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The room was eerily calm.
“Hi,” I muttered, sitting on the couch across from my mother. The red upholstery scratched at my skin as I sunk into it.
My parents glanced up from their tasks but said nothing.
The silence ate at me. This must be their new form of punishment—letting me simmer in my anxiety.
“I heard about the shenanigans your father walked into,” my mother said, checking off something on her paper. The felt pen made a whooshing sound that stabbed at my ears as she dramatically flicked it across the page.
“Myfatherneeds to realize I’m an adult,” I said, twisting my fingers.
My mother threw her paper onto the coffee table in between us. My father rose from his chair, leaning on the other side of his desk.
Great. This was the trap I’d walked directly into.
“I wouldn’t say there’s anythingadultabout your reckless behavior recently.” My mother crossed her legs, the red soles of her shoes showing. “In fact, all of it seems very…dangerous.”
“Oh, please.” I rolled my eyes. “I was sleeping with a man, not getting high on cocaine.”
“And how are we supposed to know he isn’t some cocaine dealer?” my mother shrieked. “He assaulted your father.”
I turned to my dad, my jaw dropping open. “Heassaultedyou,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes. All Kai had done was protect me. “Sorry to inform you,Mother, but he didn’t assault Dad in any way, shape, or form.”
My father went to debate, but I stood on my feet. I wasn’t going to back down on this. “My loving father here tried to slap me after insinuating the bruises on my neck were something I asked for. Because that’s what we do in this family. That’s what’s expected, huh? Allow men, men that are supposed to love us, to put their hands on us.”
My mother stood to her feet, fire in her eyes. “Your father is a good man who would do no such a thing if you didn’t deserve it. You’re the one letting random men touch you. Do you even know the man you took up to the hotel room? What will your husband think?”
“Myhusband?”I rolled my eyes. “My husband, that doesn’t exist. I don’t know. Next time I see him, I’ll be sure to ask him.”
“Audry Grace Santora, knock the attitude off right now.”
“Or what, mother?” I spat back, stepping forward. “Are you going to hit me or is that Dad’s job? Oh, or maybe threaten to take the hotel away from me even though I don’t want it?”
My mother’s lips rolled into a tight line, her face turned red, and her dark eyes were a mirror to hell. I hadn’t toed a line of disobedience. I had outright crossed it. All my life, I did small, insignificant little jabs to test my parents’ control. I skirted the line between a devoted daughter and someone they wished to ship off to boarding school. But not anymore.
I was tired of living my life by their book. I wanted more from it. I’d fought for my second chance, and I wouldn’t waste it.
“We want to know you’re safe,” my father said, his knuckles turning white as he tightly held the wood of his desk.
“Safe?” I snorted. “Sure, safe. If that is another term for trying to control every detail of my life. I am twenty-seven fucking years old.”
“Then start acting like it!” my mother yelled. “Eventually, you are going to have to settle down. Your sordid past with men will come to a crashing halt, and youwillhave to wake up.”
“This isn’t the eighteen hundreds. I don’t need to ‘settle’down.”
“Of course you do!” my mother shouted. “Once you meet a man and knock your wild child antics off, you’ll see.”
“Kai isn’twild childantics.”
“Kai?” She lifted a brow. “So you’re telling me the street urchin your father found you with is the type of man you want for a husband?”
My cheeks flushed. I hadn’t thought that far ahead in my life, let alone in my relationship with Kai. We were still getting our bearings, trying to figure out where this was going. Hell, most of our ‘dates’ were us with our clothes off.
“I, uh?—”
“See! This is what we mean,” she screeched.
I licked my lips, my patience wearing thin. This was the final straw. I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and held my chin up. I’ve survived worse than this.
