He Didn’t Kidnap Me. Not Exactly novel Chapter 213

Chapter 213

(Daisy’s POV)

The syringe.

My eyes remained fixed on it as Aria held it between two fingers with the same casual ease she’d displayed while holding the gun. It wasn’t particularly large. Under any other circumstances, it would’ve looked ordinary. Now, however, it looked terrifying.

The tears continued slipping down my cheeks, but something inside me had already begun to change. The heartbreak was still there. The grief remained lodged inside my chest, and the betrayal still felt like shattered glass buried beneath my ribs. Yet another emotion was quietly forcing its way through all of it.

Survival.

I couldn’t afford to keep crying. Not here. Not now.

Drawing a slow, uneven breath, I wiped my face with the back of my hand and forced myself to think. My eyes instinctively swept across the apartment, searching for anything that might give me a chance.

My phone was still lying on the couch. Impossible.

The gun? Also impossible.

Trying to overpower Aria? Even more impossible.

My gaze drifted toward the front door instead, and a single possibility presented itself. One route. One chance. If I could just get outside

“Daisy.”

Aria’s voice slipped gently into my thoughts, interrupting them before they could fully take shape.

“I can practically hear you thinking.”

I looked back at her.

She was still smiling, still standing there with a pistol in one hand and a syringe in the other, looking more like a friend teasing me than someone preparing to abduct me. Somehow, that made the entire situation feel even more unreal.

“I should’ve known.”

The words escaped before I realized I was speaking.

One of her eyebrows lifted.

“Hm?”

…

“I should’ve known something was wrong.”

Keeping my voice steadier than I felt, I took another careful step backward.

“No one has ever just… appeared in my life.”

My mind replayed memory after memory.

“The way we met. The way you wanted to become friends almost immediately. The way you always seemed to appear exactly when you needed to.”

I shook my head slowly.

“It feels so obvious now.”

Aria listened without interrupting me. When I finished, she simply gave a small shrug.

“I had to do what I had to do.”

There wasn’t a trace of shame in her voice. If anything, she sounded practical.

“You had all the signs,” she said, her smile widening ever so slightly. “You simply chose not to use them.”

I continued inching backward, making each movement as subtle as I could.

“I don’t think that’s true.”

“Oh?”

“No.”

I met her eyes.

“Having a good heart isn’t the mistake.”

The certainty in my own voice surprised me.

“The mistake belongs to the people who decide to abuse it.”

For the first time since revealing herself, Aria became genuinely quiet.

Then, unexpectedly, she nodded.

“You know what?”

A soft laugh escaped her.

“I actually agree with that.”

She tilted her head slightly.

“It’s a beautiful way of looking at the world.”

Her gaze drifted downward toward my feet.

“And don’t think I haven’t noticed.”

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify