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“I know you’re scared. But you don’t have to be. It only beats for you Spencer. It’s only ever beat for you.”
She exhales so heavy, like she’s releasing the weight of the world. I rub my hand across the back of hers, and it’s then that I notice it.
Why didn’t I see it before?
She’s still wearing my mom’s ring.
Chapter twenty-one
Aria
The sunlight streaming through the window is warm on my cheeks, and gently stirs me from my peaceful rest. Rolling over, I extend my arm and reach for him, but my hand waves through an empty space, landing on the cold mattress beside me. Groaning, I open one eye and see the bed is empty.
My heat rate picks up a little, and I sit up, looking around the room. Then I see it.
The note on the pillow.
A wave of panic crashes over me.
Not again, please not again. I can’t do this again.
With a shaking hand, I reach over and grasp the note. Pulling it toward me, I peek down at it.
I let out the biggest sigh of relief, and then I shake my head in confusion. I don’t understand anything that I’m feeling right now. For so long I’ve hated him, but I’ve loved him. Why am I staying? What is wrong with me?
My head is fuzzy. I’m irritated and annoyed. But I also had the best night of sleep that I’ve had in over a ten years, and my stomach grumbles when the smell of cinnamon and vanilla hit my senses.
I guess I can stay for a bit.
At least until he gets back.
But then he might want to talk, and there are things I can’t tell him. I mean he knows what Evan did, sorta, but he doesn’t know the rest, and what’s that saying? The devil is in the details. He doesn’t know what I did.
That I didn’t just run.
After he left, I was lost. When Evan started back in on me, I needed an escape. So I began sneaking down to the basement again every single day. I kept reading her journals. Every day I popped in my earbuds, and devoured every tidbit of information she hid within the pages. Everything I needed to know about the organization that owned her. The organization that owned me.
I absorbed the details so I would understand exactly who the big bad was in my life, and exactly what I needed to fear. I learned that I could live with some things to avoid the horrific possibilities of all the things that would be done to me if I didn’t comply.
When I finally knew everything I needed to know, when the pieces all finally clicked into place, and I knew exactly what I was up against, I knew there was no way out. I knew that no one could save me, and it crushed my soul.
So I did the fucking unthinkable. Something I can’t even fathom saying out loud.
Then I cashed out my trust fund and left Lakeview with nothing but an unregistered car and a suitcase full of cash.
I ran from the Syndicate.
I ran from the great Grant Maddox. And if he ever finds me? Not only will I be punished for my sins, but when he’s finished, he will auction me off to the highest bidder, that is, if he doesn’t decide to kill me instead.
Wandering through the house, I follow my nose to the kitchen and the sight I stumble upon makes me truly giggle for the first time in a while. The kitchen island is covered in a smorgasbord of muffins, cinnamon buns, bagels, french toast, and there’s some guy with green hair, a shit ton of tattoos, and baggy jeans, wearing a kiss the chef apron while he scrambles eggs. He doesn’t notice me, and he has a set of headphones over his ears, so I pull up a stool and sit and watch him, confused but entertained nonetheless.
Grabbing an oversized blueberry muffin, I pick at it, taking small bites when the guy cooking spins around on one heel, shrieks out loud, and drops the spatula on the ground when he sees me.
Clutching his chest, he pulls the headphones down around his neck with his other hand.
“Shit, I’m sorry,” he mutters as he bends down to pick up the spatula and tosses it into the sink.
“And you are…?” I trail, hoping there is some kind of explanation for waking up with Travis missing and this guy dancing around the kitchen.