"I don't understand. I really, really don't. You were safe and untouched and still, you had to walk yourself right back into danger. You do realize, Marley, that I can't be held accountable for what happens to you after you leave here. It's up in the air whether or not they'll ever take you back to him."
Eli's feet were propped up on an end table in the trailer the man had led her to. It was a gruelling journey, her head ducked to avoid jeers, side comments and whistles as best as she could. Shrinking into as small of a form as possible, Marley occasionally dodged groping hands while she thought of the person she loves to push her foreword among the fray of bodies, sweat, and grime.
She considered making a run for it, finding a cell phone - she and Aiden both left theirs at camp - but the guard had grabbed her bicep and held tightly before she could put any ideas into motion, so she had no choice but to blindly follow.
Despite the fact that Eli and Dallas were treated like the children of kings, the trailer they were in was no better or worse than any of the others down the lines. The door creaked as it opened, chips of rust obscuring the silver frame it once had. The small kitchenette, love seat and ottoman, narrow hallway leading to a single bed - it was all yellowed and faded, but organized, and as clean as a trailer could get around here. Marley sensed that had everything to do with Dallas.
Eli's remark was cold and teasing as she hugged herself, shuffling on the dark grey tile beneath her feet. Just her presence was sending specs of dirt across the floors. He lifted his legs off the table to sit properly, legs spread apart and lean arms thrown on either side of the top of the grey couch.
"You know why...why I'm here," She whispered, ignoring the urge to undo her elastic and allow her coffee brown waves to cover her fear. It didn't matter. A blind person could see it. A deaf one could hear it.
"I do." Eli nodded slowly, tilting his head sideways with a smile playing on his lips.
"Take off the shirt."
She took a step backwards, squeezing it in small fists. Her hazel eyes misted while she made every effort not to hyperventilate.
Eli sighed loudly, "Don't be dramatic. I'm just trying to ruffle my brothers' feathers. Consider this a show of good faith. I promise our conversation will go much smoother."
Marley wished she had Aiden's strength and ability to charge Eli. Knock him to the ground and punch him until his face is black and blue, and he's crying like the coward he is. These stupid mind games. Ridiculous, petty schemes.
Aiden is more of a man in the tip of his finger than Eli is in every square inch of his body.
Her throat itched to say the words. But at this moment, she couldn't if she wanted to achieve what she went through all of this trouble for.
Her fingers gripped the hem of Aiden's shirt and she lifted it over her head. It had fallen to her knees, obscuring every inch of the tight bodice and v-neck. But now all of that was out the window.
She shot her eyes to the floor when Eli's widened as he appraised her. He leaned forward in his seat, "Now I get the shirt idea. A smart move with the salivating animals out there. Hand it over, honey."
Marley had been instinctively hugging it to her chest. It was the last physical piece of Aiden that she had left and it was being ripped away from her. She felt exposed and cold as she took small, cautious steps towards Eli and handed it over with extreme reluctance, paired with a desperate urge to run away with it.
To put it back on.
To go back to its owner.
He took it from her with a nose wrinkled in disgust. It was damp and limp, the sleeves brutally frayed. But Eli put them here. It made her see red that he had any judgements against what becomes of throwing fellow human beings into filth.
Marley was no longer afraid. She was just angry. So, so angry.
"At least the heat suits you-"
"I think we can help each other."
Eli raised an eyebrow at her outburst. Marley crossed her arms, regretting it when his eyes fell to her cleavage. But, if she dropped them now, it'd show fear and she couldn't show fear in her struggle for the upper hand.
He let out a chuckle when her expression remained unchanged, "Aiden and Ian are here for the money. You're useless. You have no purpose other than the one where you matter to my brother and nobody gives a fuck about that shit around here. In that room, you were safe because you were grouped with an asset. Now, out here, alone, you're fair game. And with your body in a dress like that-"
"You're not scaring me," she took a step foreword, her spine straightening and her chin tilting upwards, "You're trying to and it's not going to work. Not when I know that you're just as afraid as I am."
Eli snorted, rising from the couch. He circled for the kitchenette, brushing shoulders with hers. She had to fight every cell of her body from scrambling away fearfully.
Marley did turn, though, to watch him open a wooden cupboard and snatch out a plastic blue cup. He flicked open the fridge carelessly and bent to scan its contents frugally, "I don't have anything to be afraid of. I am about to be four million dollars richer. I'll have the world in my hands."
"That's bullshit and you know it."
The words flew out, a harsh snap. Eli stilled momentarily, his hand closing around a carton of juice. He set the cup down and poured it, keeping his back to her. On purpose?
"Whatever you think you know-"
Marley took a step closer, "I know that you're as screwed as we are. I know that as soon as that cash hits this soil it's a fight to the death. I know that nobody cares about anyone but themselves around here. You just told me that I'm in danger even though I'm someone important to a person providing for these people - because no one has a sense of honour. Of respect. Why in the world would anyone here have that for you? You're as good as dead, Eli. And you know it."
She let out a harsh exhale, curling her hands around her biceps tightly when he spun around quickly. He closed their distance. She rocked back on her heels, gritting her teeth against backing away.
You're the strongest woman I know.
The words washed over her, like a cool rain on a sidewalk at noon, of a sweltering day. Aiden was giving her the strength she needed without having to be near her. He's a perfect role model for that.
Eli crouched to level their gazes, "Where do you get that attitude of yours in a situation like this? I'm just curious."
Her hazel eyes narrowed, "It's like you want to die, Eli. It's like you're choosing suffering."
His green eyes flashed before he pulled away, turning his back to her and sauntering towards the couch with a stiff back. He put the cup to his lips while a theory formed in her mind. Took shape. Burst with colour.
"It doesn't matter," he replied quietly, "it doesn't matter anymore anyway."
Marley was dizzy with the full picture in front of her eyes. She doesn't have a 4.0 GPA for nothing.
"You, you..." she leaned against the ottoman, breathless and disoriented, "you already owe them money, don't you? You owe them-"
"You're wrong."
"-and it's enough that they'd never let you go. That or they have something on you that you'll never be able to run. You have no use for the money in your last days. It's...revenge. You want to steal from a father who took everything from you-"
"Shut up."
"-before you're gone for good. This isn't an investment into the future, this is a suicide mission."
"Shut. Up!" Eli roared, whipping the cup of juice across the trailer. It smashed against one of the side windows and the liquid burst across the floor and the front of Marley's dress. She didn't move.
He was breathing heavily, hands raking through his hair, footsteps heavy and purposeful as he paced the small space. Green eyes on the floor.
"You'll never fucking get it. He fucked my mom and then forced her out of town when she got pregnant. She had to leave her friends, our family...my grandmother had cancer when we saw her for the first time, and she died a month and a half later. My step-dad's a dick. But I'm a Matthews. I'm blood to a successful father and he won't even sit in a room with me. I've had to scrape by for years, borrow from fuckers who are going to kill me and-" he slammed the front of his shoe into the centre of the round table. It jerked and wobbled against the walls it was trapped between.
Eli's fists balled. He whirled around to face Marley with a heaving chest, "Did he even tell you why? Why four million?"
She blinked, "No."
He laughed darkly again, shoving his fingers into his dark blonde hair, "That's how much is in that fuckers trust fund. It opens up when he's 18. Ian has the same goddamn one and I don't."
Marley's eyes widened in shock. Four million dollars. Why did Aiden keep this from her?
"I deserve that money," Eli pointed to himself, eyes half crazed, "And if I never get to use it, it'll go to people as embarrassing of a waste of his money as my father thinks I am."
The new information was sending her thoughts into a tailspin. Marley was still leaned against the ottoman for support, mouth opening and closing speechlessly at the truth. The whole truth.
"And do you know what..." he dropped his hands, shoving them into the front pockets of his jeans harshly, eyes boring intensely into her own, "the worst part of all of this is? The part I hate the most?"
She blinked repeatedly. Eli slowly stalked her frozen figure, his expression turning into lack of emotion.
"I want his life. I want to be him. I know what happened to him but I want it anyway. He will never understand that whole Violet bullshit was nothing, compared to what happened to me in a normal day in the life of Elias Matthews. Growing up the way I did. I want his money. I want his house. His talent with football. His brother..."
Eli trailed off when they were toe to toe, lifting his hand to gently tuck her coffee brown flyaways behind her ear. She couldn't move. Couldn't breathe, "His girl."
Her hazel eyes were wide as saucers while he stared down at her, head tilted sideways, "You're so beautiful. Do you even know it? I understand why he loves you. Looking at you in that dress right now, seeing that fire in you, your spirit, your light...he has it all. And I want it. I'm always going to want it."
He dropped his hand and took a step away. His green eyes were rimmed red as he faced her head on, watching her digest everything with a new perspective.
Envy can make someone go crazy. And that's what happened to Eli. Plain and simple.
Being the person she is, Marley hurt. For Eli. For his struggles, his pain. For always being in the dark, always being second place. Not having a male figure in his life who cared, and a mother who was thrown away by both competitors. Watching two people of his own family grow together, love each other, while he drifts along the sidelines. And that's not even including the details of how he grew up, with a stepfather and a mother struggling to make ends meet. Who clearly didn't have a loving relationship.
He's hurting. And now, he's ending his life with a dramatic flair, believing he has nothing left to live for. The reckless driving. The sauntering around a room full of grown men, dangerous men, acting in ways that he knows will set them off. Waiting for them to. Hoping. Doing things to make himself, hate himself .
Elias is suicidal.
Marley sucked in a breath, tears building behind her eyes at the sad person in front of her, "You don't want to...you want to-"
He shrugged, shoving his hands back in his pockets and breaking their stare, "Nobody would miss me. Nobody ever has. I don't matter to anyone and that's never going to change. There's nothing here for me anymore, and I've made mistakes I can't live with anyway. I'm done, Marley."
She gasped quietly, her heart shattering in her chest. Without another second wasted, she dashed for him, throwing her arms around his torso and squeezing him tightly in a hug.
This dark place he's in, he doesn't deserve to face it alone - nobody does.
She held him until she felt his arms circle around her in return, his stiff body beginning to relax.
"You're not hopeless," she whispered, tears slipping from her eyes, "Please don't give up."
She pulled away from him to look up at his eyes, rubbing her fingers under her own to dry the tears there that kept on building. His expression had broke, as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing.
"Don't give up because it's not just you. It's us. You, Ian, Aiden and I. All of us and I will not let you die like this. Live. Live, Eli. I am here. Ian and Aiden, they'll understand. You can have a life you love, and it will be yours."
She hugged herself tightly while he scanned over her face with an expression slowly thawing at the edges, "You don't understand."
Marley sighed, shoulders slumping, "But I do. I do understand. My entire life has been nothing but bad on top of bad okay-"
"Marley-"
"No." she interrupted stiffly, watching his eyebrows raise in surprise. She continued on with a firm tone, "I spent years in the dark. I spent so long in the place you are - wondering what my future holds, wondering how I managed to get out of bed morning after morning. I spent years feeling hopeless. So yes, I do understand. I understand the grief. I understand the desire to let everything go because holding on just hurts so damn much. But guess what? You don't get to give up. You don't get to fall forever. Life is full of choices but one - defeat. You want things to get better?"
Marley closed their distance fearlessly, jamming a finger in the center of his chest, "Too freaking bad. Suffer. Cry. Ache. Lose. Drown. That's the price. That's being alive. That's humanity - falling down one hundred times, and getting back up one hundred and one."
His eyes were tight but behind them was an ember she was searching for. Tiny. Insignificant. But more than enough.
Hope.
He exhaled shakily, and when his hands cupped her cheeks she didn't fight it. She would if they were in any other situation.
His eyes bored into hers, "You have the power to move mountains with your pinkie finger. It's impressive."
She smiled, her hands fluttering over his, "You're going to help get us out of this."
She dropped her hands when he did, watching him run a hand through his hair with a soft expression.
"Yes. Because you helped get me out of everything I've ever felt stuck in since, maybe since forever."
***
Chapter 52: