AllFreeNovel
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“This coming from the woman who scaled my fence to retrieve a package.”
“One time.”
“Once is enough.”
I purse my lips. “You’re really gonna lock me up in here?”
I’m fully prepared to argue but he surprises me with a compromise I’m not expecting. “You will be locked in your room only at night. During the day, you have freedom of the house and the gardens.”
“Oh… okay.”
“There is one condition.”
“You meanapartfrom the condition of not running away?” He scowls, so I sigh deeply. “Alright. Hit me.”
“On certain weekends, you will be required to go back down to the basement.”
“Oncertainweekends?”
He nods. “That’s nonnegotiable.”
“Can I know why?”
“No,” he replies curtly, putting an end to any further questions.
I get the feeling that the kiss we shared in the basement might be the reason he’s being so brusque with me right now. Maybe I’d gotten a little too close. A little too vulnerable.
“I’ll leave you now,” he says with a weird, stiff formality.
“But you won’t lock the door, right?”
The corner of his mouth edges up and he makes a show of leaving it halfway open. It’s not total freedom.
But it’s something.
* * *
And boy, is itsomething!
After almost a week in that basement, freedom of the house feels like America after a lifetime in a Siberian prison camp.
I canbreatheagain!
I can feel the sunlight on my skin again!
I can touch the grass underneath my feet again!
My first day of freedom is spent lying on the rolling green lawn like I’m starring in aSound of Musicremake, gazing up at the sky and counting clouds and humming under my breath.
At some point, I sit up and realize that the living room blinds are drawn back. There’s a ripple on the side and Lev’s face pops up for a second. He catches sight of me, his eyes go wide, and then he disappears as fast as he came.
Smiling, I peel myself off the lawn and walk barefoot back into the living room. Lev is crouching by the edge of the windows, making no secret of the fact that he was spying on me.
Something he has in common with his big brother.
“Hey, Lev!”
He flinches, his body curving inwards. He looks like he wants to make himself smaller. I approach him carefully, making sure to keep the sofa between us. “I’m glad to see you again.”
