I gulp and look down into my cup.
"Sophie."
His insistent tone gives me goosebumps, but I don’t move. When I don’t answer, either, I hear him exhale loudly. Shortly after, I feel his fingers on my chin. With gentle pressure, he forces me to lift my gaze and look at him. My skin tingles instantly where he touches me, and I almost forget what he asked.
"Talk to me, little darling," Cole asks gently when our eyes finally meet.
"I just wanted to… get out. To go away."
He lowers his hand. "Why? Didn’t your mother let you out? I mean… you had to go to school and all that."
I shake my head. "She taught me at home."
"So you’re telling me that you’ve only ever been in that house?"
"Yes," I say barely audible.
Cole averts his gaze and curses softly. "She’s locked you in all these years?" I can hear that he’s having a hard time believing that.
"She didn’tlock me in. She just… didn’t let me out," I state, feeling an inexplicable urge to defend my mother’s behavior.
He grimaces and scoffs. "Well, that’s pretty much the same fucking thing, you know?" Then he empties his cup and puts it down in the sink with such force that I wince. "So what are you going to do now?"
I lower my eyes again as I quietly speak out what suddenly seems terribly childish. "I want to know if the world out there is truly as bad as my mother always says it is."
Cole moves a few steps away, running his fingers through his hair and snorting audibly. "You want to know how the world is truly like? What do you have in mind? Do you have anI-will-explore-the-worldplan where you check off what you’ve done with little hearts?"
His hard voice is almost condescending. I squirm inwardly as my cheeks grow hot, but I don’t know what to say.
"You must know where you want to go. What you want to see and experience."
In the corner of my eye, I can see him pacing up and down the large room, but I don’t dare look at him directly. "I…"
"Youwhat, Sophie?"
Cole comes to a halt right in front of me, so I force myself to lift my gaze and look him in the eyes. I regret it immediately because there’s a storm raging in them that almost scares me.
"You have to tell me what’s on your mind, darling, or this won’t work out," he clarifies while holding my gaze with his.
In an uncertain voice, I speak the first thought I can grasp. "I want to be free." My fingers clutch the coffee cup so tightly that they gradually go numb. "To make friends and…"
"And?" Cole urges when I fall silent again.
"I want to know what it’s like to fall in love."
He looks at me emotionlessly for a moment before laughing mirthlessly again while turning away. I follow him with my gaze and flinch when he whirls around after a few steps. The hardness in his eyes almost causes me physical pain, but I’m petrified, even as I see a young woman coming up the stairs in the corner of my eye.
"Make friends?Fall in love?" The mockery in his voice tugs at my heart. "I hope you don’t think you’ll find any of that here. If you want to braid pigtails and hold hands, I’ll have to disappoint you because you won’t get that with me.At all."
While I can’t move, the woman walks toward us and interferes. "Stop it, Cole."
Ignoring her, I return Cole’s gaze as the first stupid tears run down my cheeks because he’s so mean and heartless all of a sudden. "Why not?"
"Why not? JesusfuckingChrist. Isn’t that obvious?" he barks at me while taking another step forward so I have to look up at him.
"Cole!" The woman’s hand lands gently on my back as she silences him with a hard tone. "That’s enough."
Another moment passes before he glances at her and finally turns away, cursing one last time. Then he puts on his shoes, grabs the gun that was lying unnoticed by me on a side table, and leaves without another word.
