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‘That’s an interesting strategy to break in a slave, Elias. But I think we are all in agreement that we strongly approve,’ said another voice. ‘It’s cruel. Inventive. Truly ruthless. In her case, it might actually work better than physical methods.’
‘Exactly. No amount of money or physical punishment can stop her from hating me and refusing to submit. But preying on her emotions…’
Tobias clicked off the recording, a triumphant grin on his face. “That was his plan,” he said. “He wanted to make you think he was falling for you, just so you’d be more destroyed than ever when you discovered the truth. Of course, it doesn’t matter now that you’re going to be killed. But what does matter right now is that he’s not coming to help you. No one is.”
My knees buckled. I shot a hand out to the cabinet in an attempt to balance myself as I swayed and stumbled forward. I felt like a baby taking its first steps. Weak, hesitant, faltering.
Finally, I fell to my knees on the floor, staring at nothing, my eyes no longer focusing. Just when I thought I had a dash of hope, it was stripped away from me all over again, just like every other time I’d dared to feel something other than despair in this hellhole.
“Elias doesn’t care about me,” I whispered, more to myself than Tobias. “He doesn’t love me.”
“No, he doesn’t. You’re nothing, Tatum. Accept it.”
He was right. In a place like this, I was nothing.
I slumped all the way to the floor and curled up into a ball, wishing I could melt right into the polished wood. My insides seemed to have been replaced with some kind of black hole.
Tobias stooped to my level, one hand jerking out to force my chin upward. He stared down into my eyes, his own dark and malicious, glimmering with sick amusement. "Two days, little doll.”
“What?” I said, my voice a broken whisper.
“That’s when it begins.” He smiled and held up the index and middle fingers of his right hand. “You will be hunted in two days.”
To be continued….