Chapter 54

The Prey

There was no arguing with him so I swallowed the lump and stared down at the phone he’d placed in my hand. It didn’t lowered the pulse hammering in my ears. The world was crumbling around me, and every word he spoke felt like another stone added to the weight on my chest, pressing me deeper into the abyss.

But that hardly matter at that moment.

He released my wrist, and I pulled my hand back, clutching the phone as if it might somehow protect me from the onslaught. But I knew better. Nothing could shield me from him, from his twisted games and the suffocating control he wielded over my life.

As much as I wanted to call my mother, I didn’t have guts to open his phone. Maybe he was testing me. Playing another game of his? To see if I’d take the bait.

Putting the phone down on the table beside the plate, I grabbed the fork with unnecessary force and forced the piece of mushroom into my mouth. Under other circumstances, I would’ve