chapter 21
Rose blinked.
“You will give sworn testimony about the insurance policy, the second flight, the false identity, the drugging incident, all of it. You will sign everything. And then you will leave under protection before Ethan knows you’re gone.”
Her mouth trembled. “Why would you help me?”
Because I had spent ten years being turned into someone else’s weapon. Because cruelty that feels satisfying in the moment still leaves blood on your hands. Because if I became the woman who delivered another terrified girl to a monster, then the basement would follow me forever.
I looked at her and heard my own voice answer.
“Because I’m done letting him decide what kind of woman I am.”
The climax came three nights later.
Ethan found out anyway.
Not everything. Just enough.
A storage unit on the riverfront. Copies of signed statements. Rose waiting with a passport that did not bear her name. Gideon’s security outside. Rain hammering the tin roof hard enough to sound like applause.
I was sealing the final envelope when the metal door banged open.
Ethan stepped inside with water dripping from his coat and murder in his eyes.
Rose made a small, broken sound.