“I already knew about your conversation with Ethan, and I don’t care,” I say, and she freezes, caught off guard. Because of course I fucking knew. He told me straight after work. I was more shocked that she had the audacity to blackmail him in his own workplace.
“What?” she whispers, eyes wide in shock.
“I know he’s dangerous, Sarah. I’ve seen it.”
“You don’t care?” she says weakly like I’m supposed to buy this innocent girl act. I meet her eyes and deliver some home truths.
“No, I really don’t.” She stares at me like I’ve slapped her.
“What has he done to you? He has brainwashed you!” she hisses.
“Maybe he has, but I’m happy. Ethan puts me first and that’s all I need to know.” Her eyes are like a deer in headlights, almost on the verge of frightened. But it’s not me or Ethan, she is scared of the fact that her plan didn’t work. She has no leverage.
“How the hell has this happened? You know you’ve ruined my life, right?”
I walk past her to leave and she grabs my arm.
“I was never your future, Sarah. I owe you nothing, now let go,” I say, and her face twists.
“You’ll die with him, locked in that tower.”
“Maybe. But it will be with a smile on my face,” I say as I walk out and don’t look back.
The ride back to Ethan’s building feels unreal, that this will now be my home. I never once imagined I would even be invited into such a building, let alone live here. It’s like crossing into a country where my name no longer belongs to me.
Security waves me through as I make my way up to Ethan’s penthouse. I just know he’s been fidgeting the entire time I’ve been gone.
When I walk through the door, Ethan is waiting for me in the entrance hallway. Like I would expect anything else.
“You took longer than expected,” he says, and I decide to tell him straight away what happened.
“Sarah turned up, so it took a little longer to escape,” I reply. Ethan’s face takes on a vacant look, like he is processing information onto a computer.
“What did she say?” he asks.
“That you threatened her.”
“And?”
“I think she’s afraid,” I say, and something like satisfaction flickers in his eyes, but quicklyvanishes.
“I told her I didn’t care, which upset her quite a lot,” I say as I move closer to him.
“You’re shaking,” he notes, but I hadn’t noticed.
“It’s the adrenaline and excitement. She did say you’d destroy me.”
“She says many things.”
“I think she was trying to scare me.”
“And did she succeed?”
I think of the empty apartment and how good it felt to be finally rid of it. Rid of the whole relationship. It was nothing but a weight I had been dragging around on my shoulders.
“No. It just confirms I’m where I want to be.”
The way his hand grabs my chin, and the sparkle in his usually dead eyes shows me his approval. This is making him happy, that I’m here by choice, but there is something darker too. I can sense it.
