In the split second before impact, I realized Thaddeus had anticipated this too. He hadn't left me a single opening.
The walls were already lined with padding.
"In here, I'm the only one who decides when you die."
He climbed through the window and grabbed a fistful of my hair, then slapped me across the face. Once. Twice. Again.
"And right now, it's not time for you to die yet."
He tied me to the bed again. I knew every line of Thaddeus's face better than my own, but the expression he wore was so cold it belonged to a stranger.
"Do you know what true despair is?" he said.
"It's when you see hope drawing close. When you think you can almost reach it." He paused. "And then it shatters all over again."
"Like just now, when you thought you had a chance to escape."
"Thaddeus, I want to know why." I held his gaze. "At least let me die knowing the truth."
"I don't believe you'd kill me just because you stopped loving me."
"You're not that kind of person. I believe you."
Right now, I needed to do everything in my power to save myself, even if that meant groveling.
He lunged forward and seized my throat. "Even now, you still don't understand why?"