He stepped back, eyes flicking over me. “You know what you got with him won’t last long. He’s fucking other girls, you know that? But he always gets everything, even if he don’t deserve it. And he definitely don’t deserve something as nice as you.”
Projection.
Identity inversion.
This wasn’t about me. It was about his envy of Mekhi.
“You hate him,” I said softly. “You hate him for having things. Why? Because you don’t have them? Because you think he took some nice things from you?”
His jaw twitched.
Bullseye.
He moved slowly, pacing a small circle. “He took everything. A whole life that should’ve been mine.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You’re angry he got a life you should’ve had?”
He looked at me sharply. “Don’t psychoanalyze me.”
“I’m literally tied to a chair,” I said dryly. “What else am I supposed to do for entertainment?”
A slow, dangerous smile returned to his face.
“You really something, Farrah.”
He crouched in front of me, elbows on his knees like he was profiling me back.
“You scared?”
My pulse spiked. He could probably see it in my neck. But if I admitted fear, that gave him power. If I denied it outright, that risked provoking him. So, I went with truth. A half one, at least.
“I’m scared of what you might do,” I said calmly. “Not of you.”
His brows shot up. “Not of me?”
“I’ve studied people like you,” I said. “You’re methodical. Calculated. You want specific outcomes, not chaos. If you wanted chaos, you wouldn’t have drugged me. You wouldn’t have tied me neatly. You wouldn’t be talking. You would’ve hurt me already.”
His breathing shifted—just slightly.Bingo. I hid my smile. He wasn’t expecting that level of accuracy.
“So, what? You think I’m predictable?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “I think you worry that you are.”
Yeah, he hated that.
“I could still hurt you, kill you.”
His voice was tight. My anxiety went through the roof. My face showed none of that.
“Yeah, you could,” I continued softly. “But you need me alive.”
Something flashed across his face, something angry and defensive. But he just laughed.
“What makes you think that?”
“Because killing me wouldn’t hurt Mekhi as much as watching me disappear. It wouldn’t hurt him as much as knowing someone else had me.”
He froze. I was on to something, so I kept going. Stalling, buying time.
