I don't understand what you are trying to achieve here."

We were currently in Antonio's room together. He had been insisting that we ate all of our meals together. But of course that had to be done in the bedroom because he had chained my ankle to the bedpost. Anyone would have thought it would be easier to simply untie me so we could eat in the dining room, but no. This was my 'punishment'. I was confined to his room until he could trust me again. I found it ridiculous how he was punishing me for trying to kill myself however I had already seen the lengths he would go to in order to hurt me if I pissed him off and didn't want any repeats. Therefore I complied.

"I am trying to regain your trust and show that I'm not as bad as you think I am."

I glared at him, finding his justification for this unexpected gentleness pathetic.

"Not as bad as I think....yeah right."

I let out a sarcastic laugh along with the comment. It aggravated him slightly as he soon fired back with his defense.

"Yes! I know that you think I'm some evil, deranged psych-"

I cut him off, to blinded by anger. He genuinely believed that I was in the wrong here!

"YOU FUCKING RAPED ME ANTONIO!"

I dropped my fork onto the plate with a loud clash, hard metal against the fine china.

He too put down his cutlery and stared intently at me before opening his mouth to give yet another meaningless apology.

"I'm sorr-"

"No Antonio! You don't get to apologize for this! I just don't understand you!"

His facial expression still remained blank, as if he was studying me intently.

"I have no one to talk to, your keeping me chained up in your bedroom like some fucking animal"

I shook my ankle to emphasize my point.

"I'm so lonely and you just keep popping up everywhere and expect everything to be ok!"

He let out a sigh. He still remained calm though, I was both surprised and glad that I had made it this far into a heated conversation without him lashing out at me. Usually by now I would be clutching my burning cheek who fell victim to a harsh slap, but there had been nothing yet.

"Then talk to me."

I stared back at Antonio in confusion, not understanding him.

"Talk to me. Look Alice, I swear that I won't hurt you. You can be honest and I won't punish you for it."

He kept encouraging me after seeing my hesitance. I was not worried that it was a trap because surely if that was the case, he would have seemed less sincere. I was scared that his angry side would take over no matter what his original intentions were.

"I......I don't know......what do I say.....Err"

Although I hated Antonio with all of my power, I didn't know what to say. I was all of a sudden simply lost for words as if my mind had gone blank.

"Ok, how about if I asked you questions?"

I slowly nodded. This would be weird, it was usually my job to do this. Asking the questions to figure out what was wrong with someone.

"What do you miss most?"

I told him that I missed my freedom, to be able to do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted to do it. I missed knowing what would happen next. Suddenly everything was so unpredictable and the situation could change within the hour now that I was here.

"Why did you try to kill yourself?"

I let out a bitter laugh, was he really that stupid that it was impossible for him to put together the basic information and facts.

"Because I'm not happy here! Come on, you can't really believe that this is enjoyable for me! You claim that you....you love me, but this isn't love Antonio. Your simply used to getting your own way and now that you can't have me your obsessed with the idea of love!"

He rolled his eyes, although it seemed more like an unintended reaction than a planned response. But he made no effort to defend himself.

"Will you ever love me?"

My previously lowered head shot up when I heard this, my eyes meeting with his. My brain danced around, searching for a truthful answer.

"I don't want to but I'm scared that I could."

It was true. I didn't want to fall in love with this man. He had hurt me and enjoyed doing it, only showing remorse now. But I had felt some sort of attraction to him from the start and was so terrified that it would turn into something more. I had my theories about Stockholm syndrome but whatever I felt seemed so much stronger than that.

"But Alice you said it yourself, who knows what would have happened if I hadn't have kidnapped you! I mea-"

Once again I interrupted his explanation, feeling the urge to draw him back into the real world and remind him if what had actually happened.

"But you did kidnap me Antonio! Then you hit me, then you raped me. There is no 'what if' about any of this. This isn't a relationship!"

He stood up and placed his hand on his head while starting to pace around the room. Yet still, he made no advance towards me that suggested he would hurt me.

"Alice, we could forget about all of what has happened. I will make you better, we can move back to your home so that you can return to your work again, we can have a normal relationship together!"

I snapped. How dare he try to talk me into forgetting about everything he had put me through!

"THIS CAN'T BE NORMAL! NORMAL PEOPLE DON'T KIDNAP OTHER PEOPLE ANTONIO!"

I screamed at his figure from across the room.

"You think I don't know that?"

He let out a frustrated breathe and came towards the bed. The sudden movement in my direction appeared threatening to me so I couldn't help but flinch. Though he just sat next to me and clasped his hands around mine.

"I'm sorry Alice! I swear if I'd have expected to feel how I feel about you now, then I would have done everything so much different back when we broke in to save Alex."

I looked away, not wanting to remember that if I hadn't have rushed to the scene as quick as I had then I would still have my freedom.

"I would have taken you with us. I know that's selfish, but no matter how much I try I will never be able to change that part of me! But I swear to God that I would have made you fall in love with me from day one. No abuse, no pain. Because now I have finally realized that you deserve so much more than what you've gotten out of life Alice. You have been through so much, too much. Please let me try to make you happy again. Before me and your fucking ex. Just give me a chance and I swear that all your pain will go away."

He grabbed my head, trapping it in place gently with his warm hands. He leant forward so our foreheads pressed together as he murmured a final plea.

"I'm scared."

He leaned in closer, so that he could inhale the scent of my hair. I did the same to him.

"I know."

I pulled my face away from his and looked at him, directly in his eyes.

"I don't want to feel this way anymore."

He placed his hands on my shoulders, never breaking our eye contact.

"Let me help you. I'm not asking for your forgiveness, I'm not worthy of it. But just give me a chance to fix this. I can't let you go Alice."

I looked away from his gaze, glancing out of the window instead. I pulled at my lip between my teeth while I wracked my brain in a desperate attempt to figure out what it was that I wanted to do.

"Ok."

The words seemed to escape my mouth without my minds permission but I was incapable of denying the feeling of warmth that filled me when Antonio pulled me into his chest and wrapped his arms around me in a loving motion.

Antonio had removed the chain from my ankle. I told him that I couldn't even begin to feel happier if he kept me locked up like this and almost immediately he complied and removed it.

After that, I was informed that he was taking me out for dinner. It was around lunch time now so I had all day to get ready. Although he had employed another team to get me ready because apparently I deserved to have the best treatment offered and he wouldn't have me looking like less than royalty while on our date.

I scanned over myself in the mirror, more then pleased with how I looked. My makeup was not too bold or dramatic and my hair was also rather simple and tasteful. The dress had won me over the most though. It was not particularly bold but that's why I liked it. I appreciated that Antonio had chosen a dress which would cover my tattoo and that it was not tight or low cut. There was a one shoulder strap that pulled over the tattoo. Normally the clothing that he chose for me were more sexy and showed off my assets but this one was modest.

I had already thanked the team for their incredible work on me and now was just patiently waiting for Antonio to pick me up and take me where ever it was that we were going tonight.

I heard the familiar clicking which alerted me to the fact that Antonio had returned to the room and turned to face him. We each smiled at one and other before glancing at our outfits. Antonio was wearing a dark suit and white tie which matched my own dress.

"You look beautiful."

I smiled and muttered a quick word of thanks in return to his unprompted compliment.

He guided me out of the bedroom and into the car that was sat waiting outside of the house. Once we were inside there was an awkward silence between the two of us which Antonio took as an opportunity to explain where we were going this evening.

"I wanted to take you out for dinner so we could talk more. I understand that so far you haven't trusted me, which I understand, but tonight I want to learn more about you and you to learn more about me."

That made sense and I could cope with dinner. It was a good place to start.

"But the only rule I have is that we can't talk about our situation. Let's take the whole kidnapping topic off the table. I want to know what you like to do, your favorite things not argue. Is that fair?"

I nodded at him. I actually thought that it would be a nice change to talk about something normal. I hadn't had a real conversation with anyone in months and needed to feel like my old self again. Truth be told, I was looking forward to having such casual talk with Antonio in exchange to the usual things we spoke (or argued) about. Whatever nervous knot my stomach had tied itself into earlier was now long gone. I felt calm and almost safe with Antonio, no matter how stupid and bizarre that sounded.

I was actually looking forward to this evening.