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With gentle footsteps, he approaches me again. “You forgot … because that’s what people do when they’re in pain, when the trauma is too big. They cover it up and make it disappear.”
I lick my lips but taste the salt of my own tears cascading down my cheeks. “You’re a liar.”
“You remember me, don’t you? That’s why you came to see me at that meeting in town, where I was recruiting new followers to join the Family.”
“Stop,” I say, clenching my fists together.
But he refuses to listen. “You came because you were compelled, Natalie. Don’t you see? Your heart wanted you to remember!”
My body is frozen to the ground. No matter how hard I try, it won’t move. All I can do is dig my fingers deep into the well’s stones and listen to his words as they cut into my soul.
“I wanted to know where that scarf came from,” I say, my lips trembling.
“You already know the answer. It’s the same scarf your mother put around your neck when she pushed you out of your home and forced you to leave this place,” he says.
“How do you know?” I ask. My memories don’t feel like my own. They feel like … they’re his too.
He’s right in front of me now, and he grabs my face with both hands. “I know because I was there.”
“No, I don’t believe it,” I say, still not wanting to face reality.
“Look at me,” he growls, his hands still on my cheeks. “You know me.”
Tears roll down my cheeks as I look into his eyes. They’re the same eyes as the boy I once said goodbye to when my mother whisked me away into the darkness. When we left all that I’d ever known. The community. The Family. My people. My … betrothed.
Chapter 25
Noah
She jerks free from my grip and stumbles backward into the grassy mud. “No, you … we weren’t … no.” I know she can’t wrap her head around it. It’s too much to take in. “I was only a child.”
“We both were … when your father gave you to me when you still lived here,” I explain, trying to remain calm. “To become my future wife.”
“No,” she hisses, her eyes almost on fire. “You were much older than me even then.”
“Eight years isn’t much, Natalie, especially when we’re both the age we are now,” I reply.
“I’m only twenty-two. It’s fucked up,” she says.
“That may be, but it was tradition. Still is.” I step closer again while holding out my hand. “Come on now, don’t be afraid. Nothing’s changed.”
“Everything’s changed,” she says, clutching her dress as though it will bring her safety and comfort in a place she calls hell on earth. But it’s not. It can be so much more than that, if only she’d let me show her.
“I don’t belong here, yet these memories invade my mind,” she mutters.
The tears in her eyes continue to roll down her cheeks, the fire in her eyes slowly fading away, and it hurts to watch.
In her misery, she sinks to the ground and buries her face in her dress as though she wishes she could make it all disappear. And at that moment, I wish the same.
I approach her gently and place a hand on her shoulder, softly caressing her as I go down on my knees in front of her and slowly pull her into an embrace. When she collapses into my arms, I know she’s given in.
Natalie
His arms wrap around me tightly, enveloping me in sweetness as I bury my face into his velvety shirt that smells of toxic love. The same kind of love I remember when I was still young and wanted him to become my husband more than anything. And now … he is.
Because I came back. Because I couldn’t stay away. Because I had to know the truth.
“Now, you know,” he says as I lean back and look at him again.
He’s not that same Noah that I saw before, that enigmatic man who beguiled me and whisked me away into the darkness. He’s the man … who knew all of this and lied to me.
“Why?” I say through gritted teeth. “You knew I was born here, and you didn’t tell me?”
“Would you have believed me?” he replies.
“But why would my mother take me out of this community only for you to bring me back in again?” I ask. “This wasn’t a coincidence. And how … how did you know it was me?”
“That scarf. You didn’t think I wouldn’t recognize it?” he scoffs. “Natalie, you underestimate me.” He cups my chin and makes me look him in the eyes. “I’ve searched for you for so long. And when I finally found you, I knew I was going to take you back home.” The look on his face is so gentle, so sweet, that I can’t help but fall for his magnetizing gaze. Can’t help but let him come closer … and kiss me.
