Chapter 39
Evelyn
Unknown Location
Pain pulses through me with every heartbeat. My arms ache from being tied behind my back. My ankles burn. My shoulder feels wrong, like it was wrenched when they dragged me in. But the silence is the worst part.
Silence means isolation. Silence means no one knows where you are. Silence means danger.
I open my eyes slowly. A naked bulb swings overhead, painting monstrous shadows along the wooden walls. It smells like dust and old hay.
A barn? A warehouse? A graveyard for people like me?
The door creaks. Grace steps in like she’s visiting a spa. “Hello, doll,” she says.
I glare at her, but my throat is too raw to speak.
She kneels beside me. “Still waiting on your knight in shining armor?”
The words tremble in my rib cage, but I force them out. “He opened up to me.” Her laugh is sharp, cruel.
“Of course he did. You were the new toy.” She tilts her head. “But toys get boring. And Alexander? He always breaks his favorites.”
Her words slice where I’m weakest. My childhood. My trauma. All the adults who promised love and delivered violence instead. But then I look at her. Really look.
She’s not powerful. She’s terrified. She lost him, and she wants the world to suffer for it.
I lift my chin. “You can’t break what’s already broken.”
Her smile falters.
“But you? Broken people don’t break broken people,” I said.
Her eyes darken. She stands abruptly and leaves, slamming the door. I exhale once—shaky, uneven—but my mind is clear. I feel the cords at my wrists. They’re thick, but not impossible. Pain will come. Skin will tear. I start sawing the rope against the rusted hook overhead.
He is coming. I know it. And I will not be helpless when he does.