I touch the skin around her neck, just above those ample tits I wish I could free from their bonds. “This heart begs to be released from its chains.”
“How?” she asks.
“Think,” I reply. “Remember what you did, and you will be free.”
Her pupils dilate as though something is being brought to the surface of a deep dark lake that she’s trying to wade through. But beneath the shallow shore lies an ocean of depths that she has yet to explore. And that’s exactly why we’re here.
“I’m trying. I swear,” she replies. “But I’m coming up blank.”
I narrow my eyes. “Think hard.”
“I did,” she says, rubbing her lips together. “Please, can’t you just help?”
“Help?” I cock my head and look at her through the mirror. “Only you can help yourself.”
“But you know what I did that made you want to put me here,” she replies.
I grab her chin and force her to look at herself. “Look at yourself. What do you see?”
She swallows. “A girl … lost by a single word she should’ve never said.”
“Is that all you see?” I ask.
She just looks at me as though she has no clue what I’m talking about. “So ignorant of your own beauty, your own strength.” I slide a few strands of her hair aside and caress her cheeks. “No amount of ugly bruises can erase that.”
Her brows furrow, and her hand rises to touch her face. Does she only now realize how gorgeous she is without the scars of her past?
“They’re gone …” she mutters, staring as though she’s seeing herself for the very first time.
“Exactly. He can’t touch you here,” I say. I’m not going to say the name of that pig out loud. I’d rather focus on her. “Look at that girl in the mirror. Look at how far she’s come.”
“Far?” she scoffs. “Into a gilded prison? Chris is still at home, waiting for me,” she says. “He needs me.”
“No, he doesn’t,” I reply, wishing I could erase him from her mind.
She furrows her brows. “He’ll come to save me.”
“He won’t do that either,” I retort.
Her lip quivers. “What do you mean?”
I smile and look her dead in the eyes. “I gave you what you asked for. You begged me to punish you.”
“But why did you choose me?” she asks, completely ignoring what I say.
“That’s not the right question, Amelia. The right question is, why did you beg me to?”
She fights the tears staining her eyes. “I don’t know.”
My fingers dig into her skin. “You have to tell me. It’s the only way.”
Her face darkens. “I can’t remember!”
Amelia
I’m losing the fight for control over myself. After that ungodly yell emanated from my throat, the tears flowed freely across my cheek and down onto that expensive purple dress I took so much care in putting on.
I did all of it just to impress him, to make him want me and seduce him into taking me … so I could slither my way into his heart and slowly convince him to let me go.
But nothing is going according to plan.
And the longer I stare at myself in the mirror, the less I recognize.
“Think hard, Amelia,” he says. “Think about that night. When you went out to party all by yourself. What happened?”
“I don’t know. I think I went home, and …” My eyes search the mirror for clues, but I’m coming up with blanks. “Nothing. I can’t remember. I don’t know what I did. Or what happened after. I only remember I woke up in a city park in the middle of the night.”
I can’t remember what happened between, and that scares me more than anything.
My body starts to shake vigorously, my eyes growing bigger and bigger. “Why can’t I remember?”
Panic flushes through my veins.
Suddenly, Eli spins me on my heels and wraps his arms around me. I’m overcome by the sheer force of his grip and the tenderness with which he holds me as though he wants nothing more than to calm the storm brewing in my heart.
But why? Why would someone like him even remotely care about me?
He put me in this situation. He made me say those words.
Why can’t I take them back?
Why can’t I … undo what I did?
My heart pounds in my chest as images from that night flash in and out of my mind like paintings appearing and vanishing in a split second. Me entering my apartment. The bruises I tried so hard to hide. The kiss I shared with Eli.
I almost choke on my own