Page 81 of The Freedom in Captivity

The white scar on my palm burns. She has a matching one. She played the game well apparently. Made her lies really damn realistic.

While my insides are shattering, there’s something keeping me together. Something that allows me to stand upright through her emotional onslaught. My gaze drops from her nasty expression to her wrists, to her shoulders covered by the dress. I’ve seen the bruises numerous times. The fear. That couldn’t be false.

More so, I’ve felt her love.

Or was all of that fake?

My head throbs, confused, conflicted, and crumbling with every word she speaks, uncertain the difference between reality and illusions.

Taking my stony silence as a goodbye, she steps away from me entirely, backing up a step, and then two. And another.

Everything falls away, except one thing. Her. We might be done. I might have been a game, or I was the realist fucking thing she’s had, but either way,Iam not finished with this conversation and she doesn’t get to escape yet.

Shoving someone who steps between us out of the way, I reach her, looping my arm around her waist and yank her back to my body with a low gasp and panicked eyes. Her fingers lace with my shirt, making my heart thump a bit faster because her instincts are to hold onto me, not push me away.

“If we’re never gonna see each other again—” My throat burns. “If we’re done and I was all some sort of game—fine. Never good enough for anyone so it makes complete fuckin’ sense.”

She flinches. “Flynn—”

“No,” I cut her off, not wanting her pointless explanation because it won’t change her decision. Her time for talking is finished. “I’m not done. You’re about to walk out those front doors and get into that fancy car, with a driver you refuse to name, who’ll return you to a home I cannot find and I’ll probably never see you again. But before you do, I want one more fuckin’ thing from you.”

Wariness flickers in her light eyes. “What?”

“When you’re feeling lost and afraid, isolated and miserable, think of me.” Emphasizing my words, I reach for her palm, pressing my thumb over the mark.

“I doubt I’ll ever forget you.”

“Good. And when you’re feeling low and all those other emotions, just know, I’m feeling the fuckin’ same. Because when you walk out those doors, you’ll take my reason for coming to this hellhole every day with you.”

Her jaw clenches and unclenches before she speaks. “Be mad, Flynn. I told you, you were a bet. I won.”

Except I don’t totally believe her, even if her declaration rips me apart. Not good enough when she’s theonlyone who made me feel like I am. Proficient actress.

“Yeah, I’m mad,” I agree, finally releasing her entirely to create space between us. With every step away, more and more of the air clears; sense and rationality return, unhindered by the girl who’s my everything. “Goodbye, Rozelyn. Return to your golden tower in your castle. Have a good life.”

I turn and walk away. Every step demands I peek back, but I don’t. Instead, pieces of my heart crumble, leaving a connecting trail from me to her. A trail that won’t ever go away; it’ll be invisible until the day I get over this and her.

Iwillget over her.

I duck around the corner until she leaves, watching as she exits the front doors. She pauses at her vehicle and peeks behind her, staring straight at me, but I know with distance and shadows, it’s impossible she sees me watching her. A flash of wistfulness passes over her expression before she shuts down and climbs into the back seat.

Gone is my Rozelyn. In her place, whatever princess personality she’s come from.

The moment her door is shut, I emerge from my hiding spot and tread toward the front entrance again. The car drives off school property, down the road, and out of view.

Then the dark, grey clouds break open and a heavy downpour falls from the sky, officially ridding the day of sunlight.

And I hope I never see her again.

Rozelyn

The day after Flynn dropped me off in my prettier cage, I wake, use the bathroom, and return right back to bed to stare at the ceiling. If not the ceiling, my second option is out the window and over the massive land the Corsetti mansion rests on. In some ways, this is worse than the basement. At least down there, Flynn joined me, and the uncertainty of my day always made it stimulating.

This is…what the fuck is this anyway? Boring.

I inhale a large gulp of air and blow it out through pursed lips. And again. By the third time, I’m doing it simply for fun; the sound breaking up the tense silence.

I stare at the door. By now, I’m assuming there’s someone on the other side. I’d check, on the chance there isn’t, but what’s the point? Escape is futile when I have nowhere to go. Until the Corsettis retrieve Dad, I’m stuck.

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