Chap­ter Fifty-One of the book presents a dis­turb­ing turn of events for Mil­lie, who finds her­self locked in a room by her boyfriend, Andrew. The chap­ter starts with Mil­lie real­iz­ing she is locked in after Andrew left the room. Ini­tial­ly, she thinks it might have been an unin­ten­tion­al mis­take, pos­si­bly made in a half-asleep state. Her sit­u­a­tion becomes alarm­ing when she dis­cov­ers she can­not find her phone to call for help, rais­ing the stakes of her predica­ment.

As Mil­lie tries to ratio­nal­ize Andrew’s actions, she spots three par­tic­u­lar­ly unset­tling text­books on the floor, which she does not remem­ber plac­ing there, deal­ing with top­ics such as U.S. pris­ons and tor­ture. This dis­cov­ery, cou­pled with the miss­ing phone, sig­nif­i­cant­ly height­ens the ten­sion and con­fu­sion sur­round­ing her cir­cum­stances.

When Andrew final­ly com­mu­ni­cates with Mil­lie, the nar­ra­tive takes a dark­er twist. He reveals a manip­u­la­tive and con­trol­ling side, accus­ing Mil­lie of dis­re­spect­ing his belong­ings and impos­ing a bizarre and humil­i­at­ing pun­ish­ment: to bal­ance the text­books on her stom­ach for three hours. His behav­ior is com­plete­ly out of char­ac­ter from the Andrew Mil­lie thought she knew, sug­gest­ing a sin­is­ter change in his demeanor or reveal­ing his true nature.

The sit­u­a­tion esca­lates when Mil­lie refus­es to com­ply with Andrew’s demands, lead­ing to a tense stand­off marked by Andrew’s cold insis­tence on con­trol and Millie’s grow­ing des­per­a­tion and fear. The rev­e­la­tion that Andrew has been watch­ing her through a hid­den cam­era fur­ther ampli­fies the sense of vio­la­tion and betray­al, turn­ing the chap­ter into a chill­ing nar­ra­tive of manip­u­la­tion, sur­veil­lance, and the unrav­el­ing of trust with­in a seem­ing­ly lov­ing rela­tion­ship.

Andrew’s final promise to let Mil­lie out, after a ter­ri­fy­ing dis­play of con­trol, leaves the chap­ter on an ambigu­ous note, blend­ing relief with the lin­ger­ing dread of what his actions sig­ni­fy for their rela­tion­ship and Millie’s safe­ty. This chap­ter deft­ly mix­es ele­ments of psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller and hor­ror, cre­at­ing an intense­ly unset­tling atmos­phere that chal­lenges per­cep­tions of inti­ma­cy and trust.

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

CHAPTER
51
We slammed into freez­ing mud right out­side the lit­tle stone house.
I think he’d meant to win­now us into it, but his pow­ers had giv­en out.
Across the yard, I spied Cassian—and Mor—at the win­dow of the house,
eat­ing break­fast. Their eyes went wide, and then they were rush­ing for the
door.
“Feyre,” Rhys groaned, bare arms buck­ling as he tried to rise.
I left him lying in the mud and stormed toward the house.
The door flung open, and Cass­ian and Mor were sprint­ing for us,
scan­ning every inch of our bod­ies. Cass­ian real­ized I was in one piece and
hur­tled for Rhys, who was strug­gling to rise, mud cov­er­ing his bare skin,
but Mor—Mor saw my face.
I went up to her, cold and hol­low. “I want you to take me some­where far
away,” I said. “Right now.” I need­ed to get away—needed to think, to have
space and qui­et and calm.
Mor looked between us, bit­ing her lip.
“Please,” I said, and my voice broke on the word.
Behind me, Rhys moaned my name again.
Mor scanned my face once more, and gripped my hand.
We van­ished into wind and night.
Bright­ness assault­ed me, and I gob­bled up my sur­round­ings: moun­tains
and snow all around, fresh and gleam­ing in the mid­day light, so clean
against the dirt on me.
We were high up on the peaks, and about a hun­dred yards away, a log
cab­in stood tucked between two upper fangs of the moun­tains, shield­ing it
from the wind. The house was dark—there was noth­ing around it for as far
as I could see.
“The house is ward­ed, so no one can win­now in. No one can get beyond
this point, actu­al­ly, with­out our family’s per­mis­sion.” Mor stepped ahead,
snow crunch­ing under her boots. With­out the wind, the day was mild
enough to remind me that spring had dawned in the world, though I’d bet it
would be freez­ing once the sun van­ished. I trailed after her, some­thing
zing­ing against my skin. “You’re—allowed in,” Mor said.
“Because I’m his mate?”
She kept wad­ing through the knee-high snow. “Did you guess, or did he
tell you?”
“The Suriel told me. After I went to hunt it for infor­ma­tion on how to
heal him.”
She swore. “Is he—is he all right?”
“He’ll live,” I said. She didn’t ask any oth­er ques­tions. And I wasn’t
feel­ing gen­er­ous enough to sup­ply fur­ther infor­ma­tion. We reached the door
to the cab­in, which she unlocked with a wave of her hand.
A main, wood-pan­eled room con­sist­ing of a kitchen to the right, a liv­ing
area with a leather sofa cov­ered in furs to the left; a small hall in the back
that led to two bed­rooms and a shared bathing room, and noth­ing else.
“We got sent up here for ‘reflec­tion’ when we were younger,” Mor said.
“Rhys used to smug­gle in books and booze for me.”
I cringed at the sound of his name. “It’s per­fect,” I said tight­ly. Mor
waved a hand, and a fire sprang to life in the hearth, heat flood­ing the room.
Food land­ed on the coun­ters of the kitchen, and some­thing in the pipes
groaned. “No need for fire­wood,” she said. “It’ll burn until you leave.” She
lift­ed a brow as if to ask when that would be.
I looked away. “Please don’t tell him where I am.”
“He’ll try to find you.”
“Tell him I don’t want to be found. Not for a while.”
Mor bit her lip. “It’s not my busi­ness—”
“Then don’t say any­thing.”
She did, any­way. “He want­ed to tell you. And it killed him not to. But …
I’ve nev­er seen him so hap­py as he is when he’s with you. And I don’t think
that has any­thing to do with you being his mate.”

You are being pro­vid­ed with a book chap­ter by chap­ter. I will request you to read the book for me after each chap­ter. After read­ing the chap­ter, 1. short­en the chap­ter to no less than 300 words and no more than 400 words. 2. Do not change the name, address, or any impor­tant nouns in the chap­ter. 3. Do not trans­late the orig­i­nal lan­guage. 4. Keep the same style as the orig­i­nal chap­ter, keep it con­sis­tent through­out the chap­ter. Your reply must com­ply with all four require­ments, or it’s invalid.
I will pro­vide the chap­ter now.

W HEN HARR Y READ THE NOTE Max had sent me, he was stunned
silent. At first, I thought I had hurt his feel­ings by show­ing it to him.
But then I real­ized he was think­ing.
We had tak­en Con­nor to a play­ground in Cold­wa­ter Canyon in
Bev­er­ly Hills. Our flight back to New York left in a few hours. Con­nor
was play­ing on the swings as Har­ry and I watched her.
“Noth­ing would change between us,” he said. “If we divorced.”
“But, Har­ry . . .”
“John is gone. Celia is gone. There is no need to hide behind dou­ble
dates. Noth­ing would change.”
“We would change,” I said, watch­ing Con­nor pump her legs hard­er,
swing high­er.
Har­ry was watch­ing her through his sun­glass­es, smil­ing at her. He
waved to her. “Good job, hon­ey,” he called out. “Remem­ber to keep
your hands tight on the chains if you’re gonna go that high.”
He had start­ed to con­trol his drink­ing a bit. He had learned to pick
and choose his moments of indul­gence. And he nev­er let any­thing get
in the way of his work or his daugh­ter. But I still wor­ried about what
he’d do if left too much to his own devices.
He turned to me. “We wouldn’t change, Ev. I promise you that. I
would live in my house, just like now. You’d live in yours. I’d come by
every day. Con­nor would sleep at my place the nights she want­ed. If
any­thing, appear­ances-wise, it might make more sense. Pret­ty soon
peo­ple are going to start ask­ing why we own two dif­fer­ent hous­es.”
“Har­ry—”
“You do what you want. If you don’t want to be with Max, don’t be.
I’m just say­ing that there are some fair­ly good rea­sons for us to get
divorced. And not many cons, except that I won’t call you my wife
any­more, which I’ve always been so proud to do. But we will still be as
we’ve always been. A fam­i­ly. And . . . I think it would be good for you to
fall in love with some­one. You deserve to be loved that way.”
“So do you.”
Har­ry smiled sor­row­ful­ly. “I had my love. And he’s gone. But for
you, I think it’s time. Maybe it will be Max, maybe it won’t. But maybe
it should be some­body.”
“I don’t like the idea of divorc­ing you,” I said. “No mat­ter how
mean­ing­less it might actu­al­ly be.”
“Dad, watch,” Con­nor said as she flung her legs into the air, swung
high, and then leaped, land­ing on her feet. She near­ly gave me a heart
attack.
Har­ry laughed. “Out­stand­ing!” he said to her, and then he turned to
me. “Sor­ry. I might have taught her that.”
“I fig­ured.”
Con­nor got back onto the swing, and Har­ry leaned toward me and
put his arm around my shoul­ders. “I know you don’t like the idea of
divorc­ing me,” he said. “But I think you do like the idea of mar­ry­ing
Max. Oth­er­wise, I don’t think you would have both­ered to show me
that note.”
  *  *  *  
“ARE YOU REALLY seri­ous about this?” I asked.
Max and I were back in New York, at his apart­ment. It had been
three weeks since he had told me he loved me.
“I am very seri­ous,” Max said. “What is the say­ing? As seri­ous as
can­cer?”
“A heart attack.”
“Fine. I am as seri­ous as a heart attack.”
“We bare­ly know each oth­er,” I said.
“We have known each oth­er since 1960, ma belle. You sim­ply do not
real­ize how much time has passed. That’s more than twen­ty years.”
I was in my mid­for­ties. Max was a few years old­er. With a daugh­ter
and a fake hus­band, I thought falling in love again was out of the
ques­tion for me. I wasn’t sure how it would ever hap­pen.
And here was a man, a hand­some man, a man I did rather like, a
man I shared a his­to­ry with, who was say­ing he loved me.
“So you’re sug­gest­ing I leave Har­ry? Just like that? Because of what
we think might be between us?”
Max frowned at me. “I am not as stu­pid as you think I am,” he said.
“I don’t think you’re stu­pid at all.”
“Har­ry is a homo­sex­u­al,” he said.
I felt my body pull back, as far away from him as pos­si­ble. “I have
no idea what you’re talk­ing about,” I said.
Max laughed. “That line didn’t work when we were get­ting burg­ers,
and it won’t work now.”
“Max . . .”
“Do you enjoy spend­ing time with me?”
“Of course I do.”
“And do you not agree that we under­stand each oth­er, cre­ative­ly
speak­ing?”
“Of course.”
“Have I not direct­ed you in three of the most impor­tant films of
your career?”
“You have.”
“And do you think that is an acci­dent?”
I thought about it. “No,” I said. “It’s not.”
“No, it isn’t,” he said. “It’s because I see you. It is because I ache for
you. It is because, from the very moment I set my eyes on you, my
body was full of desire for you. It is because I have been falling in love
with you for decades. The cam­era sees you as I see you. And when
that hap­pens, you soar.”
“You’re a tal­ent­ed direc­tor.”
“Yes, of course, I am,” he said. “But only because you inspire me.
You, my Eve­lyn Hugo, are the tal­ent that pow­ers every movie you are
in. You are my muse. And I am your con­duc­tor. I am the per­son who
brings out your great­est work.”
I breathed in deeply, con­sid­er­ing what he was say­ing. “You’re
right,” I said. “You are absolute­ly right.”
“I can’t think of any­thing more erot­ic than that,” he said. “Than
being each other’s inspi­ra­tion.” He leaned in close to me. I could feel

They loved her as instinc­tive­ly as kit­tens love the light and warmth. And now, with a min­gled sen­sa­tion of bash­ful­ness and ten­der­ness,
I saw their moth­er draw them back and heard her whis­per, “Stand off, chil­dren; the lady don’t like to have you hang­ing about her so.”

But the lady rebuked her with her usu­al sweet, play­ful smile. “Let them alone, Mrs. Har­grave,” said she, “I like chil­dren, and if they
like me, I should be sor­ry to tell them they must not come near me. How is your cough now?”

And while she spoke, she pre­sent­ed the bas­ket to the invalid, explain­ing its con­tents, and stat­ing that she must not now stay to exam­ine them, as Mr. Hunt­ing­don was await­ing her return, but would come anoth­er day and see how they had suit­ed her. “You are very kind, ma’am,” said the grate­ful woman, striv­ing to raise her­self up to thank her bene­fac­tress, but sink­ing back on her pil­low from the attempt, worn and exhaust­ed by the effort. “You are too good to us, and to every­body; God bless you!”

Then Mrs. Hunt­ing­don passed on, and as she crossed the park, she encoun­tered Lawrence. There was an exchange of greet­ings, a few words on the win­ter weath­er, and the prospects of the poor dur­ing this inclement sea­son; and then she passed for­ward, and as she grad­u­al­ly dis­ap­peared from view, my gaze fol­lowed her in silence till she was lost in the shades of dis­tance, and I could see her no more.

With a heart now divid­ed between new­ly ignit­ed hope and vehe­ment anguish, I pon­dered on what I had seen and heard. Was it too late to dream of hap­pi­ness? Could it be that she still har­boured thoughts of me, refus­ing oth­ers for the mem­o­ry of what we had shared? My resolve was made: I would seek her out, reveal my pres­ence, and implore one moment of her attention—to hear her speak, to behold her once again was now the lim­it of my high­est ambi­tion. The long­ings of my heart surged against the pru­dent dic­tates of my mind, cries of pas­sion drown­ing the whis­pers of cau­tion.