Chapter 147 - ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN

Chapter 147: Chapter ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN

ANGEL

I threw open another door. Nothing. Just another empty room in this nightmare.

"Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten. Eleven."

Each number was a nail in my coffin. Each count was a promise of what was coming.

Tears were streaming harder down my face now, quiet sobs escaping even though I wanted to be quiet. Needed to be quiet. Every sound I made was a trail leading him straight to me.

I found a door marked MEDICATION STORAGE and pulled it open.

It gave way.

It was a small room with shelves lined with bottles and boxes—pills and vials and medical supplies I couldn’t identify. There was a supply closet at the back, barely big enough for two people, and it was dark. I hated darkness. Hated small spaces. But it wasn’t like I had options.

I slipped inside the closet and pulled the door closed, barely breathing in the congested space. The smell of dust and chemicals filled my nose. My own heartbeat was so loud I was sure he could hear it from the hallway.

"Twelve. Thirteen."

His footsteps stopped.

Right outside the room.

The door clicked open. My breath stopped. My heart stopped. Everything stopped.

"You know what this reminds me of?" He was so close I could hear him breathing in the room. So close that if he took three more steps, he’d be right opposite me.

"Hide and seek. Used to play it as a kid. I was always the seeker. Want to know why?" He sounded closer now, as though he was just outside the closet. Just on the other side of this flimsy door.

I bit down on my hand, tasting blood and swallowing sobs. Trying to disappear. "Because I always won."

A soft tap on the door—his knuckles rapping against wood in a playful little rhythm. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"I always found them, no matter where they hid. Under beds. Behind shower curtains." Another tap, harder this time. "It’s a gift, really. Knowing exactly where scared little things like to curl up and pray."

The handle jiggled.

My heart stopped beating. My brain stopped thinking. I was only aware of my own terror—pure and absolute, filling every inch of me until there was nothing else left.

"Come out now, baby girl." He said softly, his voice dropping to something coaxing. "Surrender to Daddy, and I’ll forgive you. All of it. The running. The nurse. Everything."

I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.

"I’ll even let you keep the baby."

My heart seized in my chest.

"That’s right, Angel. Come out right now, kneel for Daddy like a good girl, and I won’t touch a single hair on that little parasite’s head. We’ll go home. Forget this whole thing happened. Start fresh." He paused. "Isn’t that what you want? To keep your baby?"

Tears poured down my face. Silent. Hot. Endless. My whole body was shaking so hard I thought the walls might rattle and give me away.

He was lying. He had to be lying. Damien didn’t make deals. He didn’t forgive. Damien only took what he wanted and burned everything else. That was who he was. That was all he’d ever been.

But what if—

No. No, that was exactly what he wanted me to think. Get me to come out and kneel. Then laugh in my face while he dragged me to that procedure room anyway.

I knew him. I knew him better than I wanted to.

He was lying.

"No?" A theatrical sigh seeped through the door, heavy with mock disappointment. "That’s disappointing, baby girl. Really disappointing. But alright. Your choice. Just remember—you had a chance to end this peacefully. Everything that happens now is on you."

His footsteps retreated and shock traveled through me. Could it be that he didn’t know I was in here?

"Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen." His voice grew distant. Fading. Moving away.

He was counting his own footsteps as well? That lunatic.

Go away. Please. Please just go away.

I could no longer hear his footsteps.

I let out a shaky breath. Waited. Counted to ten. Then twenty. Then thirty.

Silence.

Nothing.

No footsteps. No counting. Just the hum of the ventilation system and the thunder of my own heartbeat in my ears.

I counted to a full minute. Sixty agonizing seconds where I didn’t move, didn’t do anything except exist in perfect, terrified stillness.

Still nothing.

Maybe he went the wrong way and lost track of me? He was gone. He had to be gone. He’d moved on, checking other rooms, hunting me somewhere else in this maze. I just had to wait a little longer. Just had to stay hidden until—

Until what? Until he got bored?

Maybe I could find another way out. A window. A fire escape. Something he’d overlooked.

I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding. My hands fell from my mouth and my shoulders dropped just a fraction.

I was safe for now.

"ARE YOU THERE, LITTLE GIRL?"

I jolted so hard I nearly screamed, barely swallowing the sound back down my throat.

His voice was right there. Right outside. He’d never left. He’d been standing there the whole time, silent as death, waiting for me to relax.

"Let’s see, shall we?"

This was the last warning I got before the door exploded.

Wood splintered. The glass shelf exploded everywhere—on me, around me, cutting my arms and face and feet as I screamed and tried to shield myself from the destruction.

And through the chaos—Damien stepped inside.

He filled the doorway. My eyes moved from the blood on his knuckles from breaking through the wood. His shirt half-untucked, his chest heaving with exertion or excitement or both. His dark hair was falling carelessly.

And his face—

His face was split into a grin so wide it looked like it might crack him in half. Eyes bright. Blazing with something that made every part of me want to curl up in horror.

Joy.

Pure, unhinged joy.

He was having the time of his fucking life.

"Found you," he mouthed.????????????????