The door had been closed for what felt like hours, but time in this room had already lost all meaning. I sat on the edge of the bed, knees drawn to my chest, staring at the locked door like it might suddenly open and prove this was all a nightmare. My throat was raw from shouting. My hands ached from pounding on the wood until my knuckles bled. No one had come. No one had answered. The silence was worse than any threat.
I was trapped.
The room dim lighting designed to feel calming only made it worse. It was a cage wrapped in silk. Damien’s cage. The man who had once held me like I was the only thing that mattered had now locked me away like a possession he refused to lose.
The silence in the room was suffocating. I paced the prison, bare feet sinking into the carpet, eyes darting from t
