As the car stopped inside the mansion grounds, something inside me broke.
The gates closed behind us with a heavy metallic sound—
clang—
like the final nail sealing a coffin.
I started crying.
Not silently. Not gracefully.
I cried the way someone cries when they realize there is no escape left.
“I can’t do this,” I sobbed, my chest aching. “I can’t stay here… I can’t escape from this place—this life—karl, I can’t.”
My hands trembled as I reached for the door handle. Panic took over logic.
“I’m not going in that mansion again,” I screamed through tears. “Never! Do you hear me? Never!”
I pulled the handle.
Before the door could even move an inch—
He grabbed my hands.
Tightly.
Too tightly.
I gasped and turned toward him.
Karl was still sitting beside me, unmoving—but his eyes…
They weren’t cold anymore.
They were red.
Not from anger alone—but from something far more dangerous. The angle of the dim car light caught them just right, making them look almost feral. Possessive. Wild.
“Kavira,” he said, his voice rough now, strained, like he was holding something back. “Don’t.”
“Let me go!” I cried, trying to pull free. “I don’t want this life! I don’t want you! I don’t want that house!”
The driver looked straight ahead, frozen. No one dared intervene.
Karl tightened his grip just enough to stop me—not to hurt me, but to make it clear I wasn’t getting out.
“You’re not thinking,” he said, jaw clenched. “You walk out there like this, crying, alone—do you know what happens to women like you?”
“I don’t care!” I shouted. “I’d rather die than live like a prisoner!”
The words hit him hard.
For a second… his grip faltered.
His eyes searched my face—tears, fear, desperation—and something cracked.
“I won’t let anything happen to you,” he said, voice low, almost broken. “Not outside. Not inside. Not anywhere.”
“You’re the one I’m scared of!” I screamed back.
Silence fell between us.
Karl released one of my hands and lifted it slowly, hesitating—then stopped himself, clenching his fist instead. He turned his face away, breathing heavily.
“I don’t know how to love without protecting,” he said quietly. “And I don’t know how to protect without control.”
My sobs softened, confusion mixing with fear.
He looked back at me then, eyes dark, intense—but no longer burning.
“I will not drag you inside,” he said. “But you are not leaving this car either.”
My heart sank.
“So what now?” I whispered.
Karl opened the door on his side and stepped out, towering beside the car. He leaned back in slightly, his voice firm but steady.
“Now,” he said, “you calm down.”
He extended his hand—not forcing, not grabbing.
“And then,” he added, “you walk inside with me. Not because I own you.”
His eyes locked onto mine.
“But because this world is far crueler than I will ever be to you.”
I stared at his hand, shaking, torn between fear and the terrifying truth that—
Whether I liked it or not…
This man was the only shield I had left.
And the mansion waited.
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