Falling With Grace

I slipped off the mattress and placed the top of the dress at my neck, letting it hang down to my knees, my arm pressing it to my body.

This is for a woman of a higher class…

Sighing, I put the dress back on the bed right where he’d left it, grabbed my robe tossed over the hook on the closet door, and stepped out into the hall.

I paused, my bare feet chilling against the marble.

Where are the guards?

My eyes scanned the hall as I moved toward the banister and looked down into the foyer.

They’re gone.

My shoulders sagged, and a lightness left my chest.

He removed the guards.

A smile bled over my face, and I sucked in my bottom lip, stopping it from spreading any further as I disappeared into the bathroom.

My stomach fluttered, my heart a gentle thud in my chest.

I stared at myself in the mirror, analyzing every healed knick, bruise, and scrape.

My testimony of escape no longer spread across my face. I was a normal girl going into town with a not-so-normal man.

But, the last time I’d been outside of these walls…

My pulse thundered in my ears.

Jorge’s face flashed in my eyes as he collapsed to the ground—Sarah’s blank stare, death in the church.

I clutched my aching chest as I leaned against the counter, gulping in breaths.

It isn’t safe out there.

How can he protect me?

What if he can’t?

My vision narrowed as my chaotic breaths caused my head to spin. I sunk down.

I’m okay.

I’m safe here.

“You’re being ridiculous, Grace. You’ve been through worse.”

Elias will keep me safe.

I balanced on my toes, and my knees bent as I clung to the edge of the bathroom counter, the pain in my chest subsiding. “I can do this.” I stood.

Inhale.

One, two, three.

My lungs expanded tight against my chest, filling to the brim.

Exhale.