Page 20 of Unleashed
“While you werehis,” he says sharply. “Not yours. Not your own person. Not someone with choices or a voice. Justhis.”
Tears prick at the corners of my eyes again, but I blink them away. “No.” I shake my head, pulling my hands from his. “What Isaia and I have, it can’t be?—”
“Built on lies?” He stands, flinching as he leans too heavily on his weak leg, then holds his arm out wide. “Here I am, Everly. The biggest fucking lie your husband’s ever told. Standing right here. Living, breathing, fucking limping,” he frowns, “and you wanna tell me you can’t believe that your relationship with him was built on lies?”
“I didn’t know,” I choke out, standing now too, as if movement can keep the truth from swallowing me whole. “I didn’t know he lied to me. Not then.”
“But you know now, and yet you’re still holding on to hope that somehow you’ll be able to justify what he did.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Isn’t it?” His voice cuts sharp. “He drugged you. Locked you away on an island?—”
“I wasn’t locked up.”
“But it was still a cage. Goddammit, Everly! Don’t you see that? Just because he didn’t make you wear chains doesn’t mean he didn’t hold you captive.”
“What is it that you want from me?” I shout. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to stop defending him like he didn’t ruin your fucking life.”
“I’m not—” I shove my fingers into my hair, clutching at my scalp like I can rip the confusion out by force. “I’m not defending…” The words die, the lie choking halfway up my throat.
But I am.
God, I am.
My voice splinters under the weight of it. “I just… I thought I was trying to understand, but—” My breath hitches, and I look at Anthony like he has the answer.
His features soften, green eyes warm with something akin to empathy. “You’ve been trying to make it make sense so you don’t have to admit how wrong it all was.”
Silence falls like a guillotine. Sharp. Irrevocable. And I step back, my heart carved through the middle and split open. “He loves me,” I whisper, but I’m not sure who I’m saying it to. “Isaia loves me.”
“I’m sure he does.” Anthony steps closer, leaning most of his weight on his left leg. “You’re beautiful. You’re smart. Kind. And you’re one of the strongest people I know. What’s not to love? But to him, love is control. It’s something he can mold and bend into something he wants it to be.”
Warm wetness trickles down my cheek in a steady stream of heartache. “I love him, too.” My lips quiver. “I love him so much, it hurts. I can’t…”Fuck.I lick the saltiness from my lips. “I can’t imagine my life without him.”
“Answer me one thing. While you were on that island with him, did he ever—just once—ask you what you want?” Anthony’s voice breaks. “Or did he just decide for you?”
I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. It’s like something inside me caves in.
My breath hitches, and I stumble back a step like his words struck something vital in me. “I don’t know,” I whisper. “I don’t fucking know…”
Pain fractures through my chest. Not just emotional. It’s something deeper, something physical, but I have no idea where it’s coming from. A sob tears free before I can swallow it down, and I hug my arms around myself, like maybe if I hold tight enough, I can keep all the shattered pieces from spilling out.
Anthony takes a step forward, voice softer now. “Everly?—”
The room starts to spin, my stomach pulled taut with a spasm that doubles me over, and I collapse. My knees hit the carpet with a thud, palms slapping down, but it’s the white-hot fire tearing through my abdomen that steals the breath from my lungs.
“Everly?” Anthony rushes toward me.
Another wave slams into me—sharper this time, like something twisting, grinding from the inside out.
“I—” My mouth opens on a gasp. “I don’t know what’s happening.” Then I feel it. Something warm. Wet. Wrong.
I glance down, and the front of my nightgown clings to my thighs, dark and soaked with blood.
“No…” My voice is a ghost. Barely there. “No, no—what is?—”
