ADELINE'S POV
"I heard about what you asked Dante." Liam says as he walks into my room. Of course, Dante told him. I'm not mad that he told Liam. I'm just mad that he won't help me. I need this and I thought Dante would understand but apparently, he doesn't.
"You don't have to give me a speech Liam. Dante already did that." I say as I stare out the window of the room in the house that Dante built for me. Being close to him earlier, I felt a familiar sense of comfort. A feeling I thought I would never feel again. I don't blame him for what happened to me anymore. I've realized that it was easier for me to forgive him than I thought.
The truth is, I can blame Dante all I want but what happened to me was bound to happen whether or not I met Dante. Maybe if I never met Dante, I would have been stuck in erotica my entire life. Even if I had never met Dante, I had always told my parents that I was against an arranged marriage. They would have forced me anyways and I would have still gotten curious about the kind of man Adrian was.
As long as Adrian was in my life, something like this was bound to happen and I cannot choose the easy road and blame Dante for it any more. It was not his fault. This all happened because Adrian is a monster that my parents let so easily into my life.
My parents have not stopped bugging Liam about wanting to see me but I don't know if I will be able to contain the hatred I have for them in my heart when I see them. They have never cared about me so I don't understand why they are trying to be good parents now that something traumatic has happened to me. I don't need them.
Regarding to Dante, I just don't know how to act around him anymore. It's no secret to me that I still have strong feelings for him but I don't feel like myself. I'm not the girl he fell in love with and I feel like ever since he saved me from erotica, everyone is so hell bent on trying to fix me. I don't know if he is disgusted by me now. My body has been touched and violated and I feel dirty.
I love him so much but I'm just not the same Adeline anymore and I have a feeling that he doesn't see that and right now I need him to see the new me. I need him to see that erotica changed me and I am not the therapist he met that day.
"It's dangerous Addie. It's everything that we have been trying to save you from for weeks." Liam argues.
"I wasn't asking for anyone's permission Liam. If Dante will not help me, then I'll just find a way myself." I say stubbornly still looking out the window.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Liam raises his voice and I am startled as I turn around to face him. His fists are balled with his hands placed to his side in an angry stance. Confusion is etched onto my face as I look at him up and down. Liam has never once lashed out at me or raised his voice at me.
"Do you have any idea how scared I was that we would never find you again? Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? Do you have any idea how much I blamed myself? And now, after all those horrible things that were done to you, you just want to throw yourself back into that world and you expect me to stan aside and let you?"
Tears flow from Liam's eyes as he speaks. "You have been through hell Adeline. Things that I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy. Things that I cannot even imagine. Colton told me everything that happened to you. He explicitly explained to Dante and I everything that witch put you through. I cannot even imagine how you're feeling inside. Any other person would be losing their minds right now but you Adeline, you want to walk back right into it. It's not right!"
"Liam…" I say softly as I walk towards him. I grab his fingers and intertwine them with mine. He slowly raises his head up at me, letting me see the tears flowing from his eyes.
"If Colton told you everything that happened to me in there, then you must understand why I have to do this…"
"No Addie. I just can't. I don't want you to die. I can't lose you again." He cries even more.
"I'm not just going to go in blind Liam. That's why I went to Dante for help because I know this is something he has done his entire life. That's why I went and asked him to train me. You didn't see what I saw in there Liam. You did not experience what I did and no matter how much Colton or even me explains it to you, you'll never get it because you weren't there. I get that you're worried, I get that you care about me but this is my choice to make and I just need you and everyone else to accept it."
He looks at me in disbelief and with wide eyes. As if the Adeline he knew before had completely disappeared and he doesn't know who he is talking to in this moment.
"You really have changed." He says with realization. "You're stronger. I'm so proud of you Addie. I want you to know that." I smile at him as the memories of everything I have had to live through for the past few months come back to me.
"I almost gave up Liam." I say to him. "I had already given up actually. I started obeying Veronica. I started doing whatever she asked of me. All I wanted to do was survive. I didn't expect to be saved anymore. I was ready to leave erotica and start a new life with Arthur. But seeing Dante, and all those FBI agents that came to save us, it gave me hope. It made me want to fight and so I did."
I let go of him and walk back towards the window. I stare at the garden below and I smile as I remember a memory of me telling Dante about how I always wanted a room that looked out to a beautiful garden. The garden has my favorite flowers spread all over it. No one can even begin to imagine how thoughtful this was of him. How much I love and appreciate him.
"I'm not going to lie and say I am over everything that has happened to me. I can't sleep at night because the images are still there. Veronica's face staring down at me and calling me every degrading term that exists. Even during the day, I think about it. I think about the people I have killed. Erotica changed me Liam. All my experiences there did, but instead of being weak, I have decided to be strong, to wake up every day and have hope that everything will get better. That I will learn to live with it. But you know what I cannot live with Liam?"
He doesn't respond, he doesn't have to. It is a rhetorical question.
"I can't live with the knowledge that this kind of evil exists out there and not doing anything about it despite being aware of it. Despite living through it first-hand. It's too hard Dante. I have to do something, anything." I tell him.
He walks closer to me and stares out the window, looking down at the flowers with me.
"I just don't want anything bad to happen to you." He says.
"Nothing is going to happen. Because I am going to train like never before. I will not give anyone a chance to ever hurt me again." my voice comes out strong and confident. I don't care how long it takes but as long as I have strength, I will do everything I can to make sure little girls out there do not get taken away from their families.
As Liam and I stand in silence, staring out my window, I suddenly hear a knock on the door.
"Come in." I say turning around and coming face to face with Dante. Liam looks from me to him and then repeats the gesture. I simply nod at him to tell him it is okay and he walks out of the room, leaving me alone with the love of my life.