Catching Pretty (Lovely Broken Doll #2)

5. Ava

AVA

S cáth stood in front of me, his arms crossed over his chest, the black button-up shirt he wore clinging to his muscled frame like a second skin.

His eyes, icy and piercing, locked on mine with an intensity that sent a shiver down my spine.

I stared at his face, the face of the man I loved, unable to believe my eyes.

The face so familiar I could draw it with my eyes closed, trace every stern line and curve.

The face I loved.

But there was something unsettling about the way they watched me, like a predator assessing his prey, his gaze devoid of warmth, his lips set in a hard, emotionless line.

No, this couldn’t be Scáth. It couldn’t.

I was hallucinating. Dreaming. Trapped in a nightmare.

“Ty?” My voice shook as it came out as barely a whisper.

He smirked, but it was cold and cruel. “Hello, Ava, darling. Did you miss me? ”

It was Scáth.

The feeling of betrayal hit my chest with such force that for a moment I couldn’t breathe. I gasped at the sight of him as if he had his hand back around my throat.

Scáth had drugged me.

He’d kidnapped me. Kept me blindfolded and in the dark for days.

Scáth had made me his captive.

But… why?

A thought so cruel struck me like a steel knife to the heart.

He had been playing a twisted little game with me. Everything before was just a lie. He hated me so much that he wanted to make me love him before he destroyed me.

What did I do to make him hate me so much? Why couldn’t I remember it?

A shiver went down my spine. Did I even want to remember?

Even as I fell apart, Scáth— Ty —stood so coolly, so unaffectedly, watching with only a slight arch of his dark brow.

Scáth looked meaner, crueler than I’d ever seen him before. His cheekbones seemed sharper, his jawline even sterner, and the darkness in his glare made his blue eyes seem almost black.

Even when he stalked me through the campus of Darkmoor, even when he appeared at my bedroom door as silent as the grave, even when he chased me through the library and pinned my arms above my head against the stacks, he never looked like this.

Never looked at me like this .

This wasn’t the face of the boy I grew up with, the protector who had always been there in the shadows, watching over me. No, this was someone colder, sharper, like all the warmth had been carved out of him and replaced with something darker.

And his eyes—the way he looked at me. Where once there had been fire and intensity, now there was only ice. Cold and cruel, his gaze sent a shiver down my spine, as if he was calculating, weighing me against whatever twisted plans he had.

And beneath it all, something far more terrifying lurked, something I had never seen in him before. A glint of madness flickered in his eyes, just enough to make my breath hitch.

It was like I didn’t even recognize him anymore.

This was a stranger wearing the face of the man I loved.

“What’s going on?” My voice came out shaky, barely more than a whisper. “Why am I here? Why are you keeping me prisoner?”

He took a step toward me, slow and deliberate, his eyes dark with intent.

I instinctively backed up, my feet moving on their own, my mind scrambling for any sign of a weapon. Anything I could use to defend myself.

“I have plans for you, Ava,” he said, his voice low and menacing. “And I’m afraid you’re not going to like them.”

His words sent a chill down my spine, and I felt the floor tilt beneath me. “W-what?”

No weapons. And there wasn’t much room left to retreat .

Panic surged. I needed a plan, something else—I couldn’t just stand here and let him close the distance.

“Stop right there,” I stammered, calculating my next move. “Stay back.”

If I could just get around him, make a run for the door—

In a burst of desperation, I darted to the side, trying to duck past him.

But Ty moved quicker, stepping directly into my path, cutting off my escape.

He tsked as if I’d disappointed him. “So many fucking years… perfecting my plans.”

I gasped and stumbled farther back, my pulse racing even faster.

“Why would you kidnap me?” My voice cracked as panic clawed at me. “Bring me here? If you’d just asked me to come with you, I would’ve gone willingly.”

My feet shuffled blindly, and within seconds, my back collided with the hard wall behind me. My heart leaped into my throat.

I was trapped.

Ty’s eyes gleamed with something cold, something unrecognizable. “Would you? I don’t know about that. It almost seemed like you’d forgotten all about me.”

Before I could respond, he closed the distance between us in one swift, terrifying move, his chest pressed against mine, pinning me between him and the wall.

His body pressed into me, firm, unyielding. I could feel his breath against my skin, feel the dark heat radiating off him.

There was nowhere to go, no more room to escape .

For the first time, genuine fear gripped me, sinking its icy claws deep into my chest.

Up until now, no matter how twisted or dangerous things had gotten, I’d always known, deep down , that Scáth— my Scáth—would never hurt me. There had been something in him, a thread of restraint, a silent promise that no matter how dark things became, I’d be safe in his presence.

But now… this wasn’t him. Not the man I’d known.

This version of Scáth—this Ty —was different. Cold. Detached. There was no flicker of recognition, no hint of the boy I had once trusted. The look in his eyes told me everything I needed to know.

He was planning to hurt me; he said so himself. It wasn’t a matter of if anymore. It was when .

And the real, sickening question that twisted in my gut was how much ? How far was he willing to go?

“W-what happened to you?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper, my hands pressing against the wall as if I could somehow melt into it. “You’re… you’re acting crazy.”

Ty scoffed, his breath hot against my cheek as he leaned in closer.

“Me? Acting crazy ?”

His hands slammed against the wall on either side of my head, the sound echoing through the room like a gunshot.

I flinched, my whole body jolting in fear as the force of his movement made the plaster vibrate behind me.

“I suppose five fucking years in a maximum-security prison will make a man a little… crazy ,” he said, the wicked glint in his eyes sending a fresh wave of terror through me.

A realization hit me so hard I could barely breathe .

Crazy.

No. It couldn’t be.

Something had happened to him in that prison. Something dark. Something that had split him in two.

Two distinct sides of him, I realized with a sickening jolt.

But then again, he’d always been that way, hadn’t he. There had been signs. I’d seen it before, even when we were younger.

My protector and my bully.

The Ty who loved me and the Ty who hated me then.

The Ty I loved now, my Scáth —and this… monster standing in front of me.

Ty had a split personality.

And the one standing before me wasn’t the man I had fallen for.

Split personality.

I’d read about it when researching for an article—Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Different personalities could be triggered by trauma, emotional stress, or specific memories. Those triggers could force one personality to the surface while pushing the other back into the shadows.

The personalities might not even know what the other had done while in control, like living two separate lives in one body.

My Scáth had a dark side. A dominant side.

Ty.

“What happened to you, Ty?” I reached out to brush his dark hair back from his face.

He flinched— flinched —from my touch before his hand lashed out and grabbed me by the wrist, holding me back from him.

“I suppose I have changed since you last saw me.” He leaned in, brushing his lips against my cheek, sending shivers and heat down my spine. “I became who I needed to be… for you .”

My heart pounded as I pieced it together, the memories lining up too perfectly to ignore.

Ty must’ve been triggered when I was kidnapped by Cormac, when the danger had become too real. When Scáth wasn’t enough anymore.

I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of that truth settle into my bones.

My voice was barely a whisper, swallowed by the dread tightening around my throat. “W-what are you going to do to me?”

Ty’s lips brushed against my ear, his voice like a caress, soft, intimate—horrifying.

“I’m going to break you,” he murmured, as though he were whispering sweet nothings. “So that I can rebuild you.”

My heart stuttered, my mind spinning. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.

His words were venomous, yet the way he spoke them, the tenderness in his voice—it was as if he was confessing his love, not telling me something dark and twisted.

“You’re going to… torture me?” I managed, though it felt like the word might strangle me.

His lips ghosted over my cheekbone, his breath warm against my skin.

This might not be my Scáth. But my body was reacting like it was, the familiar need coursing through my veins. His nearness, and the fact that I’d been left so unsatisfied from my dream earlier, had me wet between my legs.

“Torture is such a vile word,” he whispered, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear with a gentleness that made my stomach churn. “I prefer… therapy. ”