My breath stopped, voice caught in my throat. I tried to grasp onto the memory that played in my head of the little boy, his face melting into Seth's. "Why?" my voice squeaked. My eyes desperately searched his for answers, but it just sent him into another fit of laughter.

"That's right, Kara! And do you remember my name?"

I shook my head, "I don't. I didn't recognize you then, but your face. It had scars all over it as if you had been... as if you had been in a serious accident." I was putting it together. "I'd seen you everywhere since then. That face always in the background." My mind scanned images on me participating in camps or going on trips, he was always there. Far enough that I wouldn't care but close enough that I would notice. His face was always there.

He threw his head back in delight, blond strands of hair flowing over his face, "Yes, Kara! That's it! Good girl. Now say my name!"

"Seth..." I protested, tears beginning to spill from my eyes.

"No! My real name, Kara!" He growled. He was going to make me say it.

"Braden," I sobbed, "You're Braden. You're the son of the man who kidnapped me. You're Roman's son."

He looked at me with confusion. "You said his name." I couldn't acknowledge him in any way. The tears were flowing from my face so freely that I couldn't even see him clearly, "You've refused to say his name for years. What was your reason again?" He was toying with me, playing with me, he wanted to use it to hurt me, "That's right, you didn't want to give him that power. His own name. You tried to strip that from him too."

"That's not it." I didn't recognize my own voice. It sounded more like a guttural grown than anything human. It startled myself and Seth enough that he got off of me.

He stood his ground, standing over me. He was studying me. Finally, his face softened. "Yes, Roman is my father. He deserves to be in prison, but not for what he did to you, but what he did to me."

What he did to him? "What did he do to you?" He smiled, satisfied with himself. "How are you his son?"

His eyebrow rose, "How? Interesting, isn't it, how no one in a small town can seem to tell the truth. How I didn't die in the car crash as everyone had said, hoped. I was the one who survived long enough to make it to the ICU, not my mother," His eyes dropped, remembering her. That's who's hair he was stroking when he went into that trance the other night, not a girl he loved, but his mother. He was with her when she died, when his brother died. He looked back up at me, "I barely survived, Will and my mother were fortunate enough to be killed instantly. I, however, ended up with hideous scars on my face, unrecognizable. My father came to pick me up, but once he's seen what an ugly monster I had become, he decided he didn't want me. He left me in the hospital, abandoning me. I thought he'd come back for me. Take me home. I thought he left something in the car, but he never came back. No, he wanted William or my mother, but not me.

"I also wanted any of the other two to survive over me. I sure as hell didn't want to live anymore. I was as good as dead. A new orphan. No one in the orphanage wanted such a hideous boy, so I left. That was when I wandered the streets, finding whatever shelter and food I could. I just so happened to stumble upon you, Kara. On the day you were so called 'saved'," he spit the words out at me, "He didn't want me, his own son. he could have taken me from the hospital and taken me home. He could have had one of his children back, but he didn't want me. He wanted you." He looked at me, the same hate in his eyes that I saw then.

"I'm so sorry, Braden, I..." I didn't get to finish, he was on me in an instant. He slapped me across the face, splitting open my lip. I tasted the blood as I looked to face him again.

"You don't get to call me that. My own father didn't want me, and yet you ran from him? You abused his kindness as you abuse mine!" His eyes were as crazy as his father's. I didn't know how I hadn't seen it before.

I couldn't help myself, "I ran because he took me from my family! Wouldn't you give anything to see your family again?" he raised his hand to hit me again. I closed my eyes to wait for the blow, but it never came.

He sighed. "You left, and then you moved away. My father went to prison, and your family abducted you to another state. I bet you don't even remember, do you?"

I ran through my head, trying to find the image of moving trucks and packing boxes from my childhood, but nothing. He was right though, there was a change in houses, in neighbors, in friends. We had left our old house behind. Why didn't my parents tell me we moved, or why? I looked at him again, the smile growing as I nodded.

"That's right, Kara. You moved. You changed your name. Your parents were hiding you from something, but they didn't know what. Now you do," He chuckled under his breath, "The irony of the whole thing is that you don't remember where you moved from, do you. Only where your new house is?" I couldn't answer but I nodded. He let out another, wicked laugh, "You're old house, is mere blocks from here. Very close to where I grew up."

My eyes grew wide as I realized what he was telling me. I glanced around the room. It was familiar, but it was a basement. Weren't all basements the same? The two high windows, the small space in the corner, even the mattress was in the same spot. "No," Another tear dropped from my check down to my stomach, "Please don't say it."

"Ha! Yes! It is true, Kara. I was honestly surprised you didn't recognize this place sooner!"

I shook my head, "It can't be true."

"Better believe it, babe. This is where I grew up. This is where you were kept for those two weeks of your life and where I've kept you almost three weeks on top of that."

I shook my head again, words failing me. That's why he hadn't shown me the rest of the house, thinking I'd piece it together sooner. I always thought it was weird how he pushed me through to the bathroom. He wanted the big reveal.

He suddenly got close to my face again, holding my arms tightly to my sides. "You see, Kara, I've been following you ever since I saw you walk out of this house the first time. I followed you, being a few years older gave me the advantage. Planning my revenge on you, the one whom everyone loved, while I was forced to the shadows. I eventually made enough money to afford a surgery to fix the worst scars, but it left some on the sides of my face, the ones you noticed a few days ago. Once I was pretty, people also wanted to be around me, but their chances had gone and passed. Once you had declared where you were going to college and that it was only a few miles from your childhood house, I couldn't pass up the perfect situation. I bought this house and started to set it up for you. Of course, I needed to try it out on a few other girls to make sure it was satisfactory, but none lasted all that long. I needed you. You were always so perfect. No matter how hard I wanted to hate you, I couldn't after watching you grow up, the opposite affect having a hold on me instead." He desperately searched my eyes for something, anything, but I couldn't grasp this information.

I shook my head yet again, "Seth," I pleaded, "I'm sorry this happened. I didn't know. I was lied to. I would have done something to help but I... I was lied to. I'm sorry. I didn't know the truth. None of us but your father did." I wasn't lying or faking to please him, I really would have done something if I'd known. I truly thought he had died.

He pushed me further against the wall, the textures burning into my already raw back. "I don't want your pity," he growled, "I wanted to prove a point, but now all I want is you, and you're not going to get out of it this time." Before I knew what was happening, his lips were on mine. He kissed me, hungry to have me for himself. His eyes closed as his arms traveled up and down my body. One of his hands traveled up towards my chest, reaching for my breast.

On instinct, I tightly shut my eyes and pushed him off of me. I gasped at what I had done. Knowing that he was going to demand punishment for this. But when I looked down at him, hands behind him to hold him up, I didn't see anger. What I saw instead was defeat. I had rejected him as his father had, refusing to love him. I felt a slight twang in my heart, wanting to feel bad for him, but refusing to give any part of my heart to a man who has done so much wrong to me.

He looked up at me, meeting my eyes. As he did the look on his face faded, replaced by his all too familiar smile. "You're going to see, Kara. You're going to see that this was all meant to happen. Soon. And you're going to pay for that. Refusing my kindness yet again." He studied me for another second before he said, "I think I'm going to have to start to bind you. I promised you this on the first night, and yet you still disobey me. You're going to have to learn sooner or later that you do, in fact, belong to me." He stood slowly, casting a shadow over his face, the only thing I could see was his smile. "I have to make a new plan, since Liam Hogan has gotten so much in my way. I'll be back tonight. No dinner for you, Kara." He slowly walked away, stairs creaking as he made his way up the steps, the green door locking in place behind him.

I let out a sob, trying to wrap my head around what Seth, Braden, whoever had just told me. There was no way it could all be true, yet I remembered bits and pieces, and there's no way he would know those details of my life if he hadn't been there. I sat in silence, alone with my thoughts as the seconds continued to tick by. Tick, tick. My chances of escape slowly drifting further and further away.