Page 160 of Penance

I’m so stupid.

Stupid girl.

But my legs move on their own.

I can’t control it now. I am a woman possessed.

Second floor.

The hallway stretches before me, identical to my own, yet somehow more forbidding. I hurry down the hall, listening to the sound of my heels clicking over tile, like the ticking of a clock counting down to my own death.

777

That’s his door.

I stop in front of it and just stare.

Why?

Because I don’t know what else to do.

I lift my hand to knock and then pause, my knuckles hovering an inch away.

What if he pushes me away?

What if he doesn’t want me, or the baby?

What if he tells me he never gave a shit?

No.

He asked me to marry him.

He bought me a house.

He loves me.

Draco loves me.

I knock, three times, loud, and the knocks echo around me.

I wait, heart hammering against my ribs like it wants to escape my chest and flee back down the stairs without me. My palms are slick with sweat, and I wipe them against the fabric of my ruined dress.

Time stretches.

It feels like an eternity.

Has it been seconds or minutes since I knocked?

Should I try again?

Maybe he’s not home.

But just as my hand rises to knock again, I hear movement on the other side of the door, a click as a lock is turned.

The door opens, and there he stands—Draco, with his sharp eyes that stare right through me. He’s wearing a pair of black jogging pants and he’s shirtless. His dark hair is still slicked back, pulled away from his eyes. I can see the tattoos that cover his arms, the bat wing tattoo on the front of his throat.

The wings come together in the front to form a heart.

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