Page 26 of The Freedom in Captivity

“I’m not,” I respond sharply. “The only emotion I feel toward her is hate.”

After a full beat, when I think she won’t further argue the case, she sighs. “Oh, Flynn, it’s not that simple. The line between hate and love is thin. Look at what happened with me and Enzo. With Della and Nico.”

Caterina was once engaged to be wed to a member of the Rossis, from the New YorkFamiglia. Lorenzo, for whatever reason, murdered her fiancé and stole Caterina for himself. Eventually, I guess she realized she’d be happy with him, as the couple I’ve witnessed leading this organization is completely enamoured with one another. Della was once Stefano’s stepdaughter, sent here to trap Nico. She succeeded, only for him to escape, hunt her down, and then they found their own fucked-up happy ending together. Instead of death, she earned his forgiveness.

“This is different,” I finally reply. “IhateRozelyn. Besides, what happened was eleven years ago. Everything’s changed, obviously. She isn’t the innocent girl I knew. She’s this family’s enemy; therefore, she’s mine. She harmed Aurora, and who knows who else she would have, if we didn’t catch her.” I lift my eyes to her so she sees the facts plainly on my face. “Unisciti a leale. Muori lealeare words I live and die by.”

“I know.” Tentatively, she rests her hand on my arm and my first instinct is to flinch away. My second is to embrace her because Caterina’s never harmed me. “But I also remember the boy I found hiding between buildings. People come into our lives and affect us in—”

“Exactly,” I interrupt, finally jerking away from her touch. I slide to the farthest edge of the steps, pressing against the stone post. “You and Enzo came into my life, and I’d never turn my backs on you.”

As if I hadn’t spoken, she finishes her earlier line. “And affect us in ways we don’t realize. Would you be out here at three in the morning, unable to sleep, if it wasn’t for what’s happening?”

There are very few instances where something surprises me, but that’s twice this week now. First by Rozelyn’s reappearance and second by Caterina’s valid point.

“Precisely.” She grins, like she’s discovered the answers to the universe. Slapping her knees, she gets to her feet, walking backwards up the steps, apparently ending this conversation. “I remember the boy we found that day, Flynn. Don’t lose the man you’ve become to this. Be honest if this is a struggle for you. Nico wouldn’t hold it against you. No one will for being truthful about your feelings.”

She disappears inside the house again and I don’t look back, until the door shuts, to check she’s gone. Once she is, I stand too, but head in the opposite direction, away from the mansion. Away from her words.

“Don’t lose the man you’ve become to this.”

Rozelyn once held a lot of power over me, but not now. Not when the Corsettis have earned my loyalty.

Every step away from the mansion, clears her from my thoughts enough that I can rationalize clearly. Like I’m leaving her bubble of influence. Rozelyn is in my head because I’m processing her return—that’s it. My confused heart is making sense of the new emotions battling the old ones, but my present feelingswillwin.

Theyhaveto.

I need her out of my head.

I don’t know if I’ve put into words the plan formulating in my head before a newfound urgency turns me away from the driveway and back into the house, where I head straight for the basement.

I hate her.

I fuckinghateher. Everything she stands for. What she’s doing to me—now and in the past.

I need to cleanse her from my head. To remind myself, I’m caught up in old emotions and that’s it.

I hate her;don’t love her, and I’ll fucking prove it.

To myself. To her. To everyone.

Rozelyn

In the dark basement, my mind flits to more memories. Whether asleep or awake, it finds peace in the past. A way to cling to my sanity as it returns to a better time.

All moments when Flynn was in my life the first time.

The months we grew close.

The first time he kissed me.

Every lie I fed him to protect him.

Every time he stole more of my heart.

The three-month anniversary of meeting Flynn, when he gave me my nickname.

And I gave him his.

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