"You bastard." Her voice is deadly quiet when she turns to face me. "You lying, manipulative bastard."
"I can explain."
"Explain what? How you put me through weeks of psychological torture for no reason? How you made me believe I was going to be sold to rapists when it was all a damn lie?"
"The families needed to believe it was real."
"I don't care what the families needed to believe!" The explosion comes, raw and devastating. "What about what I needed? What about what you put me through?"
"I was protecting you."
"By terrorizing me? By making me think I was going to be gang-raped by strangers? By forcing me to submit to training for buyers who didn't exist?" She's shaking with rage. "Do you have any idea what you did to me?"
"The training was necessary to maintain the illusion."
"The training was you getting off on playing with your captive. Admit it."
"That's not—"
"Yes, it is. You wanted to touch me, to control me, to make me beg and submit, so you created this elaborate fantasy where it was all for my protection." Her laugh is bitter. "When really, it was just you satisfying your obsession. You’re sick!"
"You don't understand."
"What's to fucking understand? What about me? What about lying in my bed thinking about how Kozlov was going to rape me? What about standing in that salon while those men examined me?"
"I would never have let—"
"You did let them! He assaulted me. You were right there, Renato. You didn't protect me. I needed you more than I ever needed anyone and you let him touch me."
She's right. God help me, she's right. When it mattered, I didn't protect her enough.
"It was never supposed to go that far, I swear. I killed them to keep it from going further."
"But I didn't know it wasn't supposed to get that far. You made sure I didn't know that!" She's shouting now. "You let me think I was going to be sold into slavery while you got to play the conflicted captor!"
"The families had to believe it was real."
"Stop trying to pretend it was about the fucking money. Did you just enjoy having complete power over me?" Her eyes are filled with angry tears threatening to spill over. "Did you like watching me break down and rebuild myself for your pleasure?"
The truth in her words cuts deep. Because she's right again. I did enjoy the power. I did use the training as an excuse to have her in ways I couldn't otherwise justify.
"I never meant for you to suffer."
"How long were you planning to keep lying to me?" Her tears are falling now and she wipes them from her cheeks.
"I don't know."
"You don't know. Of course you don't. Because this was about you wanting to own me and being too much of a coward to admit it."
"That's not true."
"Yes, it is. And the worst part? Despite everything, I was starting to believe you might actually care about me."
The confession stops my heart. "I do care about you."
"No, you care about possessing me. There's a difference." She turns away from me. "God, I'm such an idiot. I actually thought what happened between us might’ve meant something."
"It did."
