“It’s not a concern.”
I walk out of the bathroom and settle onto the couch in front of the bed.
“Did she realize where she is?”
“Not yet.”
And I don’t think she will soon. We’re in a small forest near Trento. It’s the only place where we managed to buy a cabin at the last minute. There are several other cabins in this forest like ours, but all of them are at a good enough distance that you wouldn’t know the others exist. It’s still not a perfect place to keep her. Her family could find us. But it’s the best for now. We can’t leave the country; it would be too risky.
“Did she say anything about why she cut her wrist?”
“No.”
All she’s said to me are curses and heart-stabbing lines.
She stirs.
“She’s waking up. Talk to you later.”
“Okay, brother. Don’t get yourself killed. See you.”
I end the call. She opens her eyes and slowly sits up in bed. She looks dizzy, which is understandable. She hasn’t eaten anything since yesterday afternoon.
She looks around the room, and when her eyes settle on me, she glares. I get up from the couch and leave the room. I reheat the soup I made for her earlier, pour it into a steel bowl, and come back to the room, where she’s still sitting in bed.
I hold the bowl out to her. She looks away.
“Starve yourself, and the same will happen to him.”
Her seething eyes find me. “Don’t act like you have him under your control.”
“It won’t take me more than two days to kidnap him. And then I’ll have full control over how I want to torture him.”
This isn’t true. That motherfucker now has her family’s backing since they found out I kidnapped her and hurt him. Logan has also gone into hiding. Her father’s men are searching for both of us. But she doesn’t know that.
“Fuck you,” she grits out, taking the bowl from my hand. “I hate you.”
The second time she’s said this. The pain is the same as the first. I’ve heard it stops affecting you after a few times, whether it's ‘I love you’ or ‘I hate you.’ Words lose their weight with repetition. But that rule doesn’t apply to her.
She said ‘I love you’ every single day for three months, and every time it unsettled my heart with the same bittersweet flutter, hope and longing tangled together, a lie that felt like truth for the few seconds I let myself believe it. I knew the words weren’t for me. But the irrational, delusional part of my brain used to cling to that high anyway, letting me live inside that false happiness.
From that experience, I know that no matter how many times she says “I hate you,” the pain that cleaves through my sternum will not stop.
I watch her drink the soup. Once she’s done, I take the bowl.
She moves to the edge of the bed to get down, then stops and looks at me.
“I’m going to use the toilet. Don’t come into the bathroom. Since you thought it was a genius idea to have the doors removed, stay outside until I’m done. If possible, don’t come back inside the whole night. I don’t want to see your face.” The coldness in her voice sinks into me, freezing the thing that’s only alive for her a little more.
I leave the room.
There is only this cold left for me now, maybe until the day I die.
Chapter 26
Elowen
Three days have passed in this prison.
