LENA POV
Trigger Warning: graphic violence, torture, gore, trauma responses.
*Rise like smoke - Esme Rose*
I should’ve hated him too.
Maybe that would’ve been easier.
Maybe then the feelings twisting violently inside my chest every time Elias looked at me wouldn’t have existed at all.
Because he wasn’t Noah.
That was the problem.
Noah looked at women and saw money.
Power.
Something weak enough to own and disposable enough to destroy once he got bored.
Something to break open until it obeyed him.
But Elias—
Elias looked at me like I was something terrifying and beautiful all at once.
Like he wanted to protect me without forcing me smaller first.
And Goddess help me, I didn’t know what the f**k to do with that.
Not now.
Not standing in a blood soaked interrogation room with
