Chapter 15: What He Knew
Theo shut the door behind him and let out a long, low sound that was not quite a sigh, nor it was quite a groan.
He had expected relief. Instead he felt his wound along a thread that threatened to snap.
A soft knock came from the other side of the door. He opened it just enough to see Danielle standing there, brushing her other arm.
"Can I come in?" she asked.
He held the door wider and stepped aside. "Five minutes," Theo replied.
She stepped in and closed the door behind her like someone closing a small, fragile room. For a beat they simply looked at each other. She seemed to be trying to find the words. He had no desire to make it easy for her.
"Thank you for staying," she said at last, quiet and direct. "I—I didn't think… I was glad."
Theo did not smile. He set the duffel on the chair and kept his voice professional. "You should learn how to defend yourself."
Danielle blinked, clearly taken aback. "I will," she was surprised at her own quickness. "I'll work on it. Thank you for staying, really. It helped."
He watched her nose wrinkle a little bit. Danielle looked earnest, and so vulnerable.
At some point, maybe even dangerous only because she could hurt herself. The bodyguard took a step closer, growing his tone colder and more dominant.
"You should be thankful I stayed because… the report…if it had made it to your father, God knows what he would have done," he said. "You think he's cruel now? You don't know the half of it."
Danielle swallowed. Her mouth went dry. She tried to find the right word and then stuttered. "I—I was afraid the report would reach him. I was scared of what he might do."
"And you thought," Theo said, looking at her eyes like he read them, "that ending your life over the smallest thing was the answer?" He did not raise his voice, but his words struck hard. "You need to stop using death as an answer to pain. You need to learn to stand against what you hate and fight for what you want."
She bristled. "You don't get to tell me how to feel." Her voice trembled at the end. "You don't know what it's like."
He waited. He did not speak immediately. Theodor let the silence build until it felt like water between them.
Finally, she asked bluntly, "What do you know about cruelty, Theo? What do you know about being broken?"
He looked away for a moment, jaw working. Then, to her surprise, he lifted his shirt.
Danielle blinked once, twice... For a second it looked like she might be against it, but curiosity and some deeper human need kept her quiet.
His chest and ribs were marked.
The princess saw pale lines and darker shadows crossed his skin in places that showed old wounds. A long, thin scar ran along his side; other smaller marks dotted his torso.
Theo's muscles were hard and tested, but the skin told another story…one of pain that had been kept and healed and carried.
"You want to know?" Theo asked her slowly.
She nodded with her words caught in her throat.
Theo's voice came carefully and low, like a river that had run far. "My older brother… Ethan." He spat the name like a bad taste. "He wasn't kind. He learned to be cruel because he thought it made him strong. He used me for practice." He let out a sound that might have been a laugh once, but it had no humor in it. "He taught me how much a person could take. He made sure I remembered the lesson."
Danielle's eyes widened. "He-he tortured you?"
Theo nodded once. "In ways you don't want to picture. I slept outside for two nights straight when I was twelve because he kicked me out in the middle of winter. I went without food when I was fourteen for days because he wanted to prove something. A gang picked a fight with me on a corner once. They beat me until I thought I'd stop breathing. I learned to get up."
He let the memory sit between them. He did not beg for sympathy, nor was Theo looking for any praise. He only stated the facts as if telling the weather.
"You lived," Danielle hushed.
"I lived," he repeated. "I'm still here."
She reached out, as if to touch one of the scars, then stopped. Her hand hovered awkwardly. "Why tell me this?" she raised her brow.
Theo pulled the shirt down and let it fall. "Because you asked what I knew about cruelty." He put his voice to more human that was not weak, just honest. "And because I have zero patience for men who think hurting women is a game. That kind of weak man thinks his power comes from breaking someone. He's wrong. Real strength is standing when everything tells you to fall."
Danielle looked at him, and for the first time in a long while, there was no crazy annoyance in her eyes.
"You're not like him," she muttered quietly.
"No," Theo whisperer. "I'm not."
She swallowed. "I'll learn to fight. I'll stop letting things break me." Her voice was small, but it had a hard edge now. "I'll try."
"Good," he said. "Start with small things. Don't wait until everything collapses to put up a wall."
She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, the bracelet on her wrist flashws. "Thank you," she hushed again, but this time more quieter. "For staying. Even if you're a coward."
He let a very small smile touch his mouth. "Call it what you want." Then his face went serious again. "And stop treating life like candy melting in your hand. You get one. Protect it."
Danielle looked down at the bracelet. She thought of the bridge, of the pills, of the silence of the night. She thought of the way Theo had stood between her and Jackson like a hard line.
She said nothing for a moment and then, with a voice that was barely a sound, "I don't want to die."
Theo watched her eyes. He believed her because her eyes said it was true. He let out a breath that could have been relief.
"You won't. Not while I'm here."
"And about the report…Theo, please…don't say anything to my father."
Theo rolled his eyes at her, "you think I don't know this is exactly the reason why you wanted me to stay?"