Page 7 of Swallow

He stilled. The air around us thickened, energy humming between us. When he turned back to me, his eyes searched mine as if reading something in my expression I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone to see.

“Will you stay?” I whispered.

A muscle in his jaw ticked, and he glanced down, his gaze focused on where I held on to him. Then he slowly lifted his head and looked at my face. “That’s what you want?”

I nodded, not even pausing to question it. “I don’t want to be alone. I want to be with you.”

His hesitation lasted all of two seconds before he exhaled sharply and gave a small nod. “Okay, Evie. If that's what you want.”

I smiled and let out my held-in breath while I stepped inside.

Ash followed me before closing the door behind us. His presence filled the space in a way that should’ve made me uneasy, but it didn’t.

He walked over to the couch and sat down. “Want me to see if I can get a movie to play on this old-ass thing?”

I smiled again and nodded. “I’ll get a snack for us.”

He reached for the remote, and I grabbed a bag of chips from the cupboard. It was something he brought me earlier with all the other groceries he insisted on getting me. The memory of that sweet gesture made my chest tight as I sank onto the couch beside him.

He flipped through the channels, most of them static, before landing on a rerun of some classic TV comedy. It was the kind of old-school show I used to love… before being happy about anything turned into something I could only remember.

We sat in silence, the flickering screen casting soft shadows across the walls.

I stared at my hands, tracing the outline of my fingers as if I could find the words I wanted to say to Ash buried beneathmy skin. The room was dim, the TV still murmuring in the background, but the air between us was thick, waiting.

“I didn’t always hate him,” I finally said, my voice quiet, almost too small for the weight of what I was about to say. “That’s the part that still messes with my head. I thought what I felt was affection, maybe even something that could grow into love.”

Ash didn’t speak. Didn’t press me to keep going. He just waited, letting the silence be mine to fill. But I felt his gaze locked on me, unwavering.

I swallowed hard, the lump in my throat too big and heavy. “At first, he was... great. Charming. Attentive. The kind of man who made you feel like the world revolved around you.” I laughed humorlessly. “I learned fast it was all fake with Brady. But until then, he let me believe everything was great. Let me believe that we had something good. Something real.”

Ash placed his hand over mine, and I stared at where we touched.

I let out a slow, shaking breath. “But I realized too late I was locked in a cage.” I rubbed my free hand on my thigh, my body suddenly feeling too cold. “It got to where I just stayed inside, locked away from society and the friends I once had. He knew what he was doing,” I said bitterly as I stared at the television. “No family. No friends. He thought I was weak because of that. Easy prey,” I whispered.

I clenched my hand into a fist, nails digging into my palm, closed my eyes, and breathed out, feeling stronger for saying all of this out loud.

“And the thing is… he never had to hit me. He never even had to yell. He just made me believe no one else would love me the way he did. That everything hediddo was because he cared for me.” I let out a bitter laugh, shaking my head. “I was a fool.”

Ash’s presence beside me was solid, unmoving, like an anchor I hadn’t realized I needed. I missed feeling this.

But I’ve never felt anything likethis.

I looked over at Ash to see he was staring at me.

“Thank you for trusting me with your truth. I’m sorry you had a piece of shit use your emotions against you. I’m sorry some motherfucker was so miserable with who and what he was and made you feel less than,” he told me quietly, and it made more words spring to my lips.

“By the time I realized what he was doing, I wasn’t me anymore. I was… small. Empty. I measured my worth by how well I could keep him happy, by how infrequently I did anything to upset him. And when I finally understood that love wasn’t supposed to feel like that, I knew if I stayed, I wouldn’t survive.”

I blinked, forcing back the sting of tears in my eyes. “I was sick of it, so I left. In the middle of the night. With nothing but my small bag and the last bit of strength I had left.”

Silence stretched between us, but Ash still had his gaze on me, heavy and unreadable. But still somehow gentle.

I wasn’t sure what I expected—pity maybe?

Instead, his voice was steady, low, and threaded with something that made my chest ache. “You never have to feel like that again. I won’t let it happen, Evie.”

I sucked in a breath. So many things coursed through me that I suddenly felt hot and high and bombarded with it all, but I loved every bit of it.

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