The Black Rose의 모든 챕터: 챕터 81 - 챕터 90

ELLIE The silence stretched between us, heavy and suffocating. Noir stood there in the doorway, his eye took in everything, his lips parted as though he intended to say something but then decided against it. A low sigh left him. "I came to check on you," he finally said, his voice flat and emotionless. The usual warmth that usually flooded his tone when he spoke to me was completely absent, replaced by something cold and distant. I held my breath for some reason, partially unsure of how to react to his presence. His gaze moved slowly between Lorenzo and me, lingering on the protective way Lorenzo still crouched beside me, on my damp hair and the towel wrapped around my body, on the general state of intimacy that couldn't be hidden or explained away. Lorenzo didn't react. He remained perfectly still, his posture relaxed despite the tension crackling through the bathroom. If Noir's cold assessment bothered him at all, he didn't show it. He simply looked back at the other man with

NOIRI remember what a mess I was over a decade ago. The memory crawls under my skin like broken glass, sharp and unforgiving, reminding me of the monster I used to be—the one I still am when I let the leash slip.After I'd ripped free of my mother, after I'd finally broken the chains she'd wrapped around my throat since childhood, I was nothing but raw, bleeding rage. Anger lived in my bones, pulsed through my veins like poison, and I let it spill out into the world because I couldn't control it. Didn't know how to control it.She'd raised me to be docile. Submissive. A perfect little child who smiled when she told me to smile, who stayed quiet when she needed the silence, who performed for her clients like a trained dog. All to make her happy. All to make her more money.She said I had to be as docile as I was beautiful. Her beautiful child... Perhaps that was why my appearance was the first thing I destroyed after I killed her. I had so much anger trapped inside me, fermenting a

ELLIEThe waiting was the worst part.Noir had been gone for three days—three impossibly long days where every minute stretched into an eternity and every sound made my heart jump into my throat. I'd barely slept, couldn't eat more than a few bites at a time, and spent most of my time staring out windows like I could somehow will him to appear if I looked hard enough.Lorenzo tried to keep me occupied. Distracted. He'd pull me into his office, into his bed, into conversations about nothing important. But even his presence couldn't quiet the anxiety gnawing at my insides.We hadn't heard a word from him, nothing and due to my mindset, I feared the worst. I always did. Silas avoided me almost entirely. Whatever had been bothering him before Noir left had only intensified, and now he could barely look at me without his expression tightening into something cold and suspicious.When Noir finally walked through the door on the third evening, I nearly collapsed with relief.He looked terri

The silence that descended after my revelation felt suffocating, pressing down on my chest until I couldn't draw a full breath. It wrapped around my throat like invisible hands, squeezing tighter with each passing second as three pairs of eyes remained fixed on me with expressions I couldn't bear to decipher.The memories clawed at me with renewed ferocity—my father's cold stare, the way he'd look through me rather than at me, the nights I'd hidden in my closet while angry voices echoed through our house. The fear that had lived in my bones from the moment I was old enough to understand that my father wasn't like other fathers.I couldn't stay here. Couldn't sit on this couch while they looked at me like I was some puzzle they needed to solve, some weapon they could potentially wield.Without a word, I stood. My legs trembled beneath me, threatening to give out, but I forced them to move. One step. Then another. The silence followed me like a shadow as I crossed the living room, no on

The wind whipped against my face, stinging my cheeks and making my eyes water behind the helmet's visor. My arms tightened around Silas's waist as he leaned into a turn, the motorcycle tilting at an angle that made my stomach drop and my heart leap into my throat.But underneath the fear was something else. Something that felt suspiciously like freedom.The city lights blurred past us in streaks of gold and red, the world reduced to motion and speed and the roar of the engine beneath us. I couldn't think about Lorenzo or Noir or Elijah when every ounce of my attention was focused on holding on, on breathing, on trusting that Silas knew what he was doing.After what felt like both seconds and hours, he slowed, pulling into a parking lot that was mostly empty except for a beat-up food truck with Christmas lights strung haphazardly around its edges. The sign read "Mario's Burgers" in faded red letters, and the smell that hit me when Silas cut the engine made my mouth water instantly.Gri