He pulled the heavy curtains shut, plunging the room into a dim, filtered light. The sudden darkness felt like another layer of confinement, pressing in on her from all sides.
"I'll have someone bring you lunch," he added, his voice flat and detached as he watched the driveway through a sliver of the gap in the fabric. "Don't bother trying the door. It's reinforced."
He turned away from the window, his eyes scanning the room as if assessing a space he owned, cataloguing every corner. He walked back toward the bed, but he didn't approach her. He stopped at the foot of it, leaning against the post with his arms crossed over his chest.
"I'm going to work now," he said. "And when I come back tonight, I expect to see you sitting here, waiting for me. No running. No hiding. “He pushed off th
