Chapter Forty-Two
The tension between Stefan and me had been building for days, the silence between us as suffocating as the coldness that hung in the air. Every time I tried to break through, to question him, to demand an explanation for everything he was doing, he shut me down. His words were always calm, measured, but they never revealed anything that could ease the confusion gnawing at me. He had no interest in answering my questions—not the ones that mattered, at least.
I had been living in his world for what felt like an eternity now, each day blending into the next. The mansion, the lavish dinners, the bodyguards following me wherever I went—everything had become a constant reminder of my captivity. There was no escaping it. Not unless Stefan allowed it.
Today, the air between us was particularly thick. I could feel it in the way he moved through the house, his presence hovering like a storm just waiting to break. I could see it in the way he watched me with those dark, calcula
