Epilogue
KILLIAN
She’s asleep beside me. Unbounded, unrestrained.
Her hair spills across my arm, the scent of her still clings to my skin.
It shouldn’t have felt like peace. It never has before.
My world has always been noise and order.
But she’s quiet. One that seeps in slowly, filling every hole I thought I’d locked away.
As I brush strands of hair from her forehead, her lashes flutter, but she doesn’t wake.
Her lips move faintly, shaping a word she’s said over a hundred times now.
Sir. A small, twisted smile pulls at my lips.
Even in sleep, she remembers who owns her now.
She breathes as if she knows for tonight, nothing will hurt her.
Tomorrow she’ll fight me again. She’ll push.
She’ll curse. She’ll still tell herself she wants to escape.
And I’ll punish her every single time. But tonight, she’s mine.
Mine to touch, to hold, to keep. I lean in, close enough to inhale her scent.
“You’ll hate me again tomorrow,” I whisper, voice barely audible. “But tonight, you’re mine. And you love it.”
I kiss her temple once, then rest my hand over her heart, feeling it beat against my palm.
The same heart I’ve broken, rebuilt, and claimed without permission.
I close my eyes and match my breath to hers until I can’t tell the difference.
Because the truth is, I don’t know who’s keeping who anymore.