Chapter 2
CAIDEN
Her emerald eyes haunted me in the dark, in the day. It was fucking torture. I was seeing her a lot more often now that we had been rescued, after going almost seven years without being in her presence.
I never expected to see her again. I also never expected to feel anything other than the hatred that consumed me for so long.
Each time she smiled, or laughed, or touched me in the slightest, it drove me damn crazy in a ‘I want you now’ kind of way.
Even so, I still recoiled, picturing the hurt in her eyes every time I bullied her.
I don’t deserve her. I deserve to rot like the piece of shit that I have become.
She had given me a letter, but I haven’t dared to read it yet.
The isolation of being alone with her in the untamed wilderness, particularly during those long weeks of traumatic confinement within the cage where we were both exposed and vulnerable, initiated a profound and irreversible internal transformation.
It was dangerous and forbidden, teetering on the unknown, but I still found myself gravitating towards the allure of her presence.
I was so fucked.
I tried to kill the thoughts with alcohol, but they multiplied instead. Every swallow was a reminder that I was still alive, still cursed with the memory of her warmth.
I meant it when I told Amelia that all the reasons I learned to hate her were fading, especially since my father was no longer around to burn hatred and anger into my brain.
But the monster was still there, always there, and as long as that was the case, maybe the fear and the anger and the hatred would never truly vanish.