Harrison is angry, and he’s forcing his way into my apartment.
I step back, my body not reacting the way I want it to. Like to shove him out. Yell. Scream. Slap him maybe. I just stand there like an incapable little child, waiting for the angry man to come at me. He closes the door while keeping his gaze on me.
“How dare you do this to me?” he says. “How dare you make me look like such an idiot, Sera.”
“You? What about me?” I ask. “You cheated on me, Harrison. What about that?”
“This is way worse than that!”
“How is this worse than that? I’m single, and so is Elliot.”
“Because he’s my father!” he shouts, moving even closer toward me. I step back, but there isn’t much room left to go. My apartment suddenly seems so small. “And now, thanks to you getting in the middle of it, he’s no longer paying my bills.”
I want to tell him he’s a grown man and he can figure it out like the rest of us do. He can get a job and get some damn responsibility, like I’ve been doing for years. Or maybe he can ask his precious sister to pay his bills for him now. Why is he making this my fault?
“So now what am I supposed to do, Sera, hm? How am I going to finish school if I have to get a job?”
“Plenty of people do that, Harrison.”
He scoffs. “You’re fucking kidding.”
I frown and take another step back when he keeps moving toward me.
“I’m not going to end up like you,” he seethes.
“Like me?”
“At a dead-end job, so desperate that I fuck my ex’s father just to get a decent paying job.”
My jaw drops open at his words. That was a low blow. One that stings and has tears forming in my eyes.
“That’s not why—”
“That’s not why I did it,” he mocks me in a high-pitched voice. “No? Then why did you do it?”
He’s stalking closer, his voice getting a little manic. His eyes are wild. Fear crawls up my spine, settling in the base of my neck.
“I-I don’t know.”
“Bullshit,” he spits just as my back hits the counter. “Bull fucking shit. You did it because you’re a desperate little whore who wanted to get back at me for cheating on her. You did it to get revenge, and good fucking job, Sera, because it worked.”
A tear slides down my check, dripping off my chin.
“Of course,” he mutters. “Of course, you’re going to play all innocent now and cry as if you give a fuck.”
“Get out,” I croak out.
“Fuck you, Sera.”
“Get out!” I scream, putting my hands on his chest and shoving him.
Harrison grabs my wrists and tugs me to him.
“You are going to pay for what you did to me. You ruined my goddamn life, Sera, and I will not let you get away with it,” he growls under his breath.
Not knowing what else to do, I jam my knee up, hitting him right in the balls. He keels over, letting me go, so I run to the intercom by the door. I’ve never used it before, always preferring to call, but I’m glad it’s there now, when I need it.
“I need help. Call the cops!” I shout into the speaker, then jolt out my door and toward the stairs. I hurry down them as quickly as I can, knowing if Harrison comes after me, he’ll catch me in a matter of seconds. He’s much bigger than me and much faster too. Plus, he’s angry and clearly on a warpath.
