Chapter 15
After everything ended, Adrian stayed by my side.
No grand promises. No dramatic speeches. Just quiet, steady presence.
That was how he had always loved me.
Back at the banquet, when Yvette had screamed to know who I really was, I had answered with a smile. I had told her Adrian was my fiancé.
At the time, his eyes had lit up like a child hearing the sweetest words in the world.
He had lowered his head and let me wipe the blood from his face, gentle and obedient, even after nearly killing for me.
That was when I realized that not all protection came wrapped in violence, manipulation, or obsession.
Some love did not cage. Some love did not humiliate. Some love did not call cruelty devotion.
For years, the Locke family had told me that Damon’s abuse meant he cared. That torment was affection. That possession was love.
They were wrong.
Love does not sew shut a dog’s mouth. Love does not force a woman to kneel. Love does not destroy her body, break her spirit, then ask her to be grateful. Love does not kill the only family she has and expect forgiveness.
Damon had never loved me.
He had only wanted to own me.
And in the end, that obsession destroyed him.
As for me, I finally took Ranger home.
Not to the Locke family. Not to the cage of the past. But to the life that should have been mine all along.
Standing beside Adrian and my father, I scattered Ranger’s ashes under open sky.
The wind was soft that day.
For the first time in years, I felt something other than hate filling my chest.
Freedom.
And as the ashes disappeared into the air, I closed my eyes and said one last time, “Ranger, be happy in your next life. Run far away from me. Run somewhere no one will ever hurt you again.”
The wind carried the ashes higher.
And this time, I let them go.