Richard was planning on keeping me forever.
He was planning on doing more than just touching my spine as he chained me up in the basement.
He wanted me to stop breaking rules and to fear him and his punishments so I would obey him and do what he wanted.
He wanted to turn me into my mother and then marry me.
The videos I’d found a few months ago confirmed that he and my mother were sexual with one another, that they’d had a relationship of some sort, but I remembered when things fell apart. When she wanted to leave with me and Tobias. How she didn’t want him to touch her anymore. And then soon after, she was gone.
And he turned into someone else entirely.
I took off through the door and didn’t look back. Reading those things was the last thing I needed to take off. Tobias would have to find me, not the other way around. He said he would come back for me, but I couldn’t wait any longer.
I just couldn’t.
Not if I wanted to survive.
“How long has she been out?”The voice was muffled through my hazy thoughts, and I fought to open my eyes. I wanted to open them so I could stop seeing the dark forest that came after what I’d found on the computer. I could almost feel the sting of the branches whipping at my legs as I ran toward freedom. It was like I was there, but I wasn’t at the same time.
Make it stop.
“A few minutes. Off and on. She’s been mumbling things. Go get my uncle. See if he can get the nurse.”
I could hear footsteps pounding. Was that real? Was that in my head?
“Gemma, baby. Open your eyes, please.”
I felt the vibration in my throat, and there was a soft touch to my face.
My lashes felt glued together, and although I felt myself coming back, my eyes didn’t want to open. The vulnerable, sad, and scared girl that I truly was on the inside didn’t want to see the look of pity on the faces that stood above me.
I was afraid.
Embarrassed.
Shameful.
“You’re safe with me.” Isaiah’s whispers soothed the panic that still simmered just beneath the surface. “Tell me what you need.”
The tickle on my cheeks told me that my eyes were finally opening and that Isaiah’s smooth voice was the one thing that I could hold onto and focus on because I knew I was safe with him. I knew Richard wasn’t about to pop out of the corner and beat me for telling someone the things that I knew, and even if he had, Isaiah would take him down. I wasn’t in the basement with chains around my wrists. I was in the library with Isaiah’s scent wrapped around me like a weighted blanket.
I also knew he wasn’t going to tell anyone my secrets if I gave them up. He knew how important secrets were. He had some of his own.
And I trusted him.
I trusted him with my secrets. My body. My mind. Everything.
I trusted Isaiah Underwood, and although my heart felt torn to shreds, I loved him with those tiny, frayed edges.
My eyes chose that moment to spring open. My lip trembled as I locked right onto his face, and all I wanted was for him to make it disappear.
“There you are,” he finally said, eyes bouncing back and forth between mine. There was a small divot in between his eyebrows, and his jaw was set to stone. “Don’t do that to me, Gemma. I need you to stay with me.”
My head was pressed to his chest as soon as he helped me to my feet, and his hand ran down the length of my long hair. His heart was thumping so violently in his chest that I could feel it against my cheek, and I only wrapped my arms around his waist tighter.
“I got a hold of the headmaster. He said he’s coming.”
Isaiah’s grip on me never loosened. “Tell him never mind. I have it handled.”
Cade’s voice was closer now. “Shiner, you got that?”
“Yeah, I’ll let him know.”
Silence filled the large library, and although I wanted to know when Cade and Shiner had gotten there, I didn’t speak. I didn’t want to. All I wanted was to stay in Isaiah’s arms and pretend the last ten—or however long it was—minutes never happened. I wanted to go back into my bubble of keeping my secrets silent so I didn’t have to face them.
“She shouldn’t be alone tonight. I’ll stay with Brantley again.”
Isaiah’s hand ran down my hair once more before his head lifted from the top of mine. He whispered his next set of words, but I heard him clear as day. “I don’t want to let her go, Cade. How did you do it with Journey?”
Cade’s answer was distant as his footsteps faded. “I had no other choice.”
I think Isaiah knew right then that neither did he.