Page 61 of Poisoned Promise
He’s right, and I hate it. I should have looked closer.
I should have picked every detail apart.
Instead, I glanced and saw a shitty family eager to pressure me for something and I killed them.
“I’m not going to be your prisoner.”
“Don’t look at it like that,” Felix replies. “But I can keep you safe. I mean look at you, Dove. You nearly died in your car. Hell, you nearly died back at your apartment and you probably would have if I hadn’t saved youandAlex. Seems like I’m doing a better job at keeping your son safe than you are?—!”
My hand flies out and collides with his face before I’ve even thought it all the way through and a shocked, empty silence follows with Felix’s head snapped to the side.
My palm tingles and throbs where the impact aggravated my stitches. “Don’t youdarejudge how I protect my son,” I snarl. “I’ve been doing it for fifteen years and this is no fucking different.”
Felix remains silent.
“I have a life!” I snap heatedly, struggling to get my words past the boiling anger flooding my chest. “I have bills and taxes to pay. I have a job!”
“All of which you’re leaving behind anyway.”
“I have Michael’s funeral! Mary’s funeral… my rent. Alex’s education! I’m not going to be some prisoner in your fancy castle because I have responsibilities, Felix. I’ve got a life to lead!”
Felix’s jaw works back and forth, then he slowly turns back to face me. “I lost you fifteen years ago. I went back and forth constantly about what I could have done, what I should have done to save you and your family. I am not making that mistake again. I lost youandmy best friend within a week, Dove. A fucking week. It almost killed me. Iwon’tdo it again.”
Everything freezes and my heart pounds up into my throat.
Nico.
He still doesn’t know.
The longer I stay here, the bigger the risk that the truth from back then will be dragged out into the open and it won’t just be Caterina I’m running from.
“I can’t stay here,” I whisper, clenching my hands into fists. “Please, Felix. Let me go.”
Felix lifts a hand to his jaw, briefly touching where my slap landed and then he turns his back on me. “No. This is for your own good.”
Time passes slowly.
It gives me time to catch up on sleep since the door locks as soon as I enter and the only time Reese comes to open it is when I threaten to throw myself out the window. By the second day, thedoor remains unlocked and Alex and I are allowed to freely move around the penthouse.
Alex quickly discovered that no door or call button on the elevator grants us freedom so I try to distract him with rest and recovery.
Wounds heal.
Bruises fade.
The grief for Mary weighs heavily on both of us while Felix makes himself scarce, likely to avoid my wrath.
Toph visits once and offers his sympathies for Mary’s passing while this new man, Reese, seems somewhat scared of me. Might be because I tried to kill him when I first woke up.
For a while, an uneasy truce exists between us all where resting and recovering take priority over everything else.
But it doesn’t last.
“I don’t understand,” Alex mutters, pushing his eggs around his plate. “Why can’t I go out?”
“It’s not safe.”
“Why?”
