Page 74 of Like An Animal

I doubt it though.

That sounds like a happy ending to me and people like me and Jeremy don’t get happy endings. We get endless torment from the people who think they own us.

As soon asLottie finishes eating, she washes her hands in the sink before running over to me. I drop down to her level and accept a big hug from her.

“Bye, Mommy,” she whispers and I squeeze her tight. It’s hard to let her go, but I know I have to. Otherwise, Jeremy will pry her out of my hold and I don’t want Lottie to witness something like that.

It will be okay though.

Xavi will take care of her and like Jeremy said, he’ll have plenty of guards with him to protect my sweet girl.

“Have fun, okay?” She pulls away before she runs over to Jeremy who stands there as impassive as ever, except when Lottie crashes into his legs, wrapping her arms around them. His eyes shift slightly, but it’s not much of a change. He hesitates toreach his hand over and rub her back, but she doesn’t seem to notice.

“Bye, Daddy!” Then, she darts out of the kitchen with Xavi right behind her.

“Slow down, kid. I swear, she has more energy than I ever did.” He rolls his eyes before exiting the kitchen.

“I’ll go with him. He may need the extra hands, with or without the added guards,” Massimo says, probably feeling the tension in the room between me and Jeremy.

Massimo darts out and I don’t say anything. If Jeremy has something to say, he can do it without my help.

I’m not going to start a conversation. For years before everything went down, every conversation was started by me with the exception of maybe once.

Not anymore. If he wants to know something, he can ask. I won’t pry for answers from him anymore.

“Come on,” Jeremy mutters as he nods toward the door. He walks to it before extending his hand to me. I stare down at his fingers, feeling like the olive branch is a snake waiting to strike.

What kind of torment is he going to put me through now?

He doesn’t look mad or irritated. Honestly, he looks like he hasn’t slept in years. The dark circles under his eyes are ten times as intense as they were back then.

Something in his eyes pushes me to place my hand in his. It's something that screams he’s no threat to me, not right now at least.

Jeremy pulls me behind him, but the tug is gentle, not like it was earlier. His whole mood has changed. So has the energy surrounding us. It’s as if he has abandoned the anger, even if just temporarily.

I’ll take it, even if it will only be short-lived.

He guides me down the hall we went down before until we reach a set of stairs and we walk up them to the second floor. Heremains silent all the way down the empty hall until we reach a room at the end. He pushes open the door and pulls me in.

It’s a big bedroom, but what really pulls at my non-existent heart strings is that it’s set up exactly like his room at the old house, complete with the projector we watched movies with every night. There’s even our photographs on the bedside tables, including the one I took with me. He even has the frame of my yearbook photo from freshman year with our strip of pictures of making out in the photo booth at the fair in the frame.

He built our safe place.

He recreated the place where I fell in love with him.

The place where we shared our trauma and built memories together.

The place we lost our virginities to each other.

It’s more than just his bedroom.

He replicated our little world.

My heart sputters as I look up at him, staring down at me. “How?” I whisper, a mixture of confused and baffled.

How did he pull this off?

How did he know that this would make me feel more comfortable in this fortress?