This is posted really soon after the last chapter, but I can't sleep so this was born at night :) Also I promised you that I would post these as I finish them, so I don't have a regular schedule at all but they're coming thick and fast at the moment so you're in luck ;)

DEDICATED TO: Dl9571, who has read and reviewed every single chapter so far, and given me amazing feedback. I love hearing from you. Thank you for your support xoxo

Enjoy... :D


CHAPTER EIGHT

I woke up in the early morning with a strange lopsided smile on my face. I was certain that, had someone been hovering over our bed, they would have seen me awaken with an expression of oddly content bliss. I rolled onto my side to see my kindly husband, my handsome kind looking at me with a huge grin plastered on his face. The room was lit by the amber glow of premature dawn, telling me that it was around 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning.

"Good morning, my queen," Maxon smiled, inching even closer to me, though I would not have thought it possible. His arm was wrapped around my waist and he pulled me closer to him, kissing me softly. I responded but when he pulled away I put my hand over his mouth and stared into his eyes.

"Your allure has been crippled by the killer that is," I paused for dramatic effect, "morning breath." Maxon laughed, kissing my forehead before climbing out of our bed and heading to the bathroom. Once he had left I raised myself gingerly from the bed, making my way over to the mirror. I had put on a little weight since I had woken from the coma. It made me look less like a skeleton and more like a skinny girl. My bones protruded from my frame less but were still visible and my scars had settled down, becoming a silvery-crimson rather than blood red strips of missing flesh. Something still stood out though. The words that lined my ribs that stung with every breath.

Whore.

Thief.

Five.

Maxon walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around me and kissing my throat gently.

"You're beautiful America. I love you so, so much," he mumbled into the crook of my neck. I leaned into Maxon's chest, his comforting warmth bringing me new waves of confidence and euphoria that I knew would disappear as soon as our contact was broken. But this time my trance was broken early. My eyes came to rest on those three words again. Three short, powerful words that summarised my life before the Selection, before the Palace, before Maxon.

"I'm marred Maxon," I whispered sadly. He followed my gaze, his stare lingering on the words, obviously questioning but not forcefully. "I want to lie down," I said quietly. My husband nodded, leading me to our bed and sitting down beside me. "I want you to know," I looked into Maxon's eyes, trying to show him how hard this was for me.

"You don't have too," he allowed, understanding my difficulty to broach the subject. I shook my head.

"Yes, I do," I disagreed. Taking a deep breath, I began. "I was eight when we were starving. Gerad had just been born, Kota and Kenna were still with us, May hadn't started to work yet and it was a dry season. My mother had had laryngitis and my father was in a dark place. Being unable to support his family put him in a depression so great that any work he produced, no matter how bright the colours were, the underlying meanings to it were dark and obvious. No one wanted to buy his art and so we lost money. We went five days without eating. It was the middle of winter and we had no electricity or heating and Gerad was suffering. He hadn't cried in two days and my mother was terrified for her health. I was the only one bringing in money and I was young, so I was paid half of what an adult would get paid.

"It was Saturday 7th in January, and I had just pocketed the money I had been paid for the night of song that I had provided for a family of Twos. I pulled on my old jacket and left the ballroom, walking through the grand dining room and into the library. I was headed for the servants' stairs that exited the library and went into the kitchens. I stopped though. I had spotted a set of multiple silver knives laid out on a wooden table in the centre of the room. The blades glimmered brilliantly, set in beautifully ornate ivory handles with silver embellishments. I counted them quickly. There were 31. Inside me there was this huge conflict. Could I justify theft when my family were dying? Was I willing to risk my neck for something I could sell or trade? Yes." Maxon looked surprised as I confessed to my crime but I continued anyway, "I chose the knife from the left end. It was the smallest knife, nothing special in comparison to the longer blades in the middle. The handle was a mermaid with an ugly sneer on her face that made me cringe a little as I lifted it from the table and pocketed it. But not before I was disturbed.

"The man that came in was the father of the girl whose birthday party I had been singing at. He stared at me and I guess he must have seen a glimpse of the knife in my pocket. He was a Two. He stormed towards me, grabbing me by the waist of my best dress and tearing it. He growled at me, "Thief." I tried to explain myself but he didn't listen. He finished tearing the middle of my dress away, pushing me down and pressing my shoulder into the floor. He grabbed the knife from my pocket and cut three words into my skin; "Whore. Thief. Five." I tried not to scream but at one point I couldn't help it, and he shoved his hand over my mouth. Eventually he let me up and offered me a deal. If I came to him once every other week and let him do what he wanted to me, he would give me enough money to support my family. So I went to him, once a fortnight and he had his way with me and every time he would open up the words on my ribs.

"I didn't tell anyone. I grew up this way for five years. I met Aspen Leger and fell in love immediately. After just a few weeks I told him everything, but he told his father, and his father thought that he should punish me, and so he did, nearly every day for two years. Eventually Aspen grew to despise me as well, joining in with his father, caning me, carving into me, burning me. Kota came around to their home once, to ask them to do a job for him, and caught them, but he didn't defend me. He stood in the doorway and watched, laughing when I screamed. Then Aspen's father was summoned to the front line. He died four months later. I found a letter from Oscar to my brother one day and it struck me with fear. It just read "Finish her." All this while the Two, who I had learned was called Forman Harvey, kept me visiting. He supported my family and pulled them out of their depression while I sank ever deeper into mine. I grew distant from them, spending most of the time away from home, hiding out in alleyways. Kota found me one night, sitting in a dark porch, and dragged me to Aspen's house. He cut me, over and over, leaving me bleeding on Aspen's bed. Kota stormed out, leaving me to bleed dry but Aspen patched me up, rubbing antiseptic into the wounds and bandaging them. This happened often. Kota would hurt me. Aspen would fix me. I became dependant on Aspen to help me hide the abuse from my family and in return I would get him jobs with them. Eventually we started dating.

"Our relationship was good. Aspen protected me from Kota and Forman, giving me pennies whenever I sang to him. I kept every one of them in a jar, saving them to pay for our wedding, but sometimes I would say something that he didn't like, and Aspen would hit me. He'd apologise afterwards and beg for forgiveness and promise that he would never do it again, and every time I believed him.

"Then I was Selected and I left him behind. I found you. I discovered that love wasn't about the guy forgiving me for what I had done wrong, but him accepting it. It wasn't about be timid, and keeping your mouth shut, but being confident around them to say what you think. You were my epiphany Maxon." I looked up at him, tearing my gaze from my hands. "You showed me what love was, that I didn't need to suffer and that it wasn't wrong for me to talk and have opinions. I love you." Maxon crushed his lips to mine and responded with equal passion, wrapping my arms around his neck as he gently pushed me onto my back, kneeling over me. Our breaths were heavy and suddenly I knew what I wanted.

"I love you America, I need you," Maxon panted. I arched my back to reach his lips, pulling him onto the bed with me and losing ourselves in the early hours of the morning.


REVIEW RESPONSES (as I get them)

gloriaalex.k: thank you :) by the time you read this you will have read the wedding so I hope that it lived up to your expectations :S yeah I was too but I felt like she couldn't have just anyone see her naked in the state that she was in, and it had to be someone who either already knew or she trusted immensely. I was going to include a bit about how she felt that it didn't matter anymore, that privacy had caused them enough damage but I didn't know how to word it exactly how I wanted, and I didn't want to include it for the sake of throwing in a badly written idea :L sorry :S THANK YOU :D xoxo

Dl9571: yup haha :D thanks xoxo thank you for reviewing so consistently :D xoxo

Guest: thank you :D xoxo


Please keep reviewing! I love reading your feedback :D

Also, for some reason it takes me ages to get some reviews. For example a few minutes ago I got a review from Guest that was posted on Chapter One on Jan 2nd. So, if you don't see a response to your review in the next update I probably haven't received it yet. I don't want to ignore anyone and I reply to all of the reviews because I love talking to you guys.

Feel free to PM me as well if you have anything you want to talk about. It can be related to The Last, any fandoms (I consider myself fandom Divergent ;) or you might just want someone to talk to., I'm always here and I would love to get to know you guys better.

Love, Lily xoxo