Chapter 191

Rosalie's POV As I heard the basement door close, every muscle in my body went rigid, my chains rattling against the concrete floor. Even before I saw his face, I knew it was Hugo. The familiar footsteps—my body had been programmed like a lab rat to recognize the signals of his arrival, trained through pain to anticipate what was coming. My name is Rosalie, though sometimes when he looks at me, I know he's seeing someone else. Someone named Sylvia. The bruises covering my body pulsed with fresh agony as I shifted, each one a reminder of my failed escape attempts. Two months in this basement - or had it been three? Time had become meaningless in the darkness, marked only by his visits. When Hugo first found me, I had been injured and alone. I don't remember how I got those wounds or where the hell I came from. My memory was - still is - a blank slate with occasional flashes that disappear before I can make sense of them. He told me he saved me, that I was lucky he happened to be there.