Chapter 17 Reflections
REFLECTIONS
The words didn’t just land. They cut… deep.
Much deeper than I ever imagined they would.
Because I had been the one already convincing myself that Wye might be wrong about who I was to him and now I was right.
But there was no victory in it whatsoever.
Because it also confirmed that the feelings he had for me were based on a lie, whereas mine were based on truth.
As I knew exactly who Wye was, and yet I had fallen for him anyway.
For a second, I didn’t react at all. My body was still in a way that felt almost unnatural. Because it wasn’t just what Bo had said, it was the certainty behind it. The fact that he hadn’t hesitated. Hadn’t softened it. Hadn’t even looked like he expected me to argue.
Which, of course, I did.
“But what if you’re wrong,” I said, the denial coming quickly, instinctively, even as something uncomfortable continued to twist low in my chest.
“You don’t know that. You can’t know for sure.”
Bo didn’t move straight away, but something in his expression shifted. Something close to grim resolve, like he had already expected this exact response and had come prepared for it.
“I can,” he said simply and then he stepped forward closing the space between us.
“Because I’ve seen what he’s been doing,” he continued, his voice lower now, more controlled. Like each word had been chosen carefully before being spoken.
“Not just out there, not just to others… but to you.” My stomach dipped at that.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, the question sounding as vulnerable as I felt. Because something in the way he said it didn’t feel like a bluff. Didn’t feel like a guess.
Bo reached behind him, where a folder was rolled up and tucked into his waistband. He held it out toward me, not forcing it into my hands, not pushing, just… offering it.
“Look,” he said giving it a shake in my direction.
But I didn’t take it, at least not straight away.
Because something about it felt wrong before I had even touched it.
Like I already knew it contained something undeniable.
Something I couldn’t fight against on Wye’s behalf.
That whatever was inside it wasn’t just something I was going to be able to forget.
“That’s not necessary,” I said, shaking my head slightly, even as my gaze dropped to it despite myself.
“I don’t need to…”
“Yes, you do, girly,” he cut in, firmer this time, though not unkind, just… certain.
“Because whatever you think this is, whatever you think he feels for you, you need to understand exactly what you’ve stepped into.” That hit harder than it should have. Because it wasn’t anger, jealousy, or even self-preservation. No…
It was concern.
“What is it?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure I actually wanted the answer. But Bo didn’t hesitate this time.
“It’s you.” That made my breath catch. A small, sharp inhale that I couldn’t quite stop as my eyes snapped back up to his.
“What?”
“Everything,” he said, his tone steady, unwavering.
“Your entire life. Your history. Your education. Your family. Your friends. Your finances. Every place you’ve ever lived, and who you have ever dated.
Every job, every client... every single aspect of your life.
” Each word felt like another hit to my heart and kick to my gut.
I started shaking my head, even as I snatched the folder out of his hand and started to see for myself that he was right.
It was my whole life in black and white.
“Where did you get this?” I asked, making Bo sigh.
“I broke into his office in the city, found the folder on his desk.” My eyes snapped up to his, and he nodded down at the paper,
“The date the files were sent to be printed is at the top.” I looked down and gasped.
“The first night we met,” I whispered.
“So now you see, he can’t be trusted.” Something inside me dropped.
“But I don’t understand… why would he…?”
“Invade your life without you knowing? Decide what you are to him before you ever got a say in it?” Bo finished off for me making me flinch.
My eyes lowered back down to the file in my hand.
Lines of information arranged with cold precision.
Names, dates, places, all laid out in a way that felt clinical and detached.
Like something observed rather than lived.
And then my breath caught, because the details didn’t only surround my life but also my sister’s and my mother’s.
Details that had no right being there, not like this, not gathered and ordered as though my family were merely something to be studied instead of them being the people that I loved.
“No…” I breathed, the word leaving me quietly, as though saying it might somehow make it less real.
But it didn’t.
Because when I turned the page, it got worse.
The details more precise. The places I went to regularly, the times I left the house.
The places I shopped, the café I would meet my sister at sometimes on lunch breaks, and the fact that I preferred sitting by the window.
Half of this I had no idea how they knew it all, as most of it hadn’t happened since first meeting him.
Yet here it was, all of it written down in the same detached, methodical way that made my stomach twist sharply.
My fingers tightened on the paper before I even realized I was doing it. The edges crumpled slightly beneath my grip as something far more unsettled began to take hold.
“This… this isn’t…” I started, my voice faltering as I looked up at Bo, something ugly and disbelieving rising in my chest.
“Why would he…”
“Because he can, and if he thinks you belong to him, then that’s what he does,” Bo said quietly, not interrupting so much as grounding the moment. His voice was steady in a way that made it impossible to ignore.
“He learns everything, your habits, your routines, every corner of your life, but it’s your weaknesses he pays the most attention to, so he knows exactly where to exploit them.
” Hearing this hit harder than anything else, as half of me didn’t want to believe it.
Didn’t want to believe this cutthroat account of the man I had fallen for.
But then, my gaze dropped back to the pages, and that half of me was getting harder to deny as the proof was staring back at me.
Pages that revealed more names, more details, people I hadn’t spoken to in years, friends, old colleagues, even things that felt too small to matter.
It was all there. My simple, mortal life in a nutshell.
If anything, it just made me feel small and unworthy for a man like Wye.
It made me feel as if I had been played with.
Like I was just another possession of his, and he therefore had a right to know all of these things about me.
“This is insane,” I said, though there was far less certainty in it now. My pulse beginning to pick up in a way that made it difficult to focus.
“Why would he do this?” I asked, but the question sounded weak even to my own ears. But I couldn’t help it, as there was still that instinct to make sense of it, to justify it, and reshape it into something that didn’t feel quite so invasive.
And Bo didn’t miss it.
“Enforcers always have a reason,” he said, his tone steady, though there was something sharper beneath it now. Something that pressed just enough to make even more doubt take root.
“The question is whether it’s a reason that keeps you safe, or one that keeps you contained.
” The word ‘contained’ settled heavily in my chest. In an uncomfortable way I couldn’t ignore.
My fingers loosened slightly on the pages before tightening again as my gaze drifted back, not to my name this time, but to theirs.
My family.
“If he knows about them…” I said quietly, the thought forming before I could stop it, my throat tightening as I swallowed against it.
“Then what if they’re not safe?” The words lingered between us, heavier than anything else that had been said, but thankfully, the silence didn’t last.
Bo exhaled slowly, before telling me,
“If he wanted to hurt them, Eliza, he would have already done it,” his tone was measured as if each word had been said carefully.
“That’s not what this is.”
My brows drew together slightly at that, my grip tightening on the pages as I searched his expression for something that might contradict it, but there was nothing there.
“They’re not part of this unless you make them part of it,” he continued, quieter now, though the weight of it only seemed to increase.
“The only risk to them comes from you pulling them into something they don’t understand or going to them thinking they can protect you from it.” That made something in my chest twist painfully.
Because I had thought about it, even if only for a second. I had thought about how badly I wanted to go home, to feel protected, and to surround myself with the comfort I so desperately needed right now.
“You need distance,” he added, his voice firm now, though not unkind.
“The more removed you are from them, the less reason he has to even look in their direction.” The truth of his words took root, wrapped themselves around my heart, and squeezed.
“And me? Do you think he would ever… You know… hurt me?” I hated myself for even feeling the need to ask that question, but right now, I honestly didn’t know what to think.
“Hurting you isn’t the point,” he answered, making me frown. The words landed softer than I expected, though they still stung.
“Then what is?” I asked, my voice quieter now, though I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer anymore. However, Bo’s gaze didn’t waver.
“Keeping you,” he said simply, and something in my chest stuttered at that, my breath catching before I could stop it. I started, shaking my head almost immediately, the denial instinctive, automatic even.
“He’s already decided what you are to him,” Bo cut in, not harshly, but firmly enough that the words didn’t just pass by.