Chapter 14 Blind

Chapter 14 Blind
I sit on my bed, expecting Nikolai to show up any moment and torment me. My heart thuds with every passing second. The food Hannah brought remains served, and I soon start to dig in. It’s cold, the eggs soggy, the tea gone bitter. But I eat anyway. Cold or not, it’s better than starving.

My eyes flick repeatedly to the dress Hannah had left, folded neatly across the chair. 

A reminder that I should shower, change, do something normal. But I can’t.

Because what if he’s watching?

The thought alone makes my gut sink. He could be in that control room now, seated before his monitors, watching my every movement with that calm, detached expression of his. I can almost picture him there, one hand resting lazily on the armrest, eyes fixed on the screen, studying me like a specimen in a cage.

I want to destroy the cameras. God knows I want to. But I can’t. Not now.

When I was in the control room, I memorized where the cameras were placed, each cruel little eye watching from the corners. One of them, I remember, was angled from the direction of the mirror. That discovery still makes my skin crawl. Didn’t I check that before? I could’ve sworn I did. Or maybe I was too panicked to notice. 

The second camera sits near the door, aimed in such a way that it captures nearly everything. The bed, the floor, the shadows that move when I do. The broken wooden panels from when I didn't let Nikolai in are gone now, swept away by someone. But the hole in the door remains, a raw, ugly wound in the wood.

Every time I look at it, I’m reminded of that night. The chaos, the fear. I’ve been scarred more deeply than I like to admit, all because of one man. One man who managed to turn my world into a living prison.

I take a slow breath, trying to steady my nerves.

If I were smart, I’d wait. I tell myself that again and again. I can’t risk touching the cameras now. Nikolai hasn’t come to see me yet, and I don’t know when he will. Maybe he’s giving me space on purpose. Maybe he’s testing how I behave when he’s not around. Or maybe, God help me, he’s just enjoying the thought that I’m constantly aware of him, even when he’s not here.

Either way, I can’t move yet. I’ll wait for nightfall, or the next time he leaves the mansion. That’s when I’ll do it. Disconnect the wires, cover the lenses, reclaim a sliver of privacy. Just the thought of it gives me a flicker of hope, however small.

The longer he stays away, the safer I feel. No need to draw unnecessary attention to myself.

Because if he sees me tampering with his precious cameras…
He’ll come. Instantly.
And I can’t... no, won't face that.

Time passes by slowly, each minute stretching endlessly. The silence inside the mansion feels heavy, pressing down on my chest until I can almost hear my own heartbeat in the stillness of the room.

Then, a low hum cuts breaks the silence. The sound of a car engine rolling across the gravel driveway.

I move to the window instinctively, brushing the curtain aside just enough to peek through. From up here, the view of the courtyard spreads wide and distant, but I can still make out the black car gliding to a stop in front of the main entrance.

Who’s that?

The driver steps out first, opening the back door with a careful bow of his head. And then, a woman emerges.

I lean closer to the glass, trying to get a better look, but the height of my room makes it difficult. Still, I can see enough. She’s beautiful, effortlessly so. 

My breath stumbles before I can stop it.

Is she… Nikolai's?

The thought creeps in uninvited. But I shake my head almost immediately. No. That shouldn’t even matter. It’s none of my concern who Nikolai brings here, or what he does with them. He can fill the mansion with a hundred beautiful women for all I care.

Still…

My fingers tighten around the curtain as the woman walks toward the entrance.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t come to see me all this while. He was expecting someone. Entertaining someone.

The realization should sting, but instead, a strange kind of relief floods me.

Perfect.

If he’s distracted, then I finally have a window of freedom.

If he’s busy with his new guest… then maybe, just maybe, I can take my first step toward taking back what’s mine. My privacy.

I get to work, starting with the mirror. My fingers trace over its cold surface, searching for anything unusual. It takes a painstakingly long time to notice the little wire strapped along the edge. It’s so thin, almost invisible, that I hadn’t spotted it in my earlier, frantic attempts. One end is connected to a tiny black ball, the camera. My chest tightens at the thought. I pull softly, disconnecting it. A small, victorious smile tugs at my lips.

How had I missed it before? I bite my lip, remembering my first inspection. My mind had been in a whirlwind of panic and exhaustion back then. The bigger, more obvious cameras had drawn all my attention, and my eyes had skimmed over the corners, assuming they were clear. The black ball had been clever, perched in a shadowed corner of the frame, almost melting into the reflective black of the mirror itself. Its size, barely larger than a pinhead, made it invisible to the hurried glance of someone exhausted and terrified.

Now, with the room quiet and my thoughts sharper, I can see it for what it truly is. A tiny sentinel, silently recording, waiting for me to relax. I shake my head, part frustration, part admiration for his cunning. He had anticipated my panic, my lack of focus. Even the smallest detail had been designed to escape notice.

Next, the door. Finding its wire takes almost an hour. It’s even smaller than the one on the mirror, slipping between the cracks of the chapped wood as though it’s hiding from me. After carefully disconnecting it, I slump to the floor, exhaustion and relief mingling in my veins. Finally, a fraction of my privacy. Finally, I feel… almost free.

But then my mind flickers toward the bathroom. My heart skips.

The bathroom.

I never even noticed where the camera there was placed. My throat tightens and a shaky sigh escapes me. How could I have been so careless? So blind?

I rise slowly, determined. No better time than now to bathe, after all, he’s with his guest and not hovering over the control room monitors. But the thought still gnaws at me. He could still replay the feed from when he was away.

Oh God.

There’s no way I’m involving the maid in this. She’s been kind to me. I won’t risk getting her into trouble by asking her to take me to the control room again.

But then… what do I do?