Page 19 of The Truth Between

Icould still feel the stinging sensation from Soren’s kiss on my lips. But I didn’t need to feel it because I’d been playing his last interaction with me on repeat in my mind. My thoughts raced as I tried to make sense of what had just happened and how all of this had come to be.

Nothing made sense, and I needed to embrace the fact that I might never figure this out.

I pulled the blanket next to me over my lap in the spirit of keeping myself warm. Although it could be thicker, I was grateful to have anything. I was sitting back down on what had become my makeshift bed in this basement, and I hated that I was trembling from the anger he’d caused.

My fingers ran across my throat, but where I expected to wince due to the hold he’d had on me, I didn’t. Even in his rage, he’d known the exact amount of pressure to put on my neck to make it feel more erotic than hurtful. Another thing I could add to the list of things I hated about him.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes in an attempt to push out all thoughts of Soren. However, it was impossible. Even with my eyes tightly shut, I could feel his presence. He was everywhere in this house but also nowhere at the same time.

A shiver forced my body to shake as the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I felt as if I was walking a tightrope, flirting with the potential of falling to my death. I was playing with fire.

I brushed a hand through my hair and opened my eyes. Why hadn’t I found a way out of here yet? Why did it seem as if he was always ten steps ahead of me?

Until this morning, he hadn’t been expecting me to throw the dead wife card out. Hell, I hadn’t been expecting it either, if I was being honest. But I’d been pushed to the brink by him, and it fell from my lips. While I did feel bad on some level because I understood how it felt to lose people you loved, it didn’t give him the right to treat me as such.

I moved my legs and immediately felt the weight of the chain attached to my left ankle. I drew my leg up to my chest to give myself an opportunity to scrutinize the cuff. I pulled on the chain for the billionth time. The heavy iron links were unforgiving, and I wondered why I even bothered.

He’d done everything he could do to make sure that I was locked down here for as long as he wanted me to be. I lay back down and pulled the blanket over me more, hoping I could get some sleep to make time pass by faster.

But this time, it hadn’t worked.

Instead, I found myself staring at the ceiling, reviewing how I’d gotten to this point. Soren was right in a way. Eddison Payne and the desire to prove everyone wrong was what had gotten me here. But also, Soren didn’t have to do all of this.

Nothing he’d done had changed my mind. Not even being locked away like a prisoner had done anything to dim the fire that burned in me to seek out the truth. Though my movements were restricted, and my questions went unanswered, my restless mind never stopped trying to piece together the mystery or a way out of here.

I must have been close to discovering something by the night of the masquerade ball. It didn’t make sense for Soren to wait until then to strike if I hadn’t been. Unless… he was taking orders from someone who didn’t tell him to snatch me until the party.

My eyes darted around the room as I began to think of the possibilities. There were two other men in the room that we’d entered, where I was forced to drink whatever it was they’d given me. Could one of them have been the person who told Soren to kidnap me?

But what was in Chevalier Manor that made them decide that was the right time? Soren could have kidnapped me right before the party or made sure I didn’t get an invitation. There was a reason why I’d been invited to the party, and I still didn’t know why. It was obvious that he had no issue with me being seen there or there being witnesses to the crime. Not that any of them would come forward against him.

But perhaps Payne’s papers or something alluding to the location of them was somewhere in that building, somewhere that I might have had access to. But in order to figure any of this out, I needed to get out of here.

How though?

My gaze landed on the tiny windows up above. No matter how many times I looked up at them, nothing had changed. The windows were still too small for me to fit through, up too high for me to reach, and had bars on them. There was no way I was going to be able to get out that way. My eyes drifted toward the basement door. I needed to get out of here and that seemed like the only way.

With a small glance at the chain I was attached to, I looked around the room. Maybe I was becoming delusional, but there had to be something I was missing.

I threw my blanket off my body, got off the mattress and stretched, trying to soothe the soreness that was a result of sleeping in these conditions. I once again started to search for something that could help me break the chain. I checked in the corners of the room, even behind a few boxes. But I came up empty.

I went to the bathroom once more in hopes that there was something inside that could help me. Maybe, just maybe, I’d missed something before, and it could be my ticket out of this nightmare. With each step I took, the cold floor beneath my feet made me tremble slightly, but I pushed on.

The bathroom door creaked slightly as I opened it. The same scene I saw every time I walked in here greeted me once more. I began searching again, hoping for a different outcome than before. My heart sank a little more with each place I checked. The hope that had forced me to walk into this room began to wane as I realized, once again, there was nothing here to help me get out of this basement. The echoing sound of my own frustrated sigh figuratively slapped me in the face. Once again, I left the bathroom feeling defeated, despite knowing it was silly for me to do the same thing and hope for a different outcome.

I sighed as I walked back to where I’d been sitting before. I slid down the wall and landed on the mattress as the feelings of defeat crowded my brain.

What the hell was I missing?

I sighed as my eyes darted around the empty space again. This place was getting to me. I brought my knees close to my chest and hugged them. I could feel myself slowly losing my mind. We all had our own demons to fight, and I’d seen Soren’s up close and personal this morning.

Heck, maybe the reason I was down here was to slowly make me feel like I was losing a handle on it all, to make me feel as if my entire world was crashing down.

And then it hit me. I thought about Gran, the only family I had left. I missed her warm, comforting hugs and the way her eyes would light up when she smiled at me. I could almost smell her homemade apple pie baking in the oven as I walked through the door. I could only imagine what she was thinking about me not being with her right now.

Then there was Bianca. There was no doubt in my mind she’d noticed I was missing by now and she knew her brother and his girlfriend were at the party. They’d seen Soren walk up to me and dance with me, so why hadn’t anyone come and questioned him yet? Was anyone even looking for me?

My hot tears grew more prevalent as the sharp pang of missing the people I loved hit me right in the heart. The feelings coursing through me reminded me of when I lost my parents. And now my life was in Soren’s hands, and I may never see my loved ones again if I remained trapped in this fucking basement.

---