"You also told me I had choices. That this was about my healing. That you were different from Elder Jacob and my father. You told me a lot of things that turned out to be lies."
"They weren't lies. I can care about your healing and still be training you for my purposes. I can give you choices within the constraints of your captivity. Nothing I told you was a lie, Eden. You just didn't like the whole truth."
"That's the same as lying."
"No, it's not. But I can see why you'd think that."
He moves around to the front of the tub and kneels beside it.
He looks at me with those ice-blue eyes that see too much, that strip away every defense I try to build.
He's still fully clothed.
I'm naked in the bath.
The power dynamic is crystal clear.
"I don't need to hurt you to own you, Eden. I don't need violence or pain or any of the things you're afraid of. I don't need to break your bones or bruise your skin or make you bleed to prove my control."
"Then what do you need?"
"I have something much more effective than pain."
"What?"
"Your own body."
The words send a chill through me despite the hot water surrounding me.
"I don't understand."
"Yes, you do. You understand perfectly. You ran because you found out about the showcase. Because you realized I've been training you. Because you understood that everything between us has been leading to that moment when I display my control over you in front of the Consortium."
"Yes."
"But Eden—" He reaches into the water. Trails his fingers along my collarbone with maddening lightness. "You also ran because you were scared of how much you wanted what I was offering. How much your body responds to me. How much you need what only I can give you."
"That's not true."
"Isn't it? You tried to use the vibrator alone after that first night. Spent an hour trying to make your body respond the way it did with me. Couldn't make it work. Couldn't get yourself to that edge, couldn't push yourself over. Couldn't feel what you felt when I was there guiding you."
How does he know that?
The answer comes immediately.
The cameras.
Of course.
He watches everything.
Sees everything.
Knows everything I do even when I think I'm alone.
"You've been watching me," I say, and I can hear the betrayal in my own voice.
"Yes."
