EMBER’S POV
“So. Like a s*x slave.” I hear myself say, and my voice sounds like it’s being transmitted from somewhere far away, from someone standing at the edge of a cliff and looking down.
His jaw tightens, a flash of pain following.
“Yes.”
“And when I ran — when I stumbled onto that plane thinking it was fate, thinking the universe had finally thrown me something kind — you were already there. You already knew my name. You’d been watching me for years. And I thought that meant something beautiful. Romantic, even. I thought it meant someone finally saw me.”
“Yes.”
“But you weren’t seeing me. You were collecting what Gale wouldn’t sell you.”
Knox flinches — hard, visibly, like the word is a fist connecting with his jaw.
“Yes.”
“And you were never going to tell me.”
The guilt com
