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ISABELLE

Tears clung to my eyelids as I looked around the cell, wondering how long I would call this home.

No. I would never call this home. Never. Someone would find me. I had to believe that. Otherwise, I should just find something sharp and slit my wrists. What other choice was there? I couldn’t give up hope.

I closed my eyes and tried to think back through the fog to remember how long it had been since I was taken, but the drugs they’d pushed through my system made everything so unclear. The last thing I could recall was being in a shop.

Was I taken outside?

Was anyone with me?

My eyes flew open as my gut sank at the idea that any of my friends might have suffered the same fate as me. Squinting through the darkness, I looked around the dank basement, searching for any signs of life.

“Kerry?” I whispered. I wasn’t even sure she was with me, but if anyone went shopping with me, it would have been her. When she didn’t respond, I sank back with both relief and disappointment. I was grateful. Truly, I was. I wouldn’t wish this kind of fear on anyone. But knowing I wasn’t alone would have been comforting.

I shuffled back to the bench in my cell, tucking my feet up under me. It wasn’t comfortable, but at least I wasn’t sitting on the cold floor. Every part of me was freezing. The numbness had set in my fingers, but not to the situation. I couldn’t figure out how this had happened. I was a smart woman. I took precautions. I never went anywhere alone if I could help it. I had mace in my purse. I had taken a self-defense course.

Yet, none of that helped. When it really mattered, none of it helped at all.

The creaking of a door made my heart jolt in terror. I curled in on myself, my heart racing out of control. I didn’t know where I was or if anyone could hear me if I screamed.

With every click of his heels on the stairs, I tried to think of something—anything to do to get out of here, but as soon as he reached the bottom, my mind went blank and my heart stopped. I recognized the silhouette immediately. I had nightmares about this man. I dreamed about him after the club, about how he pressed me up against the wall, begging to take me home. It was only by sheer luck that I escaped him.

Apparently, I wasn’t lucky enough to escape him for good. Dread filled the pit of my stomach as he walked closer. I knew whatever he had planned, I would not be leaving his clutches anytime soon.

“Isabelle. How lovely to see you again.”

When I didn’t say anything, he cocked his head at me as if he wondered why I wasn’t speaking. I couldn’t if I wanted to. My throat was too busy trying to remember how to function, how to allow air through.

“Aren’t you going to tell me you’re happy to see me, too?” He chuckled, resting his arm against the bars like he was lounging around, having a good time. He didn’t care that I was scared out of mind or that he had ripped me away from everyone I loved. There was no concern about whether or not I was okay. He didn’t even ask me how I felt. This man was a psychopath.

“Well, I suppose we can save pleasantries for later. I’ll let you get accustomed to your new home first.”

That sparked a response from me. “My new home?”

His eyes flashed with excitement. “Yes.” He looked around gleefully. “Until you’re prepared for what I can offer you, you’ll stay here. Only then will you be moved.”

What he could offer me…Was he serious?

“You could never offer me anything I would want.” My voice shook with anger and fear, but the truth in my words was strong. There was no way I’d ever give this man a single piece of me.

“We’ll see,” he chuckled.

“Did you really think you could kidnap me and I would fall in love with you? You’re sick.”

“Isabelle, you felt it at the club ? —”

“I felt nothing! I pushed you away!”

“Yes,” he grinned. “And it made me hard. I love a woman who fights back. It makes it so much more fun to break her.”

The threat in his voice terrified me. I was afraid that deep down, I was not as strong as I thought. I wanted to believe I was, but there was a difference between acting tough and actually carrying through on it. A few self-defense classes did not make me mentally strong, and I had a feeling that’s what I’d need to hold out against a man like this.

“What do you plan to do with me?”

“It wouldn’t be any fun if I told you everything at once.”

“Then what about tonight?”

“For tonight, and the foreseeable future, you will stay here until you can learn to accept your new home for what it is.”

He was going to leave me here in this cold, dark cell. I would go crazy down here. I had to find a way to fight him…maybe make him think that I was on his side. If I was with him, I might be able to get to a phone or send a message for help. Anything!

I jumped up from the bench and rushed over to him, grabbing his hand in mine. His eyes flashed in approval, and I did my best to keep the disgust off my face. “I’ll go with you,” I said hopefully. “I don’t want to stay down here in the cold. I promise to behave and do whatever you tell me to do.”

A slow smirk filled his face. “I know you will. In time. I will never have your true devotion unless you earn it. And believe me, by the time I’m done with you, there will never be a day that you don’t want to be by my side.”

He peeled his hand from mine, pulling it back through the bars.

“No,” I whispered. “Don’t leave.”

“I’ll check on you tomorrow. For now, enjoy your night with the rats.”

“No!” I screamed. “You can’t do this!”

But he didn’t listen. He didn’t even stop and turn around. His footsteps faded as he marched up the stairs. Then the door closed and I was locked in silence. The cage felt like overkill until I heard the scurrying of little feet, and then I understood why he locked me in here.

Pure torture.

I pressed my hands over my ears to block them out. “They aren’t real. They’re not here.”

But it was like a door opened somewhere and he let them in. They hadn’t been here before, and now they filled the basement. He was torturing me, just like he said, making it so I wouldn’t want him to leave me.

And as they climbed through the bars of the cell, I realized I had nowhere to run. I was locked in here, forced to sit through a night of terror, fighting off rodents that gnawed at my flesh.

“It’s not real,” I repeated. “It’s not real.”

* * *

“It’s not real,” I whispered, tugging at the restraints on my wrists. I stared up at the ceiling with tears spilling down my face. How had I gotten here? I’d come so far, finally escaped the island, only to end up in the psych ward at the hospital.

Because of him.

Ebarardo wouldn’t leave me alone, and now I was afraid he never would. He’d dug into my brain and latched on like a leech. Would there ever be a time when I could just live my life without him ruling over me?

“It’s not real. None of this is real,” I murmured again.

“Isabelle?”

I rolled my head to the side, blinking back the tears as a woman walked in. She had kind eyes and a pretty smile. She didn’t look like the last woman who held that needle, promising to put me under if I didn’t calm down. That woman looked like she dealt with crazy people all day and was tired of her job. She had no use for talking to people like they were humans. She didn’t care what happened to me or if I could be helped. She only wanted to get through her shift and get home.

Could I really blame her? When I was admitted, I was out of it. But I wasn’t anymore. I could feel the pain in my hand. I knew what I had done.

What Ebarardo had forced me to do.

But that stopped now.

“How are you feeling?”

“Better. Clearer.”

“That’s good. Do you mind if I sit?”

I shook my head.

“Would you like to sit up?”

I nodded. I didn’t want to have a conversation lying flat on my back. She raised the bed, then sat down smiling at me again. “I’m Doctor Ellsworth. I’m here to talk to you about what happened. About why you’re here.”

Tears instantly flooded my eyes again. I didn’t want to cry anymore, but it was like all those feelings that I should have had when I got off the island were finally coming to the surface. I was free. After thirteen years, someone had rescued me. I was no longer a prisoner.

“Here,” Doctor Ellsworth said, handing me a tissue as she released one hand from the restraint.

“Thank you, Doctor Ellsworth.”

“Call me Linden.” She smiled kindly at me, waiting patiently for me to talk.

I thought it would be difficult, that telling someone would be hard, but I’d held it in for so long that it was like it all wanted to spill out of me.

“I was abducted fourteen years ago and held captive up until a year ago. I— I was forced to marry him. He beat me regularly. He forced me to do things that no woman ever…” I trailed off as I remembered the vial things that would happen on a sometimes daily basis. “I never thought I would make it off that island alive,” I whispered.

“But you did,” she smiled. “Someone rescued you.”

I gave a slight nod. “My brother. I didn’t even know I had a brother.” My eyes flicked to her. “He gave his life to save mine. I…” There were just so many feelings to sort through. I didn’t know how to get through them all.

She grasped my hand, giving me a tight squeeze. “Why don’t you tell me what happened recently?”

I took a deep breath and remembered what it was like to come home. “It was like I was still married to him—like I still belonged on that island. I put on a face for everyone else so they would think I was fine, but… I missed him. And then—and then he started visiting me.”

“He came back for you?”

I shook my head. “He’s dead. But I started seeing him. He would appear and tell me what to do, just like when we were on the island. I was still listening to him, still following his rules. And when I disobeyed him, I knew I had to punish myself.”

Her eyes flicked down to my hand. “That’s how your family knew.”

“Yeah. A friend walked in on me. If he hadn’t—” I shook my head, remembering the fear that Ebarardo wouldn’t see me finish. “I was so mad that I didn’t get to finish the punishment.”

“But you seem very clear about what’s going on now. What changed?”

I looked down at my wrist still in the cuff and raised it for her to see. “I woke up like this, and it was like I was back there in that cell the first night. The curtains were pulled back and the sun shone through. It’s like for the first time since I left that island, I remember what he did to me and I know I’m truly free now.”

“And how does that feel?”

My eyes flicked to her smiling face, but instead of smiling, I took a staggering breath. “Terrifying. Since I’ve been back, I’ve been trying to live by his rules. Now, I have to learn to live on my own. I have to find a way to move past what he did to me, and I don’t know how to do that.”

“It’s a lot of work, and it will be hard, but I can help you if you’ll let me.”

The relief I felt at her words brought tears to my eyes again. I knew there was no way I could do this on my own. I wanted—no, I needed—to push past this and get Ebarardo out of my head. Only then would I truly be free of him.

“I’d like that.”