He cut me off, his grip tightening just a fraction. “You think I want to? That I want you trapped in here—” he tapped a finger against his temple “—for six bloody years?”
His words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating, as though the oxygen had been sucked out right from my lungs. Six years. This was the thing I’d read about, studied, even feared. But seeing it, feeling it—God, it was terrifying.
Theon’s grip on me loosened, but my pulse still raced from his touch.
A chime echoed a few feet from us.
Then another.
And another.
Like a ripple through the crowd, the buzz of notifications filled the room. One by one, heads turned down, phones pulled from pockets, expressions shifting. At first, it didn’t seem like much—until their eyes lifted, slowly but unmistakably, to land on me. Every glance felt like a dart.
What the hell?
My heart dropped as more people checked their screens, the same reaction playing out across their faces: shock, confusion, then something else—recognition. A quiet tension built, filling the air. I stood there, frozen, while whispers hummed like an approaching storm.
“Hey…what’s going on?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. I didn’t want to ask him, didn’t want to know, but I couldn’t stop myself.
He stepped away from me without a word, his body rigid, and snatched a phone from a guy sitting on the kitchen island. His eyes flicked down to the screen for a second, then his hand clenched hard around the phone, his jaw tightening.
I didn’t need to ask to know it was bad.
No, it was worse than bad.
The air in the room was hot, thickening with judgement as if the walls themselves were closing in on me. I moved closer to him to see why I was suddenly the centre of—
My breath caught in my throat as the video played on the screen. It was me. Scrubbing the floor. From one of the houses I worked in. The owner—man—walked past me, telling me where else I needed to pay attention to.
My mouth went dry.
The music stopped, leaving a suffocating silence in its wake. It was like the ground had been ripped from under me, my chest caving in on itself. I could feel the heavy weight of every gaze boring into me, every silent accusation hanging in the air.
Blake. This was Blake. He had done this. He’d forced me here just to make a mockery of me in front of these people. He knew. He knew, and pretended he didn’t. I felt like I was drowning in their stares—glares that told me everything I’d feared:You’re nothing. You’re beneath us.
Theon’s hand trembled with rage as he dropped the phone, his expression livid. Without a word, he turned and stormed up the stairs, his footsteps echoing through the suddenly too-silent house. But I couldn’t stay. I couldn’t breathe.
Ignoring the sound of my name being called, I bolted for the door, crashing through the crowd, pushing past hands that tried to stop me.
Hours later, almost three in the morning, I stood in front of my door. I should have gone straight to Vin’s, but I wasn’t thinking straight. Somehow, my instincts had brought me here. My hand trembled slightly as I unlocked the door, expecting to be greeted by darkness, cold, and the thin coat of dust that should have gathered over the days. But no.
The porch didn’t creak under my feet. The front door light was on, casting a warm glow over the entryway. Confused, I flicked on the living room lights. Then gasped.
My house looked nothing like it had before.
My mind scrambled as I took in the freshly painted walls, thenew furniture, and the clean, gleaming surfaces. Everything was…fixed. New. The cracked ceiling was smooth, the broken windows replaced, and the floors polished to a shine.
No one else would have done this. No one but him.
Why? Hold on. I shook my head as the reason broke through my foggy mind.
He wanted me to come back.
He had been here—fixing, renovating, invading every corner of my life even when I wasn’t around just because he wanted me to come back?
I moved through the house in a daze, my feet leading me into the kitchen. The cabinets that had been falling apart were now sturdy and new. The countertops were pristine, no longer chipped or stained. Even the leaky faucet had been replaced.
I couldn’t take it anymore. Another round of tears rushed out.
