AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But for the most part, I’m completely separated from my body. I’m floating, drifting, severing myself from any situation where Pasha can hurt me in ways he has no right to.
He never said he loves me.
He never promised me anything.
I have no right to feel so heartbroken.
I have no right to feel so afraid.
Maybe that’s what the slammed door really means: he’s just reminding me I have no right to anything in his world.
I don’t know what time it is. Truth be told, I didn’t even notice the windows in the room grow dark.
It’s Sofi shaking me by the arm that snaps me back to reality. That pulls me from that shut-it-all-out coma I learned to self-induce years ago.
“Daph? Daphne!” Sofi shakes my arm with one hand and cups my face with the other, turning me to look at her. “What’s wrong? Who hurt you?”
I try to say his name. I try to say anything at all.
All that comes out, though, is a choking sob. And then another. And another.
Sofi wraps me up in her arms. “Seriously, Daph, you’re freaking me out. What happened? Is anyone hurt?”
“P-P-Pash… Pasha…” I hiccup between sobs. It’s difficult to breathe; my lungs feel too tight.
Holy shit, am I having a panic attack? I haven’t had one of these in years.
Sofi makes me look her in the eyes; her own are wide with worry. “Tell me everything.”
So I do.
It takes a lot of hiccupping and sobbing and her guidance to breathe through it, but I manage to choke out everything that happened. My struggle with the Tweedles and how Pasha just outed my pregnancy without my consent and probably cost me my job. How he takes and takes and takes and never recognizes that his attempts to give only rob me of my freedom, my power of choice, my independence as a person.
But the worst part—instead of talking about it, instead of discussing our difficulties, he just shut me out.
And according to the clock on Sofi’s phone resting on the coffee table, he’s been shutting me out for several hours.
“I can’t… I can’t…” I try to take a deep breath so I can force the words out. “I can handle a lot of things, Sofi. I really can. You’ve seen it.”
“Yeah, I have.” She offers me a small smile and rubs my arm. “You’re one tough cookie, that’s for sure.”
“I want to be. But I can’t handle the cold shoulder. The silent treatment. My… my parents pulled that. My whole life. Sometimes, they’d just shut me in my room and lock the door so they wouldn’t have to deal with me. It never mattered how much I cried and banged on the door for someone to just… just…” I hiccup again, but take another deep breath to steady myself. I’ve got this. I’m not going to fall apart. “Even Conrad. He pulled this shit all the time. God, I’d rather scream it out than face a silent, closed door.”
Sofi pulls me into a hug. She doesn’t ask for details, doesn’t press me to let anything else out.
But she holds me. Rubs my back. Waits for me to finish crying it out into her shoulder.
When I’ve finally drained myself of tears, she eases me back and wipes them away with her thumbs. “Look at you,” she whispers. “You absolute queen. No one can make you feel less than who and what you are, not even my idiot brother. Never give anyone that power. Okay?”
I’m not exactly sure what she means, but it still feels inspiring. So I nod. “Okay.”
“Perfect.” She takes my hand in hers and pulls us both to our feet. “Come with me.”
I don’t know if she realizes she’s a lot like her brother in so many ways—mainly in how she doesn’t actually give me an option to decline with the way her iron grip tugs me through the penthouse…
To his office door.
“Oh, no. No, no, no?—”
