He grabs my arm tightly, dragging me toward a nearby door. One that leads into an office.
I try to escape, but he’s stronger than me, and when the door closes behind us, he shoves me backward. I stumble, knowing what’s coming. Knowing that it may take a few days to recover from this.
But this will be the last time he touches me.
I meet his angry stare, his body vibrating with it.
“You insulted me. Shamed me in front of everyone.”
I say nothing as he steps toward me, his fist raised.
When the strike comes, I feel it—the whip of my neck, the blood in my mouth—but when it’s done, I just meet his gaze with nothing more than cool hatred.
“I’ve signed it all away. The lawyer already processed the paperwork. You have nothing on me anymore.”
His nostrils flare, his teeth grinding.
“You would give it all up for another man?” he spits.
I’ve never been more sure of anything in my entire life.
“Yes. And if you try to interfere with my life after this, I will make sure every dark and dirty secret you’ve hidden from the public comes to light. I swear it.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“You’ve underestimated me, Tata. I would. It’s already been set up. The truth is just a phone call away. You’ll give Emily what you’ve promised her, and you’ll stay the fuck away from me from now on. It’s over.”
His hand moves up to hit me once more, but I dodge it, picking up a hardback book from the desk behind me and slamming it into his face. He’s knocked sideways, giving me time to rush from the room, appearing in the crowd, my mouth bleeding, my eye slightly bruised.
They see it all.
What he’s done to me in the quiet confines of this house.
If only they knew what I’d suffered through the years.
He comes roaring out, but I am prepared for this. For his retaliation.
I turn toward him as a burst of light flickers around the room. The two photographers I hired to document all of this appear in the crowd.
No one else would dare go against him, and this is obvious from the lack of phones recording this. He won’t tarnish his image in front of the cameras. If this were made public, it would be a terrible thing for his ego.
My father stops his forward momentum, and I turn toward him, wiping the blood from my lip with my thumb. Something like a weighthas been lifted from my chest, and for the first time in my life, my lungs fill all the way.
“Sunt liber sa fac ce vreau,” I tell him, seeing his eyes flare at my declaration, and then, without a backward glance, I stride out of the house, away from my past and toward my future.
I leave it all behind.
The only thing I managed to do was transfer the little money I’d invested into an account to cover my last semester of college.
Everything else I’ll have to figure out day by day. But I have no regrets. None. Not on the long flight back to California, not on the bus ride to campus.
I still have the apartment until May at least, the rent having been paid in advance.
I set down the small box of things that I had shipped from my parents’ house and look around the space.
It’s empty without him here.
I need to find him.
