You gave it to me when you called me Daddy and agreed to follow my rules.
This is one of them.
No filters with me.
No hiding marks I didn’t put there.
If you’re hurt, I see it.
If you’re bruised, I see it.
If you’re wet, I see it.
If you’re sad or happy, I see it.
You understand?
I let my head tip back against the wall. Of course he’d done this. Of course the man who could make half the city blind with one phone call had quietly built a private, unedited mirror of me, just so he’d never miss anything.
Now.
I’m going to ask you again.
Is there anything you want to tell Daddy?
My fingers tightened around the phone. The lie was right there. I nearly wrote it. Only to delete it. Started again.
Her fingers on my arm, nails biting, the twist, the hissed words against my ear.
Mom grabbed my arm a little hard.
I stepped back at the same time
and hit the edge of the desk.
It left a mark.
That’s all.
You’re going to try that on me?
I bit my lip. How did I tell him my mother was…my mother.Everyone assumed the bruises left on me, were from my father. Even my uncles. Until that one fall down the stairs that led to my mother begging my father it wasn’t her fault. The cameras told a different story.
Her alcohol intake was limited by him since that weekend. And when dad travelled. I wasn’t home alone with her.
It was an accident. She just doesn’t know her own strength when she’s angry
I could almost hear his jaw flex over the line.
When she’s angry at you.
My throat tightened.
Thank you for telling me.
Even if you tried to dress it up as “nothing.”
We’re going to talk about it tonight.
