Chapter 10 - The Confession
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The West Loop safe house was a windowless, underground bunker beneath a legitimate shipping warehouse. It was cold and Spartan, but secure. I managed to restitch his torn wounds and stabilize his fluid levels. By midnight, the chaos had finally settled into an exhausted silence.
Vincent was lying on a plain cot, staring at the concrete ceiling. I was sitting on a metal stool beside him, icing the bruised skin on my neck where he had grabbed me in the car.
“I could have killed you,” he said softly, the guilt heavy in his voice.
“You didn't,” I replied, lowering the ice pack. “You let go.”
He turned his head to look at me. “Why aren't you afraid of me, Nora? You’ve seen me kill men today. You’ve seen me lose my mind. You know what I am.”
I looked down at my hands. “When I was eighteen, I was in a terrible car accident. I was trapped in the wreckage for three hours. The paramedics who pulled me out... they were so focused on my weight, making crude jokes about how hard I was to lift, they didn't realize I was completely conscious. They treated me like a burden, not a human being.”
I looked up, meeting his intense gaze. “I know what it feels like to be trapped. I know what it feels like to be reduced to the worst thing that has ever happened to you. I swore I would never look at a patient and see a monster, or a burden. I just see you, Vincent.”
Vincent reached out. His hand trembled slightly, not from physical weakness, but from the immense psychological weight of the gesture. He didn't grab my wrist this time. He gently brushed his knuckles against the bruise on my neck.
I didn't flinch. I leaned into his touch.
“Elena locked the door,” Vincent whispered, his voice cracking with a vulnerability no one else had ever heard. “I smelled the smoke. I begged her to open it. She just stood on the other side of the glass and watched me burn. She smiled, Nora. She smiled.”
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“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, tears blurring my vision.
“I swore I would never let anyone close enough to hurt me again,” he said, his thumb gently tracing my jawline. “But you are the only fire I want to step into.”
