Chapter 25
Yuna
THE FOLLOWING MORNING
“He Let Me Run”
Iwoke up groggy, stomach touching my back, nausea taking over me. I knew where I was and why, and that alone made my stomach twist harder. My parents had sold me to a French family I barely knew, and my own brother had not backed me.
I unhooked the IV that was in my arm, then jumped out of the massive bed. I ran to the suite’s double doors. Locked from the outside.
Of course.
I ran to the next door. Bathroom. I barely made it to the sink before dry-heaving into the porcelain. Nothing came up. Just bile and pain. That was when it hit me.
I had not eaten in three days.
I lied to my mother on the plane about eating before we landed in France. I had sold everything I owned weeks ago anyway. I was surviving on whatever I could get my hands on.
Cold water splashed over my face. I stared at myself in the mirror. Pale. Tired. Eyes hollow.
Royalty, huh.
I stepped out of the bathroom and froze.
Ares stood in the doorway like a shadow that never left.
Watching.
I hated that he was always watching.
Sunlight poured through the balcony doors behind him. It stabbed into my skull.
I stormed over and slammed the curtains shut.
“I’m sick, and I want soda,” I muttered, barely looking at him.
“We’ll get you soda,” he said calmly. “But nothing else.”
His calm was pissing me off.
“Nothing else?” I snapped. “You drugged me?”
“I did.”
His eyes did not judge me. That irritated me more.
I turned on him fully. “You think because you signed a contract, you own me?”
“I do.”
“You’re gross.”
He stepped closer.
“You haven’t eaten, so your nurse will be giving you more IV fluids,” he said.
“I don’t want that.”
“The doctor said you’re dehydrated.”
“You don’t know what I need.”
“I know you’re shaking because you are hungry.”
I looked down at my hands. They were trembling. I balled them into fists.
“I’m leaving,” I said.
“You can’t.”
I walked past him toward the door.
I twisted the knob, and it was unlocked.
I looked back at him.
“Try it,” he said quietly.
That was all I needed.
I bolted.
Down the hallway, past security posted outside the suite. They moved fast.
“Stop her,” one of them said in French.
“Non,” Ares’ voice carried behind me. Calm. Clear. “Laissez-la courir.”
Let her run.
I didn’t look back.
I flew down the staircase barefoot, my body remembering what my mind forgot. Track practice. Years of it in high school and college. I used to run like this before drugs.
I ran through the foyer.
Through the massive front doors.
The gates were open because a car had just entered.
I slipped through before they could close.
The hill was steep. Gravel bit into my feet. I kept going.
Air burned in my lungs. My head pounded. My legs felt like rubber.
But I ran.
I made it halfway down the hill before my vision started to blur.
My body was not what it used to be.
My stomach cramped.
My ears rang.
That’s when a black Aston Martin rolled up slowly beside me.
The tinted window slid down.
“Get in,” Ares said.
“I’d rather die.”
“You might, if you don’t get your crazy ass in.”
That shut me up.
My knees buckled slightly. I hated that he saw it.
“Get in the car, Yuna. You are wearing down my patience.”
I swayed.
The world tilted.
I was too tired to argue.
Too dizzy to fight.
I yanked the passenger door open and slid inside without looking at him.
He didn’t say anything while he drove back up the hill.
No music.
No lecture.
Just quiet.
When we pulled back into the estate, security moved like nothing had happened.
He stepped out first and came around to my side, opening the door.
He reached for me.
“I don’t need help,” I snapped.
“You can barely stand.”
“I said I don’t need help.”
I shoved his hand away and stepped out on my own.
The ground shifted under me.
I straightened stubbornly.
“I hate you,” I said.
“You don’t,” he replied.
My vision darkened at the edges.
I opened my mouth to curse him out again.
To tell him I would never belong to him.
To tell him I would never soften for him.
The words never came.
Everything went black.
The last thing I felt was his arms catching me before I hit the ground.
For a second, right before the darkness swallowed me, I heard his voice break.
“Yuna.”
Then nothing.