And wasn’t what I was doing at this very moment proof of that?

I told myself I was being independent, standing on my own, but these walls, the ceiling, the floors, this entire place was his.

That was true, but in this moment, I promised myself I never would be.

Prayed that I could stand strong in that resolve.

For lack of anything else to do, I flopped down on the small sofa, something else that Elias owned, and tried to consider my next move.

He hadn’t reached out to me, which left me edgy.

I told myself it was because I needed to be working, and the more deals I closed, the sooner this would all be over.

But the way we had left things…

I tried not to let myself think about that time with Armen, the way the restraints had felt on my wrists, that bullshit Elias had spewed about us being engaged.

But still, as much as I wanted to ignore it, I couldn’t pretend that something hadn’t changed.

Because Armen saw me as a threat.

And that wasn’t good.

I knew how Elias responded to threats and had now had a taste of how Armen did.

And now I found myself stuck in the middle, again confronted with a situation I was totally ill-equipped to handle.

I could lie, tell myself my intelligence and tenacity would see me through.

Had told that lie to myself for years, convinced myself that I was maintaining.

That everything was fine.

It wasn’t fine. Nothing was fine, and I had no one to rely on.

Perhaps I could turn to Davit. But I knew I never would. He had Amy and Crystal to think about, and I wouldn’t do anything to impose on him.

Elias would probably insist that I rely on him, but the very thought of doing so felt more dangerous and riskier than Armen.

I looked around the room, my gaze moving over the soft gray walls and orange accent wall, the dark varnished floors, the decor that was tastefully commercial.

Closed my eyes and accepted the fact that I had never, ever felt so alone in my entire life.

Buzz.

I’d put my cell phone on quiet but still kept it close by in hopes that Elias would reach out about our next deal.

I looked at the screen quickly, the disappointment crushing.

Like all the times the phone had buzzed before, it wasn’t Elias.

Twelve missed calls and fourteen text messages in three days.

All from Todd.

All unanswered.

That loneliness that had been there before became that much more intense, so much so that I pushed the phone away and again had to close my eyes against the feeling of it.

I had known that the life I dreamed of with Todd was over.

Suspected I had known that the very first day I met Elias.

But suspecting something and knowing it…