I don’t think I’ve breathed once in the last hour it has taken Savannah to recount the horrors of her past. She slipped away from me, her mind in a hell I desperately want to destroy. She spoke through her tears racing too fast down her cheeks for me to catch them all, but I tried—alternating from my thumb to my lips, trying to catch each one that raced down her perfect cheeks. She didn’t even notice me. She’s stopped noticing me as she kept speaking, she was so far gone.

She hasn’t spoken in several minutes.

“Savannah?”

Her entire body jolts, her gaze coming slowly up to meet mine. She looks bewildered and lost, like she doesn’t know how she got here.

“It’s okay, baby, you’ve been here with me the whole time. You were with me. I’m here with you, baby.”

She nods, lying back down on my chest.

“My God, Savannah.” I hug her tighter, squeezing everything I can’t say to her in that hug. I can’t fathom how she escaped.

“How did you get out of there?” I ask her. I intend to kiss each scar that marks her body. I understand why she is hiding them behind the beautiful artwork, but everything under that makes her more beautiful to me. She’s so damn strong and fierce.

“After that incident, I knew I needed to make him kill me or find a way to escape. I wanted to die, Liam. If I’m honest, if I thought that was the easy choice, I might have taken that option. Somewhere deep inside, I knew he wouldn’t kill me for a long time. It wouldn’t matter what I said. He had me prisoner, he could lock up my mouth and use me any way he wanted. He could live in a fantasy. The easier option was escape.”

Savannah runs her hand over her mouth, like she’s holding something in.

“Let it go, baby.”

She shakes her head. “When I think about what I did next, it makes me sick. He was playing with me like a toy, so I decided to do the same. When he came in after that time, I started to be nicer. On the third visit, I told him that he showed me how much he loved me and I would be stupid not to feel the same way. I let him rape me again, but I didn’t scream or protest, so there was no ball gag.”

My stomach churns, wanting to be sick, too, imagining her saying those things to him after everything he did to her.

“It was pretty easy, to be honest, to convince him to let me sleep next to him. He wanted to believe me so badly that he didn’t question me too much. He was giddy. He released me from my chains and brought me into the master room of the cabin.”

I don’t want to think of her in bed with another man, especially this psychopath. We’re getting close to the end, I can feel it in my bones. Each drop she spills, she’s becoming everything to me.

“That night, I slept. I needed a restful night’s sleep. The next day, he made me three meals. I filled up, gathering my strength. That night while he was raping me, I pushed him off of me and ran to grab a knife. There wasn’t anything in the bedroom for me to use as a weapon. He stopped me on the way to the kitchen.

“He was screaming and raving. We wrestled, falling to the ground. He wound up on top, again choking me. I was too close, though. Too close to freedom. I wouldn’t accept death. We were close to a side table with a metal lamp. I pulled the cord, tugging the lamp closer. He was too wrapped up in his grief, he didn’t realize what I was doing. I grabbed the lamp and beat him over the head until he released me. Each hit loosened his grip. He passed out from the blows. I ran.”

Savannah is breathing so hard, her hands twisting, I can feel her anxiety rolling off her in waves. “We were in the middle of woods. I don’t know how I found my way to a road, but I did. I was a mess by the time I made it, my feet were torn apart, the cuts had re-opened, leaving me bleeding. I was in nothing but the nightie I grabbed from the floor on my way out. I walked along the road until I saw a car. I stepped in front of it with my arms waving in the air, trying to stop them.”

I cringe, imagining her out there in the middle of the night, car barreling toward her. I know she lives because she’s here safe in my arms, but I’m on the edge of my figurative seat to know if the car sees her in time.

“They stopped. I begged them to call 911, telling them I was kidnapped by my ex-boyfriend. I got in their car, and they took me to the hospital, where I slept for days, healing. I came in and out as my family and Valerie surrounded me.”

Savannah breathes out a sigh of relief. I need to know more though. There’s so much unanswered.

“Can I ask questions?” I ask quietly, worried I will say or do the wrong thing.

“I’m not done, but yes.”

I can’t even fathom how she’s not done. “Is he dead?” That is really the gist of what I need to know.

“No,” she whispers.

My stomach drops like an anchor.