I woke up in the bed I had left only a few days ago, but it felt like a lifetime.

My eyes hurt from crying, and a look in the mirror revealed just how blotchy and pale I looked. I was mourning the loss of Amber, not knowing what would happen to her, and feeling increasingly more and more guilty about getting her in this whole damn mess. First, with Ellis taking her, then with Thorn swiftly enacting his revenge on her for lying and letting her get away. I was the reason she was now a prisoner. I was the only one to blame for her misfortune, and I knew I’d never forgive myself.

I knew by the dull ache in the back of my head that I’d been drugged again for the plane ride back to the mansion. But once I turned towards the window, I was shocked to find the bars over the glass gone.

Then again, why shouldn’t they be? Thorn had taught me a lesson, and now I knew full-well just how cruel he was. He had taken one of my friends captive and released the other in the arms of a man none of us seemed to know at all. And now, Carina was in this mess with me. I squeezed my eyes shut when I thought of her, hating myself for bringing her along into this mess. She was another innocent victim of Thorn and my love, and it seemed like the casualties would never stop.

Being back in the mansion, it was hard to believe I had been gone at all. Things seemed like they hadn’t changed, and apart from the missing bars, it felt like I’d never been gone at all.

Still, I knew the absence of Amber would hit me hard, just as hard as my worries about her whereabouts.

Like clockwork, at 8 a.m. sharp, the door opened, and a silent maid entered with my breakfast. I sat down and ate obediently, then spent hours sitting on my bed, staring out at the beautiful beach below me and waiting for the inevitable.

I felt his presence the second he entered the room. His scent was dark and masculine, and I turned my head to face him as he drew nearer. He stood next to my bed and touched his palm to my cheek, stroking me gently. I leaned into his touch and hated him, but not as much as I hated myself for needing his comforting.

“I’ve heard from Van Acker,” he said kindly. “Amber is adjusting well.”

It was information I thought he wouldn’t give me, and it made my eyes well up with tears. I attempted to look away, but he wouldn’t let me, twisting my head so I was looking at him.

“Carina is staying in her old room,” he told me. “We’re beginning her training today.”

The tears fell.

“We must talk,” he went on. “Come with me.”

He extended an arm for me to take, and I reached for him needily, intertwining my fingers to his and keeping close to him as he led me through the house, through rooms and stairways I knew so well and thought I’d never see again. My heart was pounding as we stepped outside, the sun bright above us but the temperature pleasant, not too hot at all. I realized where he was leading me, and dug my heels into the ground.

“N-no,” I stuttered. “I don’t want to go there. Please…”

“Come on,” he said gently. “We have to talk there. The rose garden is the reason you’re here.”

Reluctantly, I let him lead me away, my body shaking as reached the edges of the bushes on the cliff. The garden was just as I remembered it, and while I thought it would feel eerie to be back there, it was oddly calming. Perhaps that was why he chose that place to lay all those women to rest.

We stopped in the middle of the garden, luscious roses extending their vines around us. It was like something out of a fairytale, but I already knew there would be no happy ending for me because I was in love with a monster. I looked up into Thorn’s eyes, my hand lingering with his as he pulled me closer, the motion almost violent.

“Why did you run?” he demanded, and I closed my eyes against the onslaught of his questions. “Why did you leave me, Rose? Why did you go?”

“I had to,” I whispered. “You were going to hurt Amber.”

“Never,” he snarled. “I would never hurt her. She was an accident from the start she should never have been here.”

“But you wouldn’t let her go,” I cried out, opening my eyes and staring into the dark abyss in his gaze. “You could have sent her back… Make sure she was okay.”

“I couldn’t have,” he told me. “She was a liability, Rose. We both know it.”

“But why punish her?” I asked him tearfully. “Why sell her to that… awful, awful man?”

“She wanted it,” he went on. “She begged me to be sold. You weren’t there to hear it, my Rose. She craved this life.”

“Not with someone like him!” I insisted, my hands ripping out of his. “Not with a monster!”

“You fell in love with a monster,” Thorn said softly. “Maybe she can, too.”

I fought the overwhelming feelings of hate I had for him. They were mixed with need and love that I couldn’t comprehend, my mind unable to wrap itself around how much I craved this man despite all of the horrible things he’d done to me and my loved ones. I wanted to walk away, but I knew he would never let me. And what’s more, I knew I’d come crawling back before I even made it down the driveway of the Mansion.

“What happens when you get sick of me?” I asked. “What happens when you decide you don’t want me anymore?”

“I…” he frowned at me. “I will always want you. You’ve always been the one. Since that moment I first saw you.”

“When?” I whispered, needing him to comfort me.

“You were a little girl,” he admitted brokenly. “And I was a grown fucking man. I’d just found out some news that… that would decide the direction of my life. I was buying flowers, in London… you were standing outside the florist, staring in.”

I squeezed his hand, prompting him to go on.

“I dropped a rose on purpose,” he went on softly. “Watched you pick it up. You were fascinated by it. I knew then. I’ve had tabs on you since then.”

I wanted to tell him he was a sick man. Wanted to hit him, hurt him. But my body wouldn’t let me. My traitorous fucking body wanted to bend to his will and give him everything he’d ever wanted.

“I don’t know anything about you,” I whispered brokenly. “I don’t know why you… why you’re so fucking broken.”

He looked away. The pained expression on his face told me it was a story he wasn’t ready to tell me yet, but he squeezed my hand nonetheless.

“Soon,” he promised.

“What about the others?” I asked, unable to stop myself. “The other girls. The ones before me.”

“They don’t matter,” he said plainly. “I hadn’t been with anyone for a year before you.”

“But before?” I asked weakly, and he stared deep into my eyes. “You killed them, didn’t you? You got rid of every Rose before me…”

“What?” He pulled back, staring at me incredulously, my hand still on his chest. “Who the fuck told you that?”

I didn’t need to answer his question. I saw the realization in his eyes.

“She’s mad,” he murdered, and then his attention was back on me. “You believed that.”

“S-she… she told me they were buried here,” I whispered. “In the rose garden… She told me it was where I would inevitably end up, once you got sick of me… She told me she was the only one you kept.”

A slew of curse words rolled from his lips, and I stared with my heart pounding as he pulled me closer.

“Never,” he whispered. “I never hurt them. They were all freed. Four of them through the span of ten years. All of them former slaves, abused, hurt. I helped them, Harlow. I helped them.”

“Where are they now?” I asked gently.

“Marilou,” he said brokenly. “The first one. She is an artist… a sculptor. She’s a big deal now, lives in France. Cassandra. An actress. I helped her get her lucky break. Amalie. She has two children with a man I introduced her to. Twins.”

“And…” I whispered.

“Pia,” he finished for me.

He didn’t elaborate.

“You will find out,” he finally said. “Not yet. Not now.”

“What about Carina?” I asked him, watching him hesitate before he answered. “What’s going to happen to her? Was she a liability, just like Amber?”

“She…” his words drifted off and I waited with bated breath for him to go on. “She’s not who you think she is, Rose.”

That was all he said before pulling me into his arms.

“I will deal with Pia,” he promised me, and I realized with a start it was the closest I’d ever felt to him.

He almost seemed human, and I finally realized he did care about me, deeply so. It only left me wondering whether it would be enough to fix all the ways we’d broken each other.

“What about me?” I finally asked, and he tilted my chin back, making me look into his eyes.

“What about you?” he asked, his tone gentler than I’d ever heard it before.

“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, my voice shaky.

He touched his tumb to my lower lip, gently dragging it down and exposing my teeth. I felt myself getting wet for him, my center swollen with the need for him to touch me, feel me, make it all better.

“Punish you,” he said softly, making goosebumps erupt all over my skin. “Show you what you did was wrong. Teach you some fucking manners. And what will you say when I do?”

I stared into his eyes, my heart pounding in my chest as I whispered, “Thank you, Master.”

“That’s a good girl,” Thorn said gently. “I knew you’d be a good girl for me, Rose. I knew you’d learn your lesson.”

I looked down at my feet, standing on the grass. I thought of how easy it would be to run away from him, to the edge of the cliff that separated us from the beach. One misstep and my sorry excuse for a life would be over. No more guilt about what I’d done to Amber and Carina, no more worrying about my future. I would be carefree as I floated down and my body broke on the rocks below us, and the last thing I would see would be his face. What a way to go…

And yet, when I willed my feet to move, they wouldn’t, stubbornly keeping me frozen to the spot and staring into Thorn’s eyes.

“I’ll take care of you,” he promised me. “Just remember how much I care.”

I didn’t ask him what he would do. I knew I wouldn’t like the answer, and I also knew I deserved whatever was coming. He pulled me against his chest and held my tightly, and I felt a huge weight shift off my shoulders when he held me. Maybe I was foolish, but I chose to believe him. I believed he hadn’t killed those girls, but the curiosity of what had happened with Pia made me want to ask so many questions I had to bite my tongue to stop them from coming.

As he held onto me, I realized I’d broken him, too.

“Don’t leave me again,” he ordered me darkly.

But under the layers of threats, anger and rage, I could see his vulnerability. Feel how afraid he was of me leaving again. And standing in the rose garden I looked up at him, and promised I would never run again.

This time, I wasn’t lying.