Page 18 of Ink Deep Devotion

A snort of laughter escapes from my nose. They want to drug me now. To paint a fake picture with me trapped inside. Is that what Dominic would hang on his wall?

My dad thinks I deliberately jumped in front of the car to sabotage my dancing career because the pressure of being one of the best was overwhelming. He hired a psychologist to try to fix me. In our world, broken things can always be repaired, so much so that the viewer cannot even see the initial cracks. They just keep gluing and ignoring the underlying cause.

Can they fix him? Can they show my dad it wasn't the pressure from dance but from him and everyone else in my life?

“Why can’t they hear me?” I mumble.

The nurse leans closer, her eyes growing concerned.“Who, honey?”

“Everyone.” I match her look of worry.

Her lips press into a thin line as she sighs,“I have to make sure you take the pills, sweetie.” She grabs the water and places it in my other hand.

Are you going to pull the invisible strings to lift my hand and force me to swallow, too?

In hindsight, it was stupid to run without a plan.I’d do it again if I could. A single breath of freedom is more valuable than a breath taken in captivity.

“You have to take the pills.”

I raise the cup to my lips. The dryness of my mouth is so severe that the cup adheres to them.

The nurse smirks, but it’s sad—the kind of smile you give to an old dog you’re about to put down.“You try to sleep, sweetie.” She turns and leaves. I wait until her footsteps disappear, then spit the pills out into the palm of my hand.

Maybe it’s another act of rebellion.

The sound of footsteps resonates through the hallway once more, but this time, they move with determination. With a pounding heart, I clutch the pills tightly in my hand.

Is that Dad or Dominic?

They left for the night. Despite Dominic’s desire to stay hovering over me like an umbrella. Why couldn’t Dom understand he was the storm pelting me?

I needed a break from all of them!

A shadow falls, eating up the light that seeps under my door. The door swings open, exposing polished black leather dress shoes, neatly pressed navy trousers, and a crisp white dressshirt. It would be a sin to touch this person and wrinkle the fabric.

My heart leaps and then plummets when I see the newcomer’s face, causing painful sensations in my lungs.“Da…Dante!” I choke. My eyes widen and blur over with tears.

Is he a hallucination? When I look down, I see the pills resting in my hand, moistened by my mouth. They’re chalky, and their outer color smudges onto my hand like paint. I didn’t take them; this is real.

“I’m running out of time,” Dante remarks as another man slides into the room and gently closes the door. He gestures behind him.“This is my brother, Nico. You can trust him.”

“Why…why are you here?” I inch back in my bed as the question I want to ask pleads to be released from the tip of my tongue.

It’s as if Dante can sense it, feel the whooshing of air that wants to escape me.“Dash is alive,” Dante admits.

A breath I didn’t know I’d been holding since Dash left me comes rushing out.

“We were taken the night of The Cleansing and put into…hell,” Dante states matter-of-factly. Nico glances down, his lips pressing thin in fury.

I close my eyes, trying to stop my tears. Dante continues,“It was all a test. It’s called Initiation 101. Think of it as a school that teaches survival.” He speaks tenderly, trying not to scare me.“We’ve been fighting to stay alive. Dash has been fighting foryou.”

Don’t do that to me! Try to force a smile on my lips when Dash carved out an angry scream.“Stop lying to me!” I shout.

Nico flinches as his eyes dig into his brother’s back. My heart sinks as I cry, a mixture of rage and relief.Dash is alive, but that changes nothing; he left me, burned me so deep only scarred hideous flesh covers me now. He took my trust and distorted it, making it so I could never fully give in to another person again.

Dante closes the distance.“The doctors said you did this to yourself.” He touches the hard cast as if it were as thin as an eggshell, with a gentleness no one has shown me since I arrived.

There was always something gentle about Dante, the way he looked into your eyes deeper than anyone dared to, the way he smiled so it made you feel welcomed.

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