Elowen
“I’m sorry it took me a little long. My dad is too worried,” I say, sitting beside Salvario on my bed.
“That’s valid.”
I called my dad and told him everything. I also told him how I believed Hunter was Salvario, and how he had led me to believe it. He promised he would make Hunter pay for it. Then his concern shifted, he was worried that Salvario might do something similar to what he had done before.
I told him Salvario’s dissociative identity, which was behind all that, is now gone. He has his doubts and asked me to let him do his investigation before deciding anything about Salvario.
Salvario told me that after his suicide attempt, he developed dissociative amnesia, because of which his dissociative identity disappeared. He’s lost a large portion of his memory, which includes many of his childhood memories and some from his adulthood.
“Who was holding you captive?” It only comes to me now because Dad asked me about it.
“Chris Flisher.”
My breath catches in my throat. The man Hunter used to work for.Is it possible he sent Hunter to act like Salvario?My throat goes dry; a cold prickle spreads across the back of my neck. My skin feels suffocatingly tight, as if my body is rejecting what my mind is piecing together.It’s very likely that he came close to me just to use me to harm my family.
“Why did he do that?” I ask Salvario, my voice barely steady.
“He found out I had breached your father’s security, so he tried to force me to do the same for him. I kept him strung along with the false promise that I’d help him until I found a way to escape.”
“Did you ever meet Hunter when you were there? He worked for Chris.”And maybe still does.
He frowns, then shakes his head. “I never saw him, but he could have seen me there.”
Yes, it’s very likely. He not only could have seen him but also observed his behavior, and that’s how he replicated him so perfectly.
He takes my hand. “You need to rest now. It’s already very late, and you look tired.”
“Aren’t you mad at me?” I venture, my voice so low I’m not sure I want him to hear.
He squeezes my hand. “I’m happy to finally be back to you, Princess.” He cups my cheek with his other hand. “And you still want me. Why would I be mad?”
I nod, looking into his eyes. They’ve changed, or have I forgotten them after watching another set of gray eyes for three months? My jaw stiffens at the thought.Why am I thinking about him?
Salvario leans closer, and before I can think, he presses his lips to mine. I freeze for a few seconds, but as soon as I come to my senses, I push against his chest and break the kiss.
What’s wrong with me?
I should feel relief. Joy. The overwhelming rightness of finally being back where I belong. I should be breathless with happiness, clinging to him like he might disappear again. I should feel whole. But what I feel is a suffocating anxiety. Why? I’m not doing anything wrong, but it feels so wrong. What was wrong was what I did before, not this.
Why won’t his face leave my head?I didn’t want to see it, but I still saw how he looked when I threw the ring at his feet. Like he’d lost everything. Utterly defeated.
I get up from the bed. “I’ll be right back after taking a shower.”
“Let me accompany you.” He gets up. I can see lust in his gaze, but it’s different from what I’ve become used to seeing.
I force a smile onto my face. “Wait for me here.” I turn and walk into the bathroom.
I lock the door behind me, remove my clothes with shaking hands, and step under the scalding hot water.
I grab the loofah and start scrubbing, tears stream down my face, swallowed by the water. I scour every inch of my body until it’s raw and burning under the heat of the water, but it does nothing to wash him off.
There isn’t a single part of me he didn’t touch, and no amount of scrubbing will take it back.
I can’t remove his hands from my body.
I can’t undo what I did.
