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A white lie never wears well.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Dad turn his head to look away. I probably disgusted him and that made me so sad inside, but I couldn't tell him it was Kova's baby. I never would.
"You’re barely eighteen and you had a miscarriage."
"It wasn't his," I said low, my voice cracking. I'd rather him think I’d been with more than one person than to know the baby was Kova's.
Dad sniffled and I popped my head up to glance in his direction. Lines pulled tight around his eyes and his jaw subtly shook. I felt his despair a mile away, and a small breath hitched in my throat. My gaze shifted to Sophia, who was watching him with sadness. My shoulders sagged. It broke my heart to see how many people I’d hurt with my lies.
I looked away, unable to handle any more added heartache.
"So that's the reason you'll be coming back. You were heavily sedated and had a minor procedure on top of your concussion. You have to let your body r
est."
"You can’t force me to go home."
Dad whipped his head toward me. His eyes were as large as I was sure mine were. A mocking laugh bellowed from his chest. "Yeah? And how will you live? What money and connections do you have, Adrianna? Everything you have is because of me."
I sat up a little taller, humiliation burning under my skin. "I'll take the prize money and forfeit competing in college. I can support myself on that." I paused, hoping to seal the threat. "It's not like I'll be in any condition to compete anyway, not when I'm close to kidney failure as it is. I'll even sell my car if I have to."
Dad squinted his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Fifty thousand dollars isn't enough to pay for dialysis and a transplant surgery. Now you sold your car but you can't get to treatment. What are you going to do?"
I ground my molars together, fighting back the angry tears. I didn't have anything else to barter with and he knew that.
Dad's gaze didn't waver. How could he hold my illness over my head? I was scared it would consume me before I had the chance to live and he knew that. It hurt almost as much as the vacuum comment he made.
"Don't test me, Adrianna. I have years of experience under my belt that you can't compete against."
"I'll figure it out."
He shook his head. "Not this time. How do you expect to practice when you're bleeding?" he jeered.
My emotions closed in on me. The way Dad was staring made me angrier by the second. Anything I said, he had an answer for. That wasn't fair. None of it was fair. I averted my gaze just as a fresh tear rolled over my cheek onto my arm. I looked down and my brows drew together. My emotions were on severe overload.
With my teeth, I pulled the tape back from the top of my free hand. I needed fresh air. I needed to get out of here.
"Stop it, Adrianna," Dad yelled and placed a hand over mine. I tried to shove him away. I was on the verge of losing it. My chest ached with sharp pains. Everything in me hurt.
"Leave me alone," I cried.
"The sooner you accept it, the better you'll be," he said, wrestling my hand away. I didn't have much strength and he knew that.
"I'm not accepting it," I responded. "I'm staying here. I'm an adult. I'm not missing that competition!"
"That just proves how naive you are. You can't support yourself, and you won't be able to support yourself to get to the competition." He paused and his eyes turned nearly black. "You have nothing."
God, I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs. This was never supposed to happen. None of this was supposed to happen. A concussion, dislocated elbow, and a fucking miscarriage.
"Do you have any idea how sick I am over the fact that he took advantage of you? Someone I trusted. He raped you."
"No, he didn't," I spat back. "He didn't touch me."
Dad glared at me, his eyes wild. "I almost beat him to death.” He gritted the words out through his teeth. “He has your fucking initial cut into his chest, Adrianna." His hot breath blew over my face. "Care to explain that?"
"He didn't touch me," I said, as my breathing turned erratic. I was losing control. "He didn't touch me."
Oh, God. I was going to have a panic attack. Christ on a fucking stick.
