AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He tries once more to get closer, but my father stops him.
“I wasn’t kidding, asshole. Touch my daughter again, and I’ll kill you.”
This time, Dad doesn’t wait for him to make up his mind but pushes him out of the apartment and closes the door.
Then he opens his arms for me. “Forgive me,” he says.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
“Yes, it was. Right at the beginning, when you came to tell me that the marriage wasn’t going well, I should have listened to you, but I was stuck on the fact that you were very young and maybe weren’t used to a shared life. I had no idea he was abusive, kid.”
“This was the first time he physically attacked me if that’s what you’re talking about. But there are other forms of abuse than physical abuse. He was drying me out, Dad, sucking my energy. Our marriage was a mistake.”
“What do you mean by that?”
I think about what happened on our wedding night when he finally revealed himself. I didn’t spend the morning resting in the arms of the man with whom I had hoped to have a family but crying alone in the next room.
“Nothing. It doesn’t matter anymore,” I say because I don’t have theheart to tell my father about it. My therapist and Bia are the only people who know.
“Okay, but at least tell me what led him to assault you today.”
“What makes a man attack a woman? Cowardice, knowing that she’s someone with less physical strength? Because he sees her as an object that he can treat as he pleases? I think it’s a combination of all that, but mostly the lack of respect, Dad. We haven’t been okay since the first day of marriage. He played a character until he was sure we were bound by the law.”
“And now, what are you going to do?”
“I’m going to ask Bia tomorrow, not a second later, to contact a divorce lawyer.”
“You can also go to a police station. He should pay for what he did to you.”
“I know, but we can’t afford to have my name in the headlines. With that contract I told you about, I’ll be able to pay off the mortgage on your house in full and give Mom more comfort, too. But if my name comes up in a scandal, they might terminate it.”
“And will you travel a little less, too? You always seem to be going back and forth, honey.”
“I don’t know. In this new contract, they will have exclusivity over me.”
“All right, darling. The last thing you need today is pressure. I just want you to know that I love you, Zoe. We both love you very much, and bringing you into our family was the best thing we ever did.”
He’s crying, and it makes me finally fall apart.
“Me too, Dad. I’m not good with words and even less with showing feelings, but I love you two so much.”
“We need to put ice on your face. How did that bastard have the courage?”
“It’s over, Dad. That’s what matters. I was already determined to put an end to it, and there were even some rumors about it in the press. That’s why I don’t want to go to the police station. I’m going to ask Bia to hire a lawyer. When she finds out what Mike did, I’m sure she’ll be able to keep him away from me.”
“You’re very strong, Zoe. Anyone who sees you from the outside as beautiful and delicate is wrong. You are made of steel, child.”
“Not yet, but I’m learning.”
Christos
CHAPTER TWENTY
“What the hellare you talking about, Yuri?”
“To be honest, I didn’t quite understand, Christos. All I know is that her agent, Bia Ramos, asked for as few people as possible at the meeting. And that it also happens in a discreet place.”
“That part I’ve already heard; what I’m asking is ‘why’.”
