I met his gaze steadily, attempting to manage my respiration.

“That is the place you belong,” he continued, gesturing to the room I’d simply come out of. “That is what you’re made for, Selina, and you understand it. You’ll be able to go play home with some outdated man for some time, however you’re at all times going to return again to this. Simpler so that you can simply see that now than to maintain combating it, don’t you assume?”

My coronary heart was pounding in my chest as he spoke. It was all the pieces I had instructed myself since I had been taken from this place. It was all the pieces I had felt once I had seen Marnie once more, once I had felt as if I used to be simply dragging her down by my mere presence. That I used to be doomed to return again to this, irrespective of how a lot I attempted to stroll away from it.

Stefano knew me. He had recognized me for a very long time. He had seen me come into this enterprise, make all that cash for him. He had seen the addict I had turn into, hooked on the shit I couldn’t get sufficient of. He had seen the worst elements of me, and he had handled them as if they had been … good. Worthwhile. Value one thing. With him, I might use my worst points and switch them into one thing marketable. I might present for myself, counting on these elements of my thoughts and myself that I hated most.

Or … Or …

Stefano noticed the look on my face and let the gun drop slowly, grinning. He knew he was attending to me.

“You recognize I’m proper, child,” he instructed me. “You’ll be able to simply come again to me, you understand that, don’t you?”

I nodded. I did know that. I knew that he would at all times have a spot for me, at all times have work for me. I might at all times have a spot on this world if I needed it.

However possibly I didn’t. Possibly there was a life for me exterior of all of this.

And possibly that’s the life I needed for myself proper now.

Earlier than Stefano might make a transfer, I reached for the gun in Paulo’s holster and pulled it out. The whole lot appeared to sluggish round me for a second as I lifted it, aiming at him.

“I do know that, Stefano,” I instructed him. “I simply don’t need it.”

I squeezed the set off and fired the gun.

Chapter Eighteen – Paulo

I glanced over at Selina, sitting within the passenger seat beside me, staring out of the window. Her face was misted with blood from the shot she’d fired at Stefano, the killing blow she had proven him when he had tried to persuade her to make the choice to be with him.

She hadn’t mentioned a phrase since she had left the home. Stefano had been blown off his toes, onto the bottom, and he or she’d made her means over to him slowly, trying down at him, the gun nonetheless clutched in a single delicate hand. The sound of the shot was ringing in my ears as she checked that he was lifeless, and, as soon as she was happy, she turned to me and pressed the gun again into my hand.

I led her downstairs, my arm round her shoulders, feeling her trembling violently with each step she took. I couldn’t even think about the shock she was coping with proper now, and I didn’t know what to say to her to make it higher, however fuck, I used to be pleased with her, and I needed her to know that greater than anything on this planet.

She had chosen a brand new life for herself. Chosen one thing higher than what Stefano had supplied to her. He had been so assured, as he’d talked to her, that she was going to only give in and make the selection to stick with him; his conceitedness was written throughout his face, blatant, sickening. And, as I’d stood there, attempting my greatest to guard her from the twisted phrases he threw her means, I had no thought if she was going to fall for them or not.

As a result of I had seen the disgrace she carried in herself, the doubt, the anger, the grief for the life she had been pressured to endure for therefore lengthy. And I knew how that would suck you down, like tar, swallowing you up, till the considered one thing else appeared downright inconceivable.

However no—she had bucked that pattern. Informed him no, in essentially the most easy means she might have. And I used to be so fucking pleased with her, I couldn’t even put it into phrases.

We arrived again on the mansion, and I guided her wordlessly previous the guards, not bothering to clarify why she was bloodied or what had occurred; I might fill Alex in on all of it once I subsequent received the prospect, however for now, she was my precedence. I wanted to get her cleaned up and settled again in as greatest I might. I didn’t know what she may need been by means of since Stefano had taken her—it had solely been a day or so, however I didn’t belief him to not have used each second of that to destroy her any means he knew how. He had her locked in that room, hidden out, and had most likely been attempting to feed her tablets or powder to get her to go together with no matter he needed. I hated the considered it.

However all that mattered was that she was out now. I led her again to her room, the room she had been staying in when she had been residing right here, and to the lavatory, the place I sat her down on the sting of the bathtub.

“Do you thoughts if I contact you?” I requested her, and he or she shook her head. I reached for a washcloth and dampened it, slowly starting to wipe away the gore on her pores and skin. Her eyes appeared distant, and he or she jumped barely once I touched her, however didn’t pull again. I put a hand on her knee, steadying her, bringing her again right down to earth.

“You’re alright,” I promised her. “You’re okay, Selina. You’re secure right here.”

She lifted her eyes to satisfy mine as I wiped down her face and neck. Lastly, she spoke.

“I do know,” she murmured, and a smile curled up the corners of her lips. It was the very last thing I had anticipated to see on her face, after all the pieces she had been by means of, however God, was it welcome. I simply needed her to be blissful right here, to know she was secure on this place.

She reached down and pulled off her shirt, a lot to my shock, shifting so I might proceed to wash her pores and skin. The blood hadn’t reached beneath the material, however I brushed the washcloth down throughout her shoulders, alongside her arms, like I used to be smoothing away one thing she needed gone.

“Are you okay?” I requested her softly, and he or she hesitated for a second earlier than she responded, however then, she nodded.

“Yeah, I believe I’m,” she confessed, goosebumps showing on her pores and skin the place I moved the washcloth over her. “I … When he spoke to me like that, all of it got here flooding again to me. The whole lot he’d accomplished through the years, all the pieces I’d been by means of, and I simply … I knew I couldn’t hold going like that. I knew I couldn’t hold residing like that. I needed to get out. I needed to not less than attempt to discover out what was ready for me on the opposite facet.”

I grinned at her.

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