Ben cleaned my wrists and wrapped them in gauze.

He pulled me into the living room. I sat on the couch. I grabbed the quilt from behind the couch and wrapped it around myself. I only wore the shirt that Ben gave me to sleep. Ben grabbed one of the bags from the kitchen counter. He sat across from me and took something out of his bag. I saw him holding a black sweater in his hand.

"I stopped at a thrift store in town and bought some clothes," he said. "I've found something you should like."

He took the sweater out and flipped it over so I could see the back. The number sixteen is embroidered on the back.

Sixteen is a strange number that Ben is obsessed with. He asked for it at noon

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of the room. There were sixteen of them in every hotel we stayed at in Khattar. I raised an eyebrow. A smile was on his face.

"You like it?"

"Sixteen?" I asked.

"yes, isn't that your number?" Favorite

Ben smiled at the confusion on my face.

"Is this my favorite number?" I asked.

"Yes, it's the number on your jersey," he said.

The confusion on my face was swept away, and my heart fell to my stomach.

The last time I wore the jersey was in training. It seems like a long time ago. I took it off and tucked it into my backpack and put on my sweater. After that, I put on my headphones and walked home.

Ben couldn't have known it was my shirt number. We didn't see each other until after my surgery. I was wearing a hospital gown.

I put my hands on my chest and exhaled with a trembling breath.

"You kidnapped me," I said. "Oliver told me that he kidnapped his patient's man. He never told me it was you. ”

"If I don't do that, we'll never be together," he said.

I jumped off the couch. I walked away from him, my knees shaking. I was surprised that Ben was still sitting on the couch. I thought he was going to try to hold me and calm me down.

"You're the reason I lost my eyes." I say. "That's why I lost my family."

"I'm your family, Diana," he said. "I love you."

I want to scream that I hate him. I bit my lip to keep myself from screaming out the words that I regretted. I can't allow myself to lose my temper. Ben will get the gun out in a matter of seconds.

"What are you crying about?" He asked.

I pulled a hand from under the blanket and wiped the tears from my cheeks. Ben leans forward and rests his elbows on his knees.

"Why are you doing that?" I asked. "It's all your fault."

"Diana, don't talk about it. "Baobei's voice was calm, with a threatening tone. "Come here."

He held out his hand and motioned for me to come over. My feet were on the icy floor. Ben shook his head.

"Dee, listen to me, lest I do something that I regret it," he said.

I knew what he meant, I didn't want a bullet to go into my skull. I forced my feet off the floor. I only staggered a few steps towards Ben before he stood up. He took me in his arms and made me sit on his lap. My fingers curled up in the quilt that wrapped around me. I was startled when one of his warm hands touched my bare skin. He giggled and kissed me.

"I messed up," he said. His face was so close to me that I could feel his warm breath spraying on my face. "I know I screwed up. My life was a mess long before I killed Gabi. ”

Ben's hand slipped off my thigh. He wrapped the quilt around me tighter. My fist was still clenched in the blanket. When I listened to him babble about how he had become a victim in life.

"I was one of Bethany's earliest subjects," he said. "Well, her first experiment went well. She is increasingly afraid that the police will be able to find her through the tracing of the missing person case. She had already claimed that I had died in a car accident, so I was the most suitable person. When Oliver began his experiments, she volunteered for me to join him. ”

"How many people have you kidnapped?" I asked.

He shrugged. His laid-back tone made my stomach cramp.

"I'm not sure," he said. "I think you're Oliver's twelveth. I don't quite remember Bethany's twelve. ”

"Why are you taking me?" I asked. "Why did you choose me?"

"I am on a tour of several universities and colleges in and around Primorsky Province. I was probably there for a week or two," he said. "One time I was in the stands watching you girls practice. I've noticed that you always stay later than everyone else. ”

"So that's why you decided to bring me here?"

"Do you remember the night Oliver plugged in your feeding tube?"

The shift in subject matter made me frown.

"Not exactly," I said. That night, because Oliver had given me a sedative, I had to come to my door in bits and pieces. All I remember is Ben crawling into bed with my half-unconscious body.

"I always thought my life was going to be limited to Bethany, Oliver and their failed experiments," he said. "Then I saw you. Everything changed when I saw you. You are so beautiful that I feel love. ”

"You could have talked to me," I said. "That's what people usually do."

Ben smiled. He bent down and pressed his cheek against the top of my head. His skin was warm and the patches on his shirt were soaking wet.

"It's hard to believe you'd want to get close to me, especially after these experiments," he said. "I regret it very much. I'm scared you're going to die, like all of Oliver's previous experiments. But you survived. That's why I know you and I should be together. That's when I knew something beautiful was finally happening. will come to this world to find me. ”

"Where's Alec?" I asked.

Ben's body stiffened. I haven't mentioned this girl's name since the Caribbean. Ben had made me believe that it was something that Candace had made up in order to incite the drama. This is one of the many stupid things that I believe.

"I kidnapped Alexis," he said. "I didn't know anything about her at first. She's just a girl who often stays up late at the library. She's fine, but she can't handle that. ”

"So she then killed herself?" I asked.

"Not exactly. I lied to her and gave her the wrong medicine. I deliberately made this look like suicide. I knew she wanted to die. She always told me that she would rather die than live like this. "Ben would hand me the pills every morning and I took them without asking. He may have poisoned both of us without my knowledge.

I let my finger go from my fist and let it fall to the side. It hit Ben in the abdomen, and he screamed in pain. I sat up straight and slid off Ben's lap. He clasped his hands to his side.

"There's a pharmacy in town," he said. His face was still contorted with pain. "They had what we needed, rob it."

"We?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "I was going to keep you at home so you wouldn't get hurt, but I know now that you're going to hurt yourself even more here."

He lifted his chin and pointed at my bandaged wrist. I hugged them to my chest and nodded.

At least he got me back in town again.