Chapter 35 No Going Back

• The silence in the apartment was suffocating. Every breath Noah took seemed to echo in the stillness, each one a reminder of how trapped he was. There was no escaping it now. No more running, no more pretending that he had any control over his life, over Elias.
• Elias’s words from earlier that night still rang in Noah’s ears. You’re mine, Noah. There’s no going back now.
• Noah had tried to fight it. He had tried to deny it, to hold on to the fragments of his independence, his freedom. But the truth was clear now. Elias had already broken him down, piece by piece, and there was nothing left to fight for. He was in too deep.