When we emerged from the facility not long later, stepping out onto the foliage under the bright midday sun, I couldn't help but notice that Olivia was still keeping quite a distance from me.

She didn't say a word as we walked back through the forest in the direction of our car, keeping her head turned to the ground, crease worrying between her brows as she seemed lost in a deep thought.

After endless moments of only the crunching of the twigs beneath our feet and the wind rustling the leaves overhead breaking our silence, I caved and finally asked her, "Are you okay?"

Her head whipped up, a distant look in her emerald gaze as she muttered, "I'm fine."

"You don't seem fine," I responded, pointing out the obvious.

She opened and closed her mouth several times before finally uttering, "Your father came up with some of those..."

I heaved an inward sigh as the explanation for her silence was finally in the open. The horrors of the facility and the truth of what I come from is haunting her...

My past and my family... this Ollie dislikes it.

"He's better than my uncle... If you would believe it," I muttered, shrinking into myself as I started to feel the hope that Olivia would ever understand me again fade into the distance.

Nonetheless, I couldn't help but plead, "I'm not like them."

She came to a stop, eyes unreadable as they searched my face.

When I finally turned around, meeting her gaze, she then said, "I know. You're not your parents, Lukas."

But her tone lacked conviction. Something was off... and maybe it was that she didn't want to hurt me with the truth of how she now feared me.

Though, after a few moments of my silence, she went on. "You escaped this life. You didn't deserve the treatment they gave you, but you learned from the horrors they inflicted. I'm proud of the person you became." This time, I could hear the genuity in her voice.

My heart softened at her words as I realised that her silence all this time must have been because she felt sorry for me, not because she was scared of me.

Unable to stop myself, I took a small step closer to her, reaching a hand up to her face as I breathed, "Thank you, Ollie."

Though just before my fingers could brush against her cheek, she flinched away, taking a sizeable backwards step. "I want to get back to Ben," she then forcibly said, avoiding my eyes.

At once, my heart faltered, threatening to tear the muscle walls.

And as she continued to look everywhere but me, a nervous gleam to her eyes and a constant glance over my shoulder at the path that would take us away from here... that tear grew wider and wider, letting the self-doubt come pouring in.

Something was different with her.

Something was wrong.

And it was probably that she realised, after all she saw, whatever feelings she had for me would never be worth putting up with someone who comes from a family of people who can create what she saw in the facility.

· · ───── ∘ ☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

She fidgeted in the seat beside me the whole way back to Stephen's house... Almost as if being alone with me made her skin crawl.

Another fissure broke open in my heart.

And the second the car came to a stop in Stephen's driveway, she couldn't leap out of the vehicle fast enough.

Seat immediately unbuckling, the door burst open as she hurried away from me and up to the entrance.

I had barely taken the key out of the ignition when she started rapping on the door like her life depended on it.

Ben answered as I locked the car. He frantically took Ollie in for the brief second she allowed before she threw herself at him. Arms wrapping around his waist, she buried her head into his chest, clinging to him like he was her lifeline.

Thousands of seams yanked at my fragile heart, and I could feel all the hope bleeding out in vicious gushes.

She was so close to me before.

So set on liking me back.

Prepared to leave Ben for me...

But all because of who my family is... what they are capable of... she realised Ben was the better option.

Though I couldn't be surprised that this was the fate we came to. A part of me always feared even my Ollie would reach this point once she really knew what she was getting into. I suppose this is better after I had a year of letting her go to Ben...

"Olivia?" Ben asked as he failed to pry her away from him. "What's wrong?"

"I missed you," she breathed, holding onto him even more tightly.

Jaw clenched and eyes burning, I moved up the steps behind them. Ben tentatively wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, moving her out of my way as his wary eyes glanced between me and her.

But I tried to ignore them.

Quickly walking through the doorway, I barged into the living room, avoiding Stephen's concerned gaze over me as I slumped into the couch.

"I missed you too," I heard Ben say back. Then he asked, "What happened?"

I tried to keep my attention on my phone, but it was hard to not hear her then whisper to him, "We can move out when we get back. Just you and me. If that makes you feel better, I will do it. Just please don't be mad at me any longer."

My eyes closed as the final blow of the decision she had come to hit me at full force.

There's no point ever confessing to her.

When we get back... I will go.

I will break the bond.

Ollie and I are forever over.

"Thank you for saying that," Ben said back. "But... we can talk about this more later. I'm sorry that I upset you, Olivia. I don't mean to. I'm just so scared I'm going to lose you that any small bump sets me on edge."

Says the guy who told me he'd give her up to me... I see your plan, Ben. Tell me one thing then say another to her...

"I know," Ollie said back. "I think I keep forgetting that."

I tried to tune into the kettle boiling in the kitchen. The ticking clock nearby. Even the gentle creaks of the house. But nothing was as loud as the smacking of their lips in that moment.

"Did something happen?" Ben then whispered when the kissing noises seemed to subside.

"Nothing happened," she said, a little too insistently... Like she wasn't even sure her self. Or she just had to make him believe that.

"Then why... Why are you behaving like this?"

"Behaving like what? I just don't want to fight with you anymore. I love you."

Those three words being uttered to him in the same day she said it to me... Nothing could have prepared me for this agony.

I wanted to run.

I wanted to hide somewhere and heave out this pain.

But if I did, I'd be sure to attract attention. And then Ollie would be in danger.

"I love you too," Ben hesitantly said back. But next I knew, his voice was louder, directed my way. "Did something happen to her?"

Glancing up, I met Ben's burning blue eyes across the room. A mixture of anger and concern swirled in his gaze. Like he knew he had to be mad at someone about her current state, but he wasn't sure if I was to blame yet or...

"We went in and she was fine," I explained as calmly as I could, hoping only I could hear the slight waver in my voice.

Don't cry, Lukas.

Don't cry.

Not yet...

"We came out and she just had to see her precious Ben." I shrugged and looked away from him, before his reaction could slice me. Before I would risk glancing at her again for confirmation of her feelings to her boyfriend. "Who knows," I muttered. "You should be happy."

At least one of us should be happy here... I don't get why you're mad, Ben.

Ollie's voice was next to break the awkward silence as she breathed, "Nothing happened." She was desperate to reassure him, so evidently nothing I had said was believable to him. "I just realised I was being stupid and that I needed to make it up to you."

But again, Ben's voice was louder and closer as he spat in my direction, "Did you do something to her again?"

Head lifting in shock at the accusation, I flicked off my phone screen and set it down on the coffee table. Eyes going over Ben in shock at his sudden rage, I hissed back through gritted teeth, "I didn't do anything to her."

I should have though.

I should have told her then and there... when I had her. Told her about us.

Or wiped her memory of the facility even... Gotten her back to how close we had almost been...

But I'm too late again.

I'm always too late.

"Then how come she's suddenly clinging to me and barely looking at you?" Ben snapped as though Olivia wasn't even in the room.

Eyes widening in shock at his statement that left no room for confusion as to what he was alluding to, I froze for a moment. And Stephen, who was in the midst of loading the snacks and drinks onto the tray in the kitchen, also paused, eyes flickering between us.

"Are you seriously complaining that your girlfriend is finally all yours again?" I asked back in disbelief.

"Boys!" Stephen interrupted as he walked into the living room with the refreshments. "No more fighting in my house. That's enough."

I lowered my head to my lap, picking up my phone again to avoid engaging with Ben.

Because if I continued to look at them.

If we continued to talk to each other.

We were bound to say things we'd really regret. And considering we did not know who was listening... our bitter bites and worried words would simply have to wait for safer times.