I scanned her frame, her t-shirt and arms stained with blood.“He didn’t hurt you, did he?”
“No.”She swallowed, then shook her head.“But…”
“What is it?”
She hesitated, then lifted her eyes to mine.
I sensed whatever she was about to tell me would change everything.
“Sarah,” she whispered.
Everything inside me went still.“What about Sarah?”
Ariana drew in a trembling breath.“Victor didn’t kill her, Henry.”
“Who did?”
“No one.”
My world stuttered.Paused.Waited to fall apart.
“What are you saying?”
“Sarah’s alive.”
ChapterThirty-Eight
Sarah
The screams started again.
Thin, ragged pleas scraping down the hallway like metal dragged against stone.I squeezed my eyes shut, pretending the sound didn’t slither under my skin the way it always did.But the fear it invoked never went away.
That was the point.They instilled compliance through fear.Most people fell into line so as to not endure whatever occurred behind closed doors.
Not me.
I refused to give up my humanity.
In this place, it was the only thing I had left.
So I held on to it with everything I had, even if it meant I’d pay in the long run.
I drew in a deep breath and focused on the walls caging me in, tuning out everything else.
Despite the horrors this room bore witness to, beauty surrounded me.
Pale silk drapes that stirred faintly when the air vents kicked on.Soft carpeted floors.A chandelier dripping crystals that scattered light across walls covered in pale gray.
It was the kind of room you’d find in a luxurious hotel.
Not a place you’d be chained in like an animal.
No.Not an animal.I was better than an animal, at least according tohim.
I was a vessel.
Chosen.
