Chapter 141

How to Tame My Beastly Husband — Chapter 141. Raphael’s Mother (5)

Her body, which had been loved by a King, was now used roughly in alleys by drug dealers, in exchange for a few coins.

The side effects of the drugs only grew worse over time. Hand tremors, auditory hallucinations, anxiety disorders and sudden, severe violence, and of course it was Raphael that had to endure it. Every day was a hell.

“How can you look at your mother like that?” shrieked Bella. “You should never have been born! God damn you, I should have aborted you! Die and go to hell!”

Raphael shielded his small body with his arms as she kicked him, but he was still a helpless child in the face of an adult’s unrelenting violence. By now, it was so frequent an occurrence that he did not even cry out in pain, only bit his lip, refusing to let out a single scream.

He just had to wait til he got bigger, and keep practicing with his sword. Then…then one day, she couldn’t do this to him anymore.

That was his only hope.

And so time passed, and Raphael grew, and finally the day came that he had been waiting for. As his mother was beating him again, he blocked her slap and gripped her wrist.

“Don’t ever dare touch me again,” he warned. “Soon I won’t have to stay with you anymore.”

Hamilton had promised he would take Raphael to the palace.

Raphael did not think of Bella as his mother. Hamilton was the one who came to take care of him, the nearest thing to a parent he had. Raphael had dedicated himself to the sword with the intention of leaving this horrible place. His skill and his brutally hard work had made him a remarkable swordsman already.

Having seen his skill, Hamilton had recommended that the King take Raphael in, in a few more years. He had also hinted that Bella was mistreating the boy and misusing the money sent for his care. King Selgratis had agreed, but he could not bring the boy to the palace yet.

“There is no way he can come now, Hamilton,” he had said. “You know that. We will have to wait a little longer.”

King Selgratis had taken a good woman for his queen. She had helped solidify the King’s precarious position with her impeccable connections and behavior, and had even borne him a son, Crown Prince Ludwig. But she had recently contracted a terminal illness, and he could hardly bring in his illegitimate son under these circumstances. Society would rain down condemnation.

So long as the Queen lived, Raphael could not enter the palace.

She hung on for a few more years, despite her illness, and so Raphael lingered in his own hell, waiting. At least the beatings were not so severe anymore. He had grown big enough to deflect his mother’s violence.

It was intolerable. There was a sudden surge of rage, fueled by the drug in her body, and Bella grabbed for a pair of iron scissors and leaped on his back.

“You ungrateful bastard! Die!”

Startled by the scream, Raphael turned, too late to stop her. The scissors were flying at his neck, but he twisted his body aside so they sliced into his shoulder instead. Staggering, he clutched the wound.

Years of drug addiction had left Bella incapable of realizing what she was doing, or even the simple calculation that if Raphael died, the money would stop coming. Her eyes were mad with rage as she lunged after him again.

“Go to hell! Go to hell! Go to hell!

The screams pierced his ears and the scissors were stabbing at him before he could escape. He tried to raise his arms to protect himself, but the deep wound in his shoulder slowed his reactions. Raphael could only close his eyes as the blades descended.

He couldn’t believe he was going to die this way.

“Argh!!!”

But it was Bella who screamed, collapsing. Raphael’s eyes flew open to see the blade of a sword smashing through her chest.

Raphael didn’t understand what was happening.

As he fell, Hamilton appeared behind her. He had come to look in on Raphael, and had no choice but to draw his sword to save his life.

Hamilton wiped away the blood spattered on his face.

“Children are so much work,” he muttered, as Bella’s body thumped to the floor.