Page 65 of The Freedom in Captivity

Rozelyn shifts onto her knees, as though about to follow. Every inch she takes, I do too, magnetizing myself to her.

“Wait,” she calls so softly, if the room wasn’t silent, no one would hear her. “Aurora, wait, please. I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but Iamsorry. I hope you’ll soon realize why I did what I had to do. You know Della. You’ve heard the things she did to survive. I’m no different, except she got away from my father, and I didn’t. When we talked, or hung out with those kids, and I was on my knees digging through the dirt, pretending I had a clue how to garden…that was me. All me. My personality was never faked.”

Like flicking a switch, Aurora’s smooth expression crumbles and her responding breath is heavy. In a blink, she’s rushing up the stairs, without providing a response, Rosen at her heels. When the door above slams shut, Rozelyn falls back to her ass and sits there, dejected, until I shatter her moment of peace.

I sympathize with Aurora. Everything she’s dealing with, I did too once.

Moving in front of her, I study Rozelyn’s face. The downtrodden expression. The flat eyes as she’s still staring at the staircase. I grab her chin, forcing her to look at me instead. Her cheeks look more sunken in than normal, and my gut twists.

“Hurting Aurora won’t save you.”

“Maybe I’m getting tired, Flynn,” she whispers and doesn’t try to fight my hold. “Tired of everything. Tired of waiting for the vengeance I want more than anything.”

“You’rethe one keeping the truth hidden from us, so don’t give me the bullshit of being tired.”

Roughly releasing her, I create distance, stalking to the other side of the basement, my hands weaving into my hair. She fucking pisses me off. Worse because at the moment, Iwantto despise her with every fibre of my being, but seeing her now, miserable and beaten down, sparks another urge. The compulsion to take her from here and care for her.

“We’re gonna play a game,mon soleil, and you’re up first. Question one: tell me about the Haynes family.”

Rozelyn

Dad didn’t reveal everything right away. More like when he deemed me useful for more than only a punching bag is when he disclosed the last bit, about the Haynes family.

“One thing you need to learn, Rozelyn, is having the most people on your side is best. Many years ago, I received an interesting phone call from back home, with another assignment, secondary to the Corsettis. One of our own, Lawrence Haynes, fled, taking his four-year-old daughter with him.”

“Okay?” Where’s Dad going with this?

“That daughter is valuable because of who her mother is. They want the child back and to have him punished. He was easy to find, of course—”

Is this where Dad steals the remainder of faith I have in him and tells me he murdered a child?

“—but he’s desperate, and desperate people make difficult decisions. Exactly like the one I made in that moment—”

Oh, here’s the admittance of child murder…

“—The Corsetti assignment is taking longer than it should, and they’re getting impatient. Therefore, I saw an opening with Lawrence. We got his and his daughter’s names changed after faking their deaths. Home believed I’d completed the assignment; meanwhile, I now had an inside man who owed his life to me in debt.”

Except it’s been years and nothing’s come of having that benefit. Crossing my arms, I ask, “And how’d that work out for you?”

“One man wouldn’t help me accomplish my goal, Rozelyn, but it’s the little things that matter. The small attacks that unhinge a person. That’s been what he’s doing for me.”

For years, we never spoke of them again, and the Haynes duo didn’t matter to me.

“Rozelyn.” Flynn’s throaty growl breaks through my thoughts, compelling my head to tilt, to find him in the dark basement.

Minutes after Aurora and her bodyguard left, he went on the attack.

There’s no need though.

If they know about the Haynes, it’s a matter of hours before they trace their origins. Then I’ll no longer have leverage. Right now, I’m still useful.

Not sure what changed or why. Seeing Aurora feels like the rest of my life has been sucked out of me. The hurt in her eyes made my stomach physically knot. At the garden, I hid my pain, while she spoke about hers. Built those walls again, even as I found similarities between her and me. Both of us dragged through our families’ situations, while also on the outside of it all.

For her, nearly being married off when she didn’t want that future.

For me, being whatever assassin my father’s made me out to be.

“The Haynes needed to hide. My dad helped him.” A little bit of information to begin feeding his curiosity.

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