I didn’t stop walking.I just sat down on the couch like I’d planned, leaning back and keeping my voice calm.“Wasn’t planning on it, baby.”
Clove hesitated, then slowly lay down on the bed.I heard the mattress creak, heard her breathe out like the act of resting was a risk.In the dark, her voice came again, smaller now.“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
My hands curled into fists at my sides.
She didn’t have anything to be sorry for.
Not for needing me there.Not for being scared.Not for being human after hell.
And I was going to make the three guys who made her think she had to apologize for surviving pay for it.
I stayed on the couch, eyes fixed on the ceiling, listening to her breathing even out.
And inside my head, I made a promise I didn’t say out loud.
Nobody will ever touch her again.
Chapter Thirteen
Clove
Sunlight woke me.
Not the harsh kind that jolted you out of sleep, but the warm, lazy kind that spilled through the window and painted soft lines across the room.For a moment, I didn’t move.I just lay there, staring at the ceiling, letting the light remind my body that it was morning.
That I was alive.
I was still wearing the clothes Alice had given me, but a blanket was also draped over me.I hadn’t done that.I knew I hadn’t.
The realization didn’t scare me.
It made my chest loosen.
I shifted slightly and listened.
Water was running in the shower.
The bathroom door was open, and my heart kicked once, then settled.Ender.Of course it was Ender.He’d stayed.I remembered him on the couch, the low murmur of his breathing, and the way the room had felt safe just because he was there.
I stretched carefully, testing my body.Sore.Stiff.Bruised but okay.
Then my bladder made itself known.
Urgently.“Oh crap,” I whispered.
I sat up slowly, blinking as the room came into sharper focus.I had two options.
One: go out into the clubhouse hallway, past people, cameras, and the general chaos of morning.
Two: use the bathroom currently occupied by a naked Ender.
I swallowed hard.
For years, literal years, I’d had a crush on Ender.A quiet one.A careful one.The kind you tucked away and pretended didn’t exist because it made things complicated.
He was handsome.Always had been.Strong, calm, steady.Always nice to me.Never teasing in the way the others were.Never dismissive.
And always… off-limits.