she did not even have time to scream. With barely any air in her system this time, her world went dark in a matter of seconds. Her final thought being of a man with blue eyes. A man who had shown her love when Vivian had forgotten what it felt like...Ryan.