The Maddest Obsession

AFTER ALL, THE HERO WINS

As on cue, the door to my room opened. I didn't have to turn and look that it was him. Daisy let out a bark as Christian closed the door and the bed dipped when he sat on the edge.

I didn't look at him. I didn't have the energy to argue with him. I couldn't make him understand what I was feeling.

I heard the rough noise of his palms rubbing on his pants.

Then silence.

"I didn't want to be this way, Stella." He whispered in the dark. "I didn't want to be like...like someone who couldn't feel. If I could change myself, I would give up anything to be the kind of man you want."

More silence.

"You know, mom said that, too. That she'd rather be dead than be my mom. She even tried to kill herself. I found her, and she was mad that I had found her. She said that I wouldn't even let her die." More hands rubbing. "I don't know what death is. But all I know, that if...if you die that I will never be able to see you ever again. And I...it bothers me so much. That a world without you shouldn't even exists."

Why was he saying all these things? Was he trying to blackmail me to stay? I told him I wouldn't leave him but he just wouldn't listen to me.

I heard Christian taking in a deep breath, like he was preparing himself for something.

"Arnold will take you to him."

I jerked up. His face was covered in shadows and he was staring down at the floor, his hands clenched on his thighs.

"You're...letting me see Liam?" I asked, carefully, thinking I had heard him wrong.

Instead of answering me, he turned but didn't even look at me when he took off my tracker and threw it away in the corner of the room. He produced something from his pocket and I adjusted to the darkness to identify it as a ring. Liam's ring. That he had given me.

Christian put it on the bed in front me but he still didn't look at me when he said, "You can go to the police. Tell them that I had kidnapped you and kept you here against your will. I will surrender myself without an argument."

He gulped audibly before continuing, "Your things...they will be back at your apartment once you go back from the hospital. You can keep Daisy as well." At mention of her name, she let out a happy bark.

He finally looked up at me and I saw the dark and tortured look in his eyes. I looked away, unable to see the turmoil flaring in his eyes. He didn't like being left behind—yet it seemed he was by everyone who mattered to him. And knowing I was only another one of them tightened my throat, burning the backs of my eyes.

"You can go and you don't have to come back. I won't..." he gulped again, "I won't bother you or your family ever again. You won't even remember me. I...I apologize for everything that I've ever done to you, but in my head, it was the right thing."

"Remember you once asked me if I knew where my parents are? I lied back then. I know where they are. They're in Berlin. Mom and dad adopted a son after they left me here and named him Christian and left America so no one could recognize them. They replaced me and now they have a happy family. Their said son Christian is married and has two kids. Good thing for you, Stella is that you don't have to find someone to replace me with. You already have him. Once you go back to him, I hope...I hope you'll forget everything that you had to go through while you were here with me and you will be like how you were before. Happy and safe."