“Please,” I cry. “Please let me out. I’ll do anything. I’ll listen. I’ll stay. Just please, please let me out.”
“You’ll listen?” Hope flares in his voice. “You’ll really listen?”
“Yes. I promise. I’ll listen to everything you have to say.”
“And you won’t leave? You won’t run away?”
“I won’t leave. I promise. I just— I can’t think in here. I can’t breathe. Please, Cristiano. If you really care about me, you’ll let me out.”
Silence.
I wait, my heart pounding, my palms slick against the wood.
“How do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You know me.” I force my voice to stay steady, calm, even as panic claws at my throat. “You know I keep my promises. Haven’t I always been there for you?”
Another silence, longer this time.
“Yes,” he says finally. “You have.”
“Then trust me. Please. Let me out, and we’ll talk. Really talk. About everything.”
I hear him exhale shakily on the other side of the door.
“You promise you’ll stay?”
“I promise.”
“You promise you won’t run?”
“I promise.”
“Say it again.”
“I promise I’ll stay. I promise I won’t run.”
The key scrapes in the lock.
The doors swing open.
Light floods in, blinding after the darkness, and I stumble forward, gasping for air. Cristiano is standing there, his eyes red-rimmed and desperate. He reaches for me—
And I bolt.
I lunge for the bedroom door, my legs pumping, my heart screaming. My hand closes around the doorknob.
His arms lock around my waist and yank me backward.
I scream, but it’s cut off as we crash to the floor, his body pinning mine, his hand clamping over my mouth.
“Shh.” His breath is hot against my ear. “Shh, Mina. Why are you making me do this? I trusted you.”
I thrash beneath him, trying to bite his palm, trying to knee him, trying to do anything to get free. But he’s so much bigger than me, so much stronger, and his arms are like iron bands around my body.
“Stop fighting. Please, Mina, stop fighting. You promised you wouldn’t run.” There’s a snarl of anger in his voice. “You’re mine.Mine. You have to stay with me. I’ll show you how happy we can be. Stop struggling. I’ll show you. Why won’t you let me show you?”
I keep fighting him, but it’s useless. He’s too strong. I’m too small. His body is pressed against mine, his arms crushing the breath from my lungs, his hand sealing my screams inside my throat. I can feel every inch of him against me. His chest heaving, his thighs pinning my legs, his hips—
