“Abuse her?” The Elder Priestess raised her eyebrows in apparent surprise.
“Yes,” Roark said harshly. “First, I demanded that she allow me to punish her for any perceived wrongs.”
“Punish her?” Meg interrupted, her eyes wide.
“Spank her,” Roark clarified.
“Spank her? He was spanking you?” Meg demanded, looking at Sammi.
Sammi felt her cheeks go hot with a flush. She nodded reluctantly.
“Oh my God!” Meg shook her head. “I can’t believe you put up with that, Sammi! You’re not the kind to just bend over and—”
“Excuse me, daughter, but you must not interrupt the Listing of Wrongs,” the Elder Priestess said sternly, frowning at Meg.
“Oh, I’m sorry! I’ll be quiet, I swear.” Meg mimed zipping her lips and stepped back to stand meekly behind Sammi again, much to Sammi’s relief.
“You may continue, Warrior,” the Elder Priestess said formally.
“Thank you.” Roark looked down at his clenched fist at his blood still dripping on the green and purple grass and the pale pink wildflowers. They reminded Sammi of the two little pink pregnancy flowers Liv had given her when she told Sammi she was pregnant.
“My abuse of Samantha did not end with simply spanking her,” Roark went on at last in a low voice. “I also…demanded that she submit to me in sexual ways. I thought at the time that she was submitting because she felt the same lust that I did. But I have recently come to understand that she was only doing what I told her to in order to keep her job and not be evicted from the Mother Ship.”
What? No! Sammi shook her head vigorously but everyone was looking at Roark, who was looking down at the blood-spattered moss and flowers.
Determined to be heard—or at least seen—Sammi reached over and tugged urgently at the flowing sleeve of the Elder Priestess’s long white robe.
The priestess frowned at her.
“You are not allowed to interrupt the Listing of Wrongs either, my daughter. You must wait until the end.”
Frustrated, Sammi nodded, though she was dying to set the matter straight. She tried to catch Roark’s eyes, but he was still staring down at the ground.
“Continue, Warrior,” the Elder Priestess said steadily. Sammi had the idea that Roark could confess to murder and she would still speak in that even, serene voice. She must have seen or heard a lot in her years as a priestess—or else hearing about kinky sex just didn’t bother her.
“I continued to wrong Samantha for as long as she was in my employ,” Roark went on stolidly. “I inseminated her with my own seed, though I lied and told her it was false seed I was using on her.”
“I knew it!” Meg exclaimed, earning herself a glare from the Elder Priestess. “Sorry,” she whispered and subsided again, though she continued to stare daggers at Roark.
“Though I was filling her daily with my seed, when Samantha came to me and told me she was pregnant, I didn’t believe that I could be the father,” Roark went on. “The twins in her belly are both female. I was so sure that my seed was non-functional that I accused her of cheating on me. Then I fired her and sent her away in tears.” He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple moving convulsively. “She…she was so upset that she went straight down to Earth where a human male was waiting to attack her.”
“Did you know that he was going to attack her, Warrior?” the Elder Priestess asked sternly.
“No.” Roark shook his head. “Not until her friend told me she had a ‘stalker’ as the humans call it. But that is no excuse. I am still the reason Samantha went down to Earth—she was running to get away from me. And in doing so, she ran right into danger—and a male who almost took her life.”
“It appears to me that you are certainly at fault for the things you did to Samantha while the two of you were on the Mother Ship,” the Elder Priestess said thoughtfully. “But I do not think you can rightfully add the attack she suffered after she left the ship to your List of Wrongs.”
“Yes, I can. And I do.” Roark looked up at her, his pale eyes fierce. “The human male who had her kidnapped and attacked her would never have been able to touch her if not for my own callus treatment of the female the Goddess sent me to love and care for. Instead of watching over her, I abused her and lied to her. I sent her to her doom.” He put his bleeding fist to his chest. “Though it is like ripping the beating heart from my body, I do not deserve to have Samantha in my life anymore. My honor demands that I free her.”
Wow, he doesn’t sound like a man who wants a divorce, whispered a little voice in the back of Sammi’s head. In fact, he sounds like this Severing thing is going to hurt him as much as it hurts you, but he’s doing it because he thinks he has to.