Page 114 of Isolation
Frustrated with his lack of response, I take a break to plot my next attack. I bend over to gasp for air, with my hands on my knees.
Milo uses the opportunity to continue speaking.
“Raven,” he uses a tone meant to pacify me. “I am not sorry for pursuing a relationship with you, but I am sorry for hurting you. You have already punished me for years—”
“It’s not enough,” I cut him off. “You deserve to rot in hell for what you did.”
“I already did,” Milo grinds out, sounding like he is at the end of his rope. “It’s been years. When will this suffering end?”
“NEVER!” I yell at the top of my lungs.
The loud word echoes through the silent room. It vibrates through us and bounces off the still walls. As the word settles in, a dark cloud takes over Milo.
I wanted him covered in dark bruises like he covered my life in darkness.
My blind punches are not effective, but I can sense the effectthatword has on him.So I keep at it.
“I will fight till my last breath if that’s what it takes for you to get it through your head that I'll never forgive you for what you did,” I egg him on."Ever!"
Milo’s jaw ticks at every one of my words. The fleeting anger in his eyes set in, and the tendons on his arms rise. I see him visibly grind his teeth.
He looks like the calm before the storm.
“Okay then,” Milo’s cold, detached tone is laced with a quiet fury that makes me inwardly shudder. “I will also fight you till my last breath if that’s what it takes to keep you.”
Milo takes a step closer to me, and it takes everything inside me not to bolt.
I stand my ground as Milo slowly reaches out and grabs one of my arms, flexing his fingers into me.
“The difference between us is that I have no boundaries when it comes to you,” he says in an eeriely low voice. “Do you know what my first instinct was after you told me abouthim? I wanted to tie you up on my bed and fuck the idea out of your head. I wanted to roam the streets of New York to kill my own brother. I still haven’t decided if I'm going through with it or not.”
I hear my own sharp inward breath at his words.
Milo, the caretaker, has officially left the building.
Hello, lust-crazed sociopath.
The sociopath I want to hurt is reminding me why I ran in the first place. I walk backward until I hit the tall column in the middle of the room.
I turn around when Milo crowds me with his proximity, and reach my palm out to flatten it on the column so the front of my body doesn’t crash into it.
Milo is next to me within the second, glaring down.
“What?” he growls. His rapid breathing indicates his palpable anger. “Are you scared, Raven? Have you ever considered that you wouldn’t have to be if you hadn’t played a part in all of this? None of this would have happened if you didn’t lead me on in the first place.”
My eyes are wide from fear, but I refuse to let my nerves get the better of me right now.
This is who I wanted to face. Wish granted. I need to confront him about his weak excuses.
“So, what?” I lift my chin up in defiance.
“So, what?” Milo’s brows shoot up, and he tilts his face with a cruel, taunting smile.
“So, what?” I repeat. “If someone leads you on that doesn’t mean that they deserve it. What are you going to say next,you dressed that way, so you wanted it? Don’t make excuses for yourself. If a woman tells you to stop, you stop. No matter what! You taught me that yourself.”
Milo looks at me like he is about to lose his shit even more.
“It’s not an excuse. If I didn’t know what it was like to be with you I would have never gone down that road. You consumed me. Loving you was—”
