_Leah's POV_
The next few days were torture.
I acted like everything was fine. I smiled when I had to. I laughed when he expected me to. I even let him kiss my forehead or hold my hand without pulling away. But inside, I was shaking. My stomach twisted every time I looked at Tariq. Every time he smiled at me, I wanted to run.
I kept thinking about the diary. His words haunted me.
He wanted to marry me and then… kill me. Just to lift a curse he brought on himself.
I didn’t sleep well. At night, I kept waking up and staring at the ceiling, wondering how I got here. I felt like I was walking on a tightrope, one wrong step away from falling into darkness.
Every morning, I thought about running. I even started packing small things in a pouch I hid under the bed...some food, a little water
