Page 178 of Cain

Katerina now lives under the name Emma Hoffman, and, of course, we tell people we’re married. She works at a flower shop right opposite the shop where I work—just so I can watch what’s going on. Of course, a few fuckers have tried to corner her every here and there, and I’ve stepped in like a good husband. Iaccidentallykilled two of them, but no one knows about it. They just went missing. Oops.

We’ve decided to stay here for some time until the dust settles, and then, we’ll see what we’ll do. Maybe we’ll go back home. Perhaps we’ll stay here or go somewhere else and start over. Nobody knows.

It’s been just a month since all that ended, but it seems like it was yesterday. I don’t regret anything.

I needed to know what she’d do when it all came down.

Would she scream my name to save herself?

Would she sell me out the second the world gave her an exit?

I had to know if that love she swore to me was real, or if it was just some bullshit fantasy she’d drop the minute things got hard.

So I let her sit in that fucking cell.

For three days.

Three goddamn days I’d been plotting and playing in my head how I’d kill every single son of a bitch that laid a hand on her or even talked to her.

I wanted her to look the end of the world in the face and still not let go of me.

But my little rose didn’t break.

She didn’t give me up.

She didn’t spit my name out to the bastards who would’ve loved to pin it all on me.

She kept her mouth shut. That’s when I fucking knew.

She’s mine. She’s fucking mine.

Because there is no other version of her life that makes sense without me in it.

I flick the cigarette from my fingers and walk inside the apartment. My eyes linger on her for a while longer. God, she’s so damn beautiful. She’s even prettier with this hair color.

I let my fingers trail across her cheek, enjoying the soft moan she exhales from my touch.

Maybe I saved her when I took her.

Or maybe she’s the one saving me now, pulling me from the wreckage of myself.

Either way, it doesn’t matter.

She’s mine. All mine.

And I’ll watch the whole goddamn world scream in flames before I ever let her go.

I am a sinner—a savage without a shred of remorse who deserves to burn in the pits of hell.

But every time I look at her innocent face, a holy silence covers the madness in me, and I feel the same feelings all over again.

Peace.

Serenity.

A pause in the chaos.

The End