Chapter 10 The feeling of safety

Ethan finally reached his destination.

He parked the car and stepped out, his movements calm but heavy with the weight of restrained fury - the kind of silence that came before a storm.

Amelia opened her door slowly, stepping out with hesitant feet.

Her eyes darted from Ethan to the house before them - a dark, looming structure that seemed to swallow the night itself.

Something about it made her heart race.

It wasn't just quiet - it was empty, almost abandoned, as if the walls themselves whispered warnings to anyone who dared to enter.

She turned toward the man beside her - the man she barely knew, yet somehow felt he knew everything about her.

Her voice trembled as she asked,

"What... what do you want from me?"

Ethan didn't answer.

He only looked at her - a long, unreadable stare that carried both anger and something deeper, something far more dangerous.

When he finally spoke, his tone was cold, measured, deliberate.

"You'll find out soon enough," he said. "And if it's work you're after - a job that secures your future - don't worry. I'll take care of that myself."

She frowned, confused by his words, her mind spinning.

But there was something in his voice - in the way he said it - that made her follow without another word.

She climbed the stairs behind him, her soft footsteps echoing through the dim corridor.

The air grew colder as they reached the top, the silence pressing down on her like a weight.

Ethan pushed open a door.

The room beyond was vast, empty save for a single chair and a table.

A pale light spilled across the wooden floor, and the chill in the air seeped through her skin.

Amelia stopped at the threshold, clutching her arms around herself.

Her voice came out small, uncertain.

"Are you... are you staying here with me? Or... is this where I'm supposed to stay?"

Ethan's brow furrowed slightly.

Was she truly that naïve? Or was she still pretending - playing the part of the fragile, innocent girl she no longer was?

He took a slow step toward her, his gaze never leaving her face.

When he spoke again, his voice was quiet, almost a whisper - but it carried the weight of command.

"So that's what you are now?" he said. "A proper, respectable girl?"

His eyes drifted downward, to the thin, revealing dress clinging to her frame - that dress he despised, that symbol of everything that had driven him to the edge tonight.

His jaw tightened, his hands flexing at his sides.

Amelia froze under his stare.

She didn't know if the anger burning in his eyes was meant for her... or for himself.

He approached her while ripping her dress that she was wearing in one moment.

This dress was torn on the floor. He moved away from her while talking to her with a slutty look. Is this what you want?

Is that the contract you signed for someone to spend the night with you? You sold your body for money.

Amelia was in a state of incomprehension. She did not understand what was happening. She just absorbed the conversation.

That Sofia, who was acting as the good girl who would help her, was a liar and a deceiver.

She was going to talk But she found that man approaching her again.

He tied her hands with her torn dress and pounced on her lips, wanting only revenge.

He kept kissing her until he felt her hitting him. She was trying to get away.

Her whole body was moving randomly, hoping he would untie her.

The air between them froze - time itself seemed to halt, as if out of respect for her tears.

Amelia's sobs tore through the silence, raw and trembling, her voice hoarse with pain.

Her entire body shook as she cried out,

"I didn't know... I swear, I didn't know what I was signing! Please, believe me!

All I knew was what she told me - that I'd work as a waitress, that she was helping me.

I saw her last night, in that empty street... she seemed kind, she said she wanted to help me!

I didn't know she was lying!"

Ethan stood still, every muscle in his body tight.

The echo of her words crashed against the walls of his mind, colliding with the storm inside him.

Had he... misunderstood her?

Had he gone too far?

Piece by piece, the truth began to unfold - slowly, painfully.

Maybe Sophia had deceived her. Maybe Amelia wasn't guilty of what he thought.

And yet... how could he forgive what he'd seen?

That dress.

That sight.

The image that had burned into his memory like fire.

He didn't know whether to rage or to break -

whether to punish her or fall to his knees in shame for ever doubting her.

Amelia, still shaking, bent down to gather the torn fragments of her dress, clutching them to her chest in silent humiliation.

Her tears dripped onto the floor, glimmering like shards of glass beneath the faint light.

Every sob she tried to hide struck him deeper than a scream ever could.

Without a word, Ethan stepped forward.

He slipped off his jacket - the same one that carried his scent, his warmth - and held it out to her.

For a moment, she only stared, hesitant and confused, before taking it with trembling hands and wrapping it tightly around herself like a fragile shield.

Ethan turned away before their eyes could meet again.

He couldn't bear the sight of her - not when guilt was carving its way into his chest.

His silence said more than any apology could.

He reached the door, paused, and without looking back, took out the key from his pocket.

The metallic click of the lock echoed through the empty space - final, deliberate.

He stood there for a heartbeat longer, his back to her, his hand still on the handle.

When he finally left, the air in the room seemed to die with him.

The walls felt colder, the silence heavier.

And though Amelia stood there wrapped in his jacket,

it was Ethan who walked away stripped of everything - his control, his calm, his peace.

He didn't leave to escape her.

He left to destroy the one who had done this -

to make Sophia pay for every tear, every lie, every scar she'd carved into the only woman he could never let go.

Amelia sat there and wept -

wept until her chest ached, until her tears ran dry,

as if crying hard enough could somehow erase what had happened.

The silence around her felt deafening.

She pulled Ethan's jacket tighter around her small frame, clutching it as though it could protect her from the world.

Its warmth still lingered - faint but real - carrying his scent, deep and familiar, like smoke and comfort tangled together.

Slowly, she pressed her face against the fabric, breathing him in.

It was the first thing that made her feel safe in what felt like forever.

Her sobs softened.

Her breathing steadied.

And before she knew it, exhaustion pulled her under -

not the restless, haunted kind of sleep she'd grown used to,

but something gentler... quieter.

For the first time in a long, long time,

Amelia slept in peace.