She lay on her side, facing the wall, knees bunched close to her chest. Abbott thought she didn’t look so pretty anymore, the mane of red hair reduced to stubble, her skin ashen and dirty. Even though they had been at the cottage less than a week, Beth appeared thinner and weaker. She lost strength with each passing hour.
And that was good. She would need to suffer to truly learn. Once she did, he knew she would no longer just mouth words of contrition, but mean them.
Yet he didn’t really give a f**k about that. She would no longer w***e around, and that was all that really mattered.
Wasn’t it?
Beth turned slowly. She had been sleeping and Abbott watched her come awake.
The sun, a cold orb in a gray sky, had been dangling above the horizon just before Abbott came into the room. Slante
