chapter 10
634 Words
Angelica POV
The first thing I learn is that Max doesn’t need to touch me to hurt me.
The room I’m in is clean. Too clean. White walls, a single chair, a small table. My wrists are free now, but the door is locked. No windows. No clock.
No sense of time.
That’s intentional.
Max comes and goes whenever he wants. Sometimes hours pass. Sometimes minutes. He never rushes. He wants me disoriented, unsure, waiting.
Today, he brings a chair and sits in front of me.
“Do you know why I didn’t hurt you?” he asks calmly.
I don’t answer.
He smiles. “Because pain is temporary. Doubt lasts.”
I swallow hard and keep my spine straight.
“You’re very pretty,” he continues, studying me like an object. “I see why Alex married you. Soft. Obedient. Safe.”
I flinch despite myself.
“That’s what he needed,” Max says. “After her.”
My chest tightens.
“Anna,” he adds casually, watching my reaction. “You know her name, don’t you?”
I force my face to remain blank. “I know enough.”
He laughs softly. “Then you know you’re a replacement.”
The word lands like a slap.
“He loved her,” Max continues. “Deeply. Pathetically. He was going to marry her too, you know. Thought she was his forever.”
I look away.
“She ruined him,” Max says. “And you? You’re just the bandage he wrapped around the wound.”
“No,” I whisper.
“He watches you because he doesn’t trust you,” Max presses. “Because he can’t trust women. Not after her.”
I close my eyes.
“He doesn’t love you,” Max says gently. “He loves the idea of you. The safety. The obedience. The way you don’t challenge him.”
That hurts more than I want to admit.
“He will always love her,” Max continues. “If she came back tomorrow, do you know what he’d do?”
I shake my head.
“He’d choose her,” Max says without hesitation. “Men like Alex don’t move on. They replace.”
My hands curl into fists.
“That’s why I took you,” he says. “Not to keep you. To show you.”
I look at him then, really look at him.
“You think you’re breaking me,” I say quietly. “But all you’re doing is proving something.”
He raises a brow. “And what’s that?”
“That you’re afraid,” I reply. “Because if I didn’t matter, you wouldn’t need to say any of this.”
His smile falters for just a second.
I hold onto that.
Still… when he leaves, the silence presses in.
And doubt creeps where he wanted it to.
I remember Alexander’s intensity. His control. The way he flinched when I mentioned trust. The way he never said the word love.
What if Max is right?
What if I really am just the woman he chose because she was available, safe, untouched by betrayal?
The thought hurts more than the fear.
I curl in on myself, breathing slowly, forcing the panic down.
I won’t break.
Even if I’m hurting.
Even if a part of me believes that loving Alexander might mean losing him to a ghost.
I close my eyes and think of the way he holds me when he sleeps. Tight. Like he’s afraid I’ll vanish.
And I cling to that.
Because if I’m just a replacement…
Why would he fight the world to get me back?
And somehow, deep in my chest, I know:
Max isn’t trying to make me weak.
He’s trying to make me doubt myself.
And I won’t give him that satisfaction.
- Writer
