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“You could say that.” She swallowed. “Somewhere along the way, he took over my life. Every aspect of it. I quit school because he thought I should. I got a job, but my pay went into his bank account. He said he could take care of all the boring stuff, leaving me free to pursue my interest. But I had no time to pursue my interests because he wanted me with him all the time. He read my messages, listened to my phone calls. I lost my friends because they couldn’t stand him and couldn’t stand what I became around him. And all the while, he would gaslight me constantly, putting me down so eventually, I lost all my confidence. He was jealous as all get out, and would follow me home from work.”
Across from her, Leandro was very still, his face a mask of something she couldn’t understand.
“Was he violent with you?” When he was feeling things deeply, his accent became more pronounced.
She shook her head. “Never.”
“There are other kinds of abuse, though.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“So what happened?”
She glanced at him again. What was that expression? In for a penny, in for a pound…
“Things between us weren’t working. I was miserable. He knew it. We were barely a couple in the end. I think he knew I was going to end it, that I was building up the courage to walk away, even though I had absolutely nothing in the way of money or confidence. I knew that I was dying a little bit, every day, just staying with him.”
He expelled a long breath. “So you left?”
“Before I could leave, I got pregnant,” she said quietly. “And though I have never been able to prove it, I’m sure he messed around with my birth control or something. I think he wanted to trap me, to keep me with him forever.”
“Pregnant,” he said quietly.
She nodded. “But no way would I stay with him. I recognized that his behaviour was bad. It was awful enough to know that I’d lived with that myself, but there was no way I was going to let a child be treated like that by him or to see me being treated like that. So I left.”
“And now?”
“I see him once a month, when he comes to pick up our daughter.” She shuddered.
“Daughter? Wait a second. You had the baby?”
She glanced back at him. “Oh, sorry. I guess that wasn’t clear. Yeah, I had the baby.”
“You’re a mother?”
She lifted one brow. “What? You seem shocked.”
“I’m surprised,” he admitted.
“Why? Am I not giving off maternal vibes?” She replied, with a lift of one brow.
He held up one hand in a gesture of apology. “I only meant that you’re young.”
“Yeah. I would never have planned to fall pregnant at twenty two,” she said. “But here we are. So, I live with my parents while I pay off the hospital bills from Harper’s birth and try to save a bit of a nest egg to restart my life and take care of her future. My parents have been really generous, and I couldn’t hold down a job like this without them, because they mind her every night, while I’m at work.”
He let out a low whistle. “I had no idea.”
“Why would you?”
“It just seems like an important thing to know about the person you’re sleeping with.”
“But we’re only sleeping together for the next week or so,” she reminded him. “And we agreed not to do the whole life story thing.”
“Yet you did.”
“You’re easy to talk to,” she admitted. “I didn’t plan on coming here and spilling the tea.”
“I’m glad you did… spill the tea,” he repeated a little confusedly.
