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“Two men jumped out and grabbed me. I screamed so loud, praying that someone would hear me, but it was late and no one was there. They threw a bag over my head and shoved me into the car.”

“What?” he hisses, his muscles straining. Closing my eyes, images of that night fill my mind and fear claws at me the same way it did then. Glancing up at him, I swallow my fear and press on.

“They took me to a basement apartment and left me there. For two days, I was alone down there. It was fully furnished and there was food in the cupboards but all the doors and windows were locked from the outside and I could see two guards standing outside constantly through one of the windows.”

He scoots his chair around the corner of the table, the legs scratching against the floor, and it startles me as he pulls my hands into his. “What are you saying to me, Kady? Someone kidnapped you and held you hostage?”

“On the third day,” I say, ignoring his question as tears fill my eyes as I drop them to my lap again, sucking in a breath. “Someone came to see me. He told me that the apartment was my new home and that I was his now.”

“Who was it?” Noah asks, his voice deadly and I look up, meeting his green gaze. Tears slip down my cheeks and he reaches forward, wiping them away with a tenderness that surprises me based on the murderous look in his eyes.

“It was Oliver Ford… or as you know him, Biche.”

He falls back into the chair like I punched him as his eyes widen. Studying me, his entire body starts shaking and without warning, he slams his fist on the table and jumps up.

“Son of a bitch!” he roars, his voice booming off the walls of the cabin as he kicks the chair he was just sitting in, sending it flying across the room. A sob slips out of my lips. Whipping around, he drops to his knees next to my chair and pulls me off my seat and into his lap. “I’m so sorry, baby. So fucking sorry.”

Another sob overtakes me as I bury my head in his neck and he runs his fingers through my hair, trying to comfort me.

“I swear to God, I’ll make him pay for this.”

“There’s more,” I tell him through my tears and he pulls back just enough to cradle my face in his hands as he nods.

“Tell me.”

“He held me there for a year and he liked to talk… a lot. While I was there, he talked about how much he hated you for not only making him look bad in front of his father but for taking me from him.”

Pain splashes across his face, quickly followed by confusion and I can see him trying to work through everything I’ve told him.

“He held you for a year? Did he just let you go when the year was up or did you get away?”

I shake my head. “No. A week after I went missing, Bobby realized something was wrong and he went searching for me. It took him over eleven months to find where I was and get close enough to Biche to be assigned to my guard duty. There was this maid that came in to clean the apartment twice a week and whenever she did, a guard would always accompany her and watch over me. Bobby pretended like he didn’t know me the first couple of times so we didn’t arouse suspicion and then on the third time, he broke me out of there. After that, he brought me here.”

Bewildered, he shakes his head. “What do you mean I took you from him?”

“Apparently, we went to school with him. He said he was in love with me when you came along and stole me away. He always blamed you for taking what was his and when you started selling better than he did, he blamed you for stealing his father’s affection.”

“This is fucking insane,” he whispers, staring at the floor and I use the opportunity to slip out of his grasp and walk to the other side of the kitchen. Memories flood my mind, so many nights that I cried and prayed for rescue to come. More tears fill my eyes. “What else? Tell me what else he did to you.”

I back away from him as he stands and turns to me, demanding answers. “No, I can’t.”

“Kady, I need to know. He had you for a goddamn year and I need to know what happened to you down there. Did he…rape you?”

My skin goes cold and I back away from him, shaking my head. When he reaches out for me, I slip past him and head toward the bedroom, desperately needing an escape. It’s all too much and I can’t spend anymore time talking about this today. Honestly, I’m surprised I was able to get through as much as I was. It’s so damn hard even thinking about what I went through for that year and talking about it all at once would break me, for sure. He has no idea the things I experienced while being held by Oliver and furthermore, I still haven’t decided if I’m going to allow this to continue. Oliver always told me that it would be a cold day in hell before he let Noah have me again and at this point, I know him well enough to know that he’ll live up to his word. If I allow Noah back into my life, one of us will get hurt, which is why I’ve been so reluctant to just pick up where we left off.

“Kady,” Noah calls after me, charging down the hallway and I stop in the bedroom and strip his t-shirt over my head before stepping into the bathroom. I flip the hot water on as the memories continue to bombard me and a soft sob bubbles out of me. Bracing my hands on the sink, I clamp one over my mouth and squeeze my eyes shut as I focus on my breathing in an effort to calm myself.

I can’t do this.

Not today.

“Kady, baby,” Noah whispers from behind me, his touch gentle on my hip before he wraps his arms around my waist and places a kiss on top of my head. He turns me in his arms so I’m facing him and as soon as my head is buried in his neck, it all comes out. Seven years of pain and longing pour out of me, the sound of the shower helping to mask my sobs and Noah just holds me close - letting me feel safe enough to let go for the first time since he got locked up.

“I didn’t know you’d been arrested until Bobby freed me,” I whisper and he pulls back to look at me.

“What?”

More tears fall down my cheeks as I think about how much Noah not coming for me hurt. “On the night I was taken, I was waiting for you to pick me up and I never knew that you’d been arrested or sent to jail. Every night, I looked out of the tiny window in the bedroom of the apartment and I prayed that you’d come for me.”