Forever Hers | 18+

C h a p t e r 14

"I don't think I know how to anymore." She says quietly as more tears fall in pace with mine, a small smile twisting her lips for just a second before fading away as her eyes fall shut. She simply lets them close with my hand being her anchor, her's my own. 

I was happy Madelyn couldn't see the small flinch across my face at her words, the sole reason being that I don't think she realized just how heartbreaking that confession was.

Our friendship came so easily to us over a year ago because talking to each other was just that. Easy. Natural. Now it felt like we were both at a standstill, waiting for something to break us free from the entrapment of our own experiences. 

I lost Mila mere months ago, and it was an amazement that I'd even worked up the effort to answer the door a few minutes prior to now. It's clear that Madelyn isn't in that much better of a state, and what's worse is that I know my friend's pain exceeds so much more than a breakup. 

I couldn't tell how she got here or why it's now that I'm seeing her again, but what I do know is that it won't be long before a certain trio comes knocking on my door like their lives depend on it. 

Based on the tension of Madelyn's jaw, I can't help but wonder if she's already seen them. Yet again, I can't imagine under any circumstance that Alec, Caleb, or Xavier would let her out of their sight after the warpath they've set themselves upon this last year trying to find her. 

"That's okay." I whisper as I let my own eyes shut, bowing my forehead to fall against my propped knee. "If you want, you could start by telling me where you've been?" 

If only she knew how desperate that single statement was. 

When my eyes reopened in the long stretch of silence, I found her green ones already looking at me, sad and tired. So incredibly tired. 

There was a time where I almost thought she wasn't going to answer—a time where I prepared myself to simply be okay with the fact Madelyn was here and she was alive. 

But then, her lips parted and a sob escaped past them—one I can tell she's been suppressing for quite possibly the entire stretch of her absence. 

"It wasn't so bad." Madelyn choked, her voice cracking painfully. It was then that I realized I didn't need to hear the rest of what she was going to say to know the truth. 

Whatever happened while she was gone was so much worse than what she's about to tell me, because as much as I love her, the Madelyn I remembered wouldn't be here right now. 

She wouldn't be shaking so hard like she hadn't physically been allowed to only days before this, and she wouldn't be seeking out comfort in my company.

If things weren't so bad, she'd be with her men—the ones who've been going out of their very souls to find the only woman they've truly let themselves want. And above all else, she wouldn't be telling me being kidnapped and abused wasn't so bad. 

____

By the time we were both all talked out, my lips felt numb from all of the truths that had been told. 

Madelyn informed me about Nina and Alec and Caleb and Xavier, but the one place she wouldn't tell me about was the abandoned mansion she apparently took shelter in for the last year, forced or not. 

She told me about a girl, Kiana, and she told me about a step-brother she's apparently only spoken to three out of ten occurrences in her time away. 

During the span of when she was kidnapped, she told me sex, fighting, and alcohol were her only escapes, but apart from the obvious, she never told me what she was always needing to escape from.