Page 20 of Kept

Testing my balance, I slide off the stool and walk up to Ethan’s latest acquisition.

“She’s perfect,” he says wonderingly. “Isn’t she?”

Pausing, I look into her face. The churning in my stomach is spreading across my body, rising up my throat, the ache from my screaming subsiding in the face of brighter, fresher agony.

The statue stares blindly out, lips parted. She’s pretty. But it’s not her face I’m caught by.

It’s the expression of sheer agony on her face.

I take a step back, pure reflex. I don’t want to look at her face, don’t want to see that level of pain, but at the same time, I can’t look away from it.

“You see?” Ethan murmurs. He’s close behind me as he sighs. “She’s perfection.”

My hands curl into fists, and I turn, nearly bumping into him before he steps back. Ethan frowns at me, distracted from the terrified statue behind me. “Zella, really. What has gotten into you?”

“Will you let me leave, Ethan?” I ask him baldly. “Am I allowed to leave here?”

He chuckles, but there’s an edge to it as he glances at the windows. “Sweetheart, really. I thought we were past this.”

I shake my head. “We’re not. Can I go?”

He sighs, running a hand through his hair. “We talked about this. It isn’t safe for you out there—,”

“That’s my decision,” I snap. “And I want to take the risk.”

Holding up his hands placatingly, he moves a little closer, lifting up a lock of hair carefully.

“So perfect,” he whispers. “So innocent, Zella. You have no idea what they would do to you out there. But I do. And I will keep you safe, even if you hate me for it.”

My hair is a mess, my braid falling out everywhere, but I square my shoulders and look him in the eye.

“You have no right to keep me here,” I tell him firmly. My voice rises with desperation, even as I fight to keep it level. “I’m old enough to make my own decisions.”

“But you’re behaving like a child,” he snaps back. “I think you should go and get yourself cleaned up, and then an early night.”

I can feel something pulsing in my head. “I am not a child that you can send to bed!”

He snaps. “If you will act like a child, then I will treat you like one. You’re clearly not mentally capable of managing outside, Zella. Despise me if you want to, but you are not leaving this apartment.Ever.”

I freeze. Ethan is breathing heavily, his eyes flitting to me and away. When he takes a step, I dart back, sudden fear grabbing my throat. “Stay away from me.”

He frowns. “Really, this is ridiculous. I’m going to leave now, Zella. Perhaps the next time I come, you’ll be feeling a little more like yourself.”

“This is me being myself,” I yell at him, throwing my hands out. “I will not change my mind, Ethan!”

“And how will you leave?” he challenges me. “Through the windows? The doors?”

He gestures angrily to the elevator. “It’s locked to a code only I know. There is no way out of this apartment, Zella, not without my permission, and you do not have it.”

Crossing my arms, I stare at him defiantly. “Then I’ll wait until you leave, and watch you put the code in. You’ll have to do it at some point.”

The color in his face deepens to almost purple. “I’m disappointed in you, Zella. After everything I have sacrificed for you – after everything yourparentssacrificed to give you a life, you would throw it back in our faces?”

My heart stutters, but I hold his eyes. “A life lived in a cage is no life at all.”

And I refuse to believe that this is what my parents would have wanted, whatever Ethan thinks.

When he begins to nod, the tiniest fizzle of hope sparks to life inside my chest. Maybe he’s finally starting to see.

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