Page 30 of Daddy's Little Survivor

Monroe didn't want to be found by him. The idea terrified her. If Jared found her again, it wouldn't end well. She wouldn't be alive. He had told her one time that if she ever escaped and he found her, he was going to torture and kill her.

Running away had been a risk and she knew he would follow through on what he said, but she had to escape. There was no other way for her. It was either stay with him and die or get away and possibly get caught and die. Either way, it ended up with her dead. She thought she would have a better chance of running away.

Well, she didn't think she would have a better chance, but she wanted a chance to live.

Monroe felt her breathing start to quicken as she waited for Michael to say something. She didn't know if she could handle him telling her Jared was coming for her. She started to feel light-headed and dizzy, making her grab onto the wall next to her to steady herself.

“Calm down, take some deep breaths for me,” Michael said. “What I want to talk to you about isn't anything bad. Take a couple of deep breaths for me.”

She tried to follow what he said, but it was harder than she thought. She had already started to panic, and couldn't feel herself stopping anytime soon.

He could just be telling her what he wanted to talk about wasn’t anything bad when in reality, it was. Jared had done that several times, telling her he just wanted to have a simple conversation but really, he was mad about something and then would tell her and beat her.

“Look me in the eyes,” Michael commanded. “Take a deep breath in. Good girl, now let it out. No, no, no. Look at me in the eyes, keep your focus on me. You're okay and you're safe. Nobody's going to hurt you.”

Monroe slowly started to feel herself calm down. That was the second time he had brought her down from a panic attack. She didn't know how he did it or what kind of magic he used.

Jared had never even tried to calm her down from a panic attack. He would just let it run its course, ultimately leading to her passing out. She hated when she had panic attacks, but she couldn't do anything about them.

“I told you I had taken a couple days off work to make sure you were okay and healing fine,” he said. “But I just got a call, and I might need to go into work sooner than I thought.”

Monroe relaxed some as she looked at him. He was going to leave and that meant she could leave. Unless he decided to bring her with him to work.

Her whole body tensed up at that thought. She didn't want to go to work with him. It could be another trap.

But ultimately, he could make her do anything, go anywhere he wanted, and that scared her. He could easily tie her up in a room and not let her leave, or force her to go with him.

He could want to take her with him to his work so he could pass her off to Jared. Anything was possible since Michael was a six foot something muscular male and even though she was tall, she didn’t know how to defend herself and she was weak. She didn’t stand a chance against him.

What Monroe needed to do was get away from him. She needed to find a way to leave and not return.

“You can come with me or you can stay here if you want. I don't know if or when I have to go into work, but I wanted to give you those two options,” Michael said.

He was giving her an option?

Monroe stared at him with confusion. Did he really just say that? She didn't know what to think. Jared never gave her an option. Maybe Michael wasn’t the same as Jared.

“If you come with me, I would want you to stay close since there are a lot of people there. If you decide you want to stay here, you can go anywhere in the house. Nothing's off limits because I want you to feel comfortable.”

He wanted her to be comfortable? He wasn't giving her any limits on where she could and couldn't go in the house?

Michael kept confusing her. Sometimes the way he acted reminded her of Jared, but other times, he was nice and considerate and she didn't know what to do with that.

She still felt like he had an ulterior motive. Maybe he was just trying to be nice to get on her good side and get her defenses down and then he was going to strike. She didn't know for sure, but it was a huge likelihood that that was his plan.

“I want you to feel comfortable while you're here healing. I want to give your body time to relax and heal properly,” he said.

Monroe still didn't understand why Michael was obsessed with her healing and relaxing. Was that his way of telling her he wanted her to heal before she went back to Jared? She didn't think it mattered if she was healed or not; if she went back to Jared, she was a dead person either way.

Maybe if she didn't heal properly, it would take less time for her to die.

“Do you understand?” he asked.

She nodded her head and waited for him to say something else. She didn't want to just walk away and get in trouble for leaving when he wasn't done talking.

“Words,” Michael said.

Her eyes went wide. “Yes, sir.”

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