Fable of happiness book two

He’d ensured I was his for evermore, accepting that if my desire for freedom was stronger than my desire to remain his, I would end up killing him.

It wouldn’t be a terrible master who beat and raped him that snuffed out his life.

It would be me.

The girl who’d spent the past week and a half by his bedside. The girl who believed she was falling for him. The girl who would never have been able to leave anyway.

In that savage flash of truth, I knew that despite my gumption, I would’ve hiked to the cliff face and placed one foot on its rocks, and I wouldn’t have been able to go any farther.

How could I?

I wasn’t cold-hearted enough. I couldn’t have been so callous to leave a concussed man alone in a forgotten valley.

I would’ve come back. I would’ve kissed him, helped him, taken my time to convince him to come with me. To turn his back on this place once and for all.

I would’ve come to him on my own accord.

And wasn’t that the saddest, cruelest thing?

He said he needed me.

Well, I’d needed him.

I’d wanted him.

I’d wanted to be more than just his friend. I wanted to be his savior.

But now?

Now he’d done this? Now he’d taken all choice from me and condemned my mother and brother to think I’d perished in some awful climbing accident?

Now, I hated him.

My heart closed to him. Any emotion I’d felt, any softness, understanding, and kindness all evaporated and hardened into stone.

We continued staring.

And he knew.

He saw the shutting down of my soul. He felt the ice creeping over my heart and nodded painfully as I braced my shoulders and reached for the bowl of pasta. Clinically, coldly, I stabbed a piece of ravioli and shoved it into my mouth.

I chewed as if I chewed his very essence.

I swallowed as if it was his very life I consumed.

And in a way, it was.

Because a sin like this couldn’t go unforgiven.

Need or no need.

Desire or no desire.

I was done being nice to this heathen.

Swooping to my feet, I clutched my pasta and swept past him.

With each step, the chain clinked behind me, making my blood boil with fury.

But he didn’t stop me.

He didn’t chase.

He merely let me go, knowing we were tethered forever.

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