Page 143 of Yours to Keep
Slowly, reluctantly, I lift my eyes. His dark gaze locks onto mine.
“You will choose me,” he says.
The words twist something bitter in my stomach. “No.”
The smile disappears immediately. “Don’t lie to me, sweetheart.”
“I chose Finn.”
Silence drops through the SUV, heavy and suffocating. That is the truth he didn’t want spoken out loud. I chose Finn. I chose survival. I choseanythingbut him.
I watch it land in him. His jaw tightens as understanding settles in.
“You always do this,” he says.
A laugh slips out before I can stop it, sharp and disbelieving, even to my own ears. “What do I do, Adrian?” I ask, still riding that edge of disbelief.
“Twist things.” His expression hardens.
“You tell yourself whatever story makes you feel better,” I say.
His hand tightens on my knee, but I don’t stop.
“You didn’t save me.”
Silence.
“You didn’t love me.”
Silence again.
“You owned me.”
The slap comes fast, too fast to prepare for. My head snaps sideways into the door. Pain bursts across my cheek, and my mouth fills with hot, metallic blood.
For a moment, everything rings.
Then I turn my head back and spit the blood directly at Adrian. My cheek throbs, but the stillness in Adrian feels like a victory. For once, he doesn’t know what comes next.
Adrian reaches across and grabs my chin, forcing me to face him. His fingers dig in hard. Blood drips from my mouth onto his hand.
“Careful,” he says quietly.
The word is controlled, measured, but something in him has shifted. For the first time, I see it. There is uncertainty there now, because I am not following his script anymore, the one he built, line by line, over years.
And I have cut the fucking strings.
Adrian lets go, leaning back into his seat.
I turn away from him and look at Finn again. His chest rises and falls, steady enough to anchor me, fragile enough to terrify me. I watch him, and I let the car carry us forward toward whatever comes next.
Hours later, the SUV finally stops, and my heart stops with it.
Not here. Not yet. Please. I’m not ready.
The black iron gates appear, and the SUV rolls forward as they open. This is my hell, my nightmare. Suddenly, I’m twenty-one again, standing beside Adrian, believing he loved me. Believing I had finally found somewhere I belonged. Believing he was going to give me a home. But he never did, and the memory makes me sick.
The driveway stretches ahead, winding through the trees. Snow clings to the branches, the ocean barely visible beyond the darkness. Everything looks the same. Every turn of the driveway, every shadow hanging in the trees. I see every place I hid and cried, hiding the fear, the bruises, hiding myself.
