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I met his gaze steadily, trying to control my breathing.
"This is where you belong," he continued, gesturing to the room I’d just come out of. "This is what you’re made for, Selina, and you know it. You can go play house with some old man for a while, but you’re always going to come back to this. Easier for you to just see that now than to keep fighting it, don’t you think?”
My heart was pounding in my chest as he spoke. It was everything I had told myself since I had been taken from this place. It was everything I had felt when I had seen Marnie again, when I had felt as though I was just dragging her down by my mere presence. That I was doomed to come back to this, no matter how much I tried to walk away from it.
Stefano knew me. He had known me for a long time. He had seen me come into this business, make all that money for him. He had seen the addict I had become, hooked on the shit I couldn’t get enough of. He had seen the worst parts of me, and he had treated them as though they were … good. Worthwhile. Worth something. With him, I could use my worst aspects and turn them into something marketable. I could provide for myself, relying on those parts of my mind and myself that I hated most.
Or … Or …
Stefano saw the look on my face and let the gun drop slowly, grinning. He knew he was getting to me.
"You know I’m right, baby," he told me. "You can just come back to me, you know that, don’t you?”
I nodded. I did know that. I knew that he would always have a place for me, always have work for me. I would always have a place in this world if I wanted it.
But maybe I didn’t. Maybe there was a life for me outside of all of this.
And maybe that’s the life I wanted for myself right now.
Before Stefano could make a move, I reached for the gun in Paulo’s holster and pulled it out. Everything seemed to slow around me for a moment as I lifted it, aiming at him.
"I know that, Stefano," I told him. "I just don’t want it."
I squeezed the trigger and fired the gun.
Chapter Eighteen – Paulo
I glanced over at Selina, sitting in the passenger seat beside me, staring out of the window. Her face was misted with blood from the shot she’d fired at Stefano, the killing blow she had shown him when he had tried to convince her to make the decision to be with him.
She hadn’t said a word since she had left the house. Stefano had been blown off his feet, onto the ground, and she’d made her way over to him slowly, looking down at him, the gun still clutched in one delicate hand. The sound of the shot was ringing in my ears as she checked that he was dead, and, once she was satisfied, she turned to me and pressed the gun back into my hand.
I led her downstairs, my arm around her shoulders, feeling her trembling violently with every step she took. I couldn’t even imagine the shock she was dealing with right now, and I didn’t know what to say to her to make it better, but fuck, I was proud of her, and I wanted her to know that more than anything else in the world.
She had chosen a new life for herself. Chosen something better than what Stefano had offered to her. He had been so confident, as he’d talked to her, that she was going to just give in and make the choice to stay with him; his arrogance was written all over his face, blatant, sickening. And, as I’d stood there, trying my best to protect her from the twisted words he threw her way, I had no idea if she was going to fall for them or not.
Because I had seen the shame she carried in herself, the doubt, the anger, the grief for the life she had been forced to endure for so long. And I knew how that could suck you down, like tar, swallowing you up, until the thought of something else seemed downright impossible.
But no—she had bucked that trend. Told him no, in the most straightforward way she could have. And I was so fucking proud of her, I couldn’t even put it into words.
We arrived back at the mansion, and I guided her wordlessly past the guards, not bothering to explain why she was bloodied or what had happened; I would fill Alex in on all of it when I next got the chance, but for now, she was my priority. I needed to get her cleaned up and settled back in as best I could. I didn’t know what she might have been through since Stefano had taken her—it had only been a day or so, but I didn’t trust him not to have used every moment of that to destroy her any way he knew how. He had her locked in that room, hidden out, and had probably been trying to feed her pills or powder to get her to go along with whatever he wanted. I hated the thought of it.
But all that mattered was that she was out now. I led her back to her room, the room she had been staying in when she had been living here, and to the bathroom, where I sat her down on the edge of the bath.
"Do you mind if I touch you?" I asked her, and she shook her head. I reached for a washcloth and dampened it, slowly beginning to wipe away the gore on her skin. Her eyes seemed distant, and she jumped slightly when I touched her, but didn’t pull back. I put a hand on her knee, steadying her, bringing her back down to earth.
"You’re alright," I promised her. "You’re okay, Selina. You’re safe here."
She lifted her eyes to meet mine as I wiped down her face and neck. Finally, she spoke.
"I know," she murmured, and a smile curled up the corners of her lips. It was the last thing I had expected to see on her face, after everything she had been through, but God, was it welcome. I just wanted her to be happy here, to know she was safe in this place.
She reached down and pulled off her shirt, much to my surprise, shifting so I could continue to clean her skin. The blood hadn’t reached beneath the fabric, but I brushed the washcloth down across her shoulders, along her arms, like I was smoothing away something she wanted gone.
"Are you okay?" I asked her softly, and she hesitated for a moment before she responded, but then, she nodded.
"Yeah, I think I am," she confessed, goosebumps appearing on her skin where I moved the washcloth over her. "I … When he spoke to me like that, it all came flooding back to me. Everything he’d done over the years, everything I’d been through, and I just … I knew I couldn’t keep going like that. I knew I couldn’t keep living like that. I had to get out. I had to at least try and find out what was waiting for me on the other side."
I grinned at her.
