Sentence Without an End
Sentence Without an End
Ivery Clark POV
The massive, floor-to-ceiling glass of the forest estate reflected nothing but endless miles of dark, towering pine trees.
There were no neighboring properties. No distant sounds of traffic. Just a suffocating, pristine silence that instantly made my skin crawl.
“Do you like it?” Alrigo's breath brushed warm against the sensitive skin right beneath my ear.
I stiffened, my hands instinctively flying up to press flat against the cold pane in front of me as his huge frame pressed in closer.
“It’s isolated," I forced out, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I refused to let him hear the sudden flutter of panic in my chest. "No neighbors. No roads. Just trees.”
"No audience," Alrigo corrected softly, his voice dropping into that dark, velvety register that sent an unwanted shiver straight down my spine.
He leaned just a fraction closer, the rough fabric of his suit jacket brushing against my shoulder. "No one to hear you complain. No one to help you run…no one to help you while you scream.”
I turned my head just enough to glare at him over my shoulder, though the angle only brought my face inches from his jaw. He was too close.
"Oh I see, you just moved me from one dungeon to a bigger one with a view.” I spat, my voice tight with defensive heat.
Alrigo’s lips twitched, a slow, dangerous smirk pulling at the corner of his mouth. He didn't back away an inch. Instead, he reached up, his long fingers casually tracing the edge of the glass right beside my head, trapping me firmly in his shadow.
"You wanted out of the cellar, Ivery," he murmured, his eyes scanning my face with a terrifyingly slow intensity. "You're out. But if you think a glass wall means you're any less mine... you're severely mistaken.”
“You're in my house, breathing my air, looking at my land. Every step you take, every room you walk into, you exist here because I allow it. I bought this estate to keep you safe, but don't ever confuse space for freedom. You're not free here. You are mine. Body, soul, and breath.”
Something ticked in me.
“I'm not yours. I'm never yours.” I hissed, twisting around so fast my spine hit the cold glass with a sharp thud.
I shoved my hands against his chest to push him back, but it was like hitting a brick wall. He didn't budge.
He just stood there, towering over me, his gaze dropping to my hands on his suit before rising slowly back to my eyes with lethal indifference.
“I mean it, Alrigo.” My chest heaved, my breath coming in short, furious ragged gasps. "I don't belong to you, and I never will! You brought me here, you locked me up, but that doesn't make me yours.”
I pointed my finger at his chest, “You're nothing but a pathetic coward who has to buy cages because you know nobody could ever truly want you for who you are. You can keep me here until I rot, but inside, I will never be yours.”
A slow, terrifying shift passed over his features.
The indifference didn't soften…it curdled into something far darker, a bitter, toxic edge catching in the back of his throat.
“Right," he rasped out, a dark, dangerous chuckle rolling through his chest right against my palms. "How could you ever be mine?”
His hand shot out, his fingers jaw-locking my face with a grip so firm it cut off my breath. “Because that would mean you were ever real with me, wouldn't it? That would mean every soft look, every breath you gave me before, wasn't just a goddamn act."
“Alrigo—”
“You played me, all along. You sat there, looking into my eyes, playing with my heart like it was some cheap game while you calculated your exit. You made me believe you cared, just to twist the knife the second you saw a way out.”
My chest heaved, my pulse hammering wildly against his thumb. "I didn't play you.”
“Lies.” Alrigo hissed melavolently, “You never gave a damn about me. You were just waiting for the first excuse, the first opportunity to throw me away and run. You're right, you never belonged to me, actually you never belonged to anyone because you don't even know what loyalty is.”
The words struck harder than I expected.
A bitter, toxic laugh scraped out of his throat, dark and entirely devoid of humor.
"You talk about me keeping you in a cage? The only real monster here is you. Because at least I was honest about what I wanted. You lied through your teeth every time you looked at me, pretending to care while you were already halfway out the door!”
My eyes dropped from his face, the accusation settling somewhere deep inside my chest.
“I wasn't going to run away with Rowan," I whispered, the words pulling out of me low and cracked, stripped of all the bitter defense.
I looked back up, forcing myself to hold his lethal, steel-ice stare, my throat tight as the truth burned in my chest.
"I wasn't running, Alrigo! You think I was packing bags and plotting behind your back, waiting for him to save me, but I wasn't. I did ask him to come but I didn't plan an exit. I was right there, Alrigo, trying to figure out how to navigate us—how to make sense of whatever mess we were in without getting destroyed."
My fingers tightened around his wrist, not to push him away this time, but just to anchor myself against the sheer force of his glare.
"But you decided I was guilty before I even had a chance to speak. I already saw it in your eyes the moment you walked in. You saw Rowan and instantly rewrote everything in your head to make me the villain, because it's easier for you to believe I’m a cold, loyal-less liar than to admit anything else is wrong. I didn't throw you away, Alrigo. You threw me out the second you stopped listening to me."
My chest heaved, my breath coming in short, furious gasps against his thumb.
“I was honest with you about how scared I was, but you chose to ignore it, in front of everyone. In front of Julia. You turned my fear into 'deceit' so you could justify treating me like this.” I stared up at him, my vision blurring with hot, furious tears that I refused to let fall.
“So, I'm begging you, Alrigo, tell me when this ends. Give me a real answer. When do I get to leave? Tell me when it ends!" I yelled, pulling against his grip on my wrists. "You gave me a condition…the wedding.! So tell me, when is it? When do I get to leave?”
A sharp, violent crack appeared in Alrigo’s lethal composure.
For a fraction of a second, he looked almost wrecked, his steel eyes burning with a deep, festering hurt.
"You're doing it again..." he rasped out, his voice dropping into a rough, bitter whisper that vibrated with suppressed rage. “You're thinking of leaving me again."
“This is what you are. You abandon people the moment they become inconvenient. You choose whoever you think can save you and call it survival.”
“First me. Then Rowan. Then whoever comes next. You'll keep running until there's no one left willing to chase you.”
My heart sank at his words.
“You want a date?" he hissed, his face inches from mine, his eyes black with a bitter, toxic possessiveness. "You want me to hand you a calendar so you can cross off the days until you never have to look at my face again?"
He leaned in until his breath brushed scorching hot against my lips.
"Keep begging then, Ivery. Because I'm not in any hurry. Every time you ask me when you get to leave, you're just extending your own sentence.”
My eyes shot up, “What do you mean?”
His eyes held mine, cold and unwavering.
“You think this ends in a few days? A few weeks?”
A humorless smile touched his lips. “I can keep you here for a year. Five years. Or as long as it takes.”
He stepped closer, crowding me so violently against the glass that I could feel every jagged, uneven breath tearing through his chest.
"I'll keep you locked behind these walls until I’ve wrung every last thought of running out of your head. I will lock you away until I get completely tired of looking at your face…and trust me, sweetheart, I have all the patience in the world. So go ahead, keep counting down the days."
What..?