“I wanna buy one. I’ll see which of my men wanna treat me tonight.” She giggles.
“Lucky bitch.”
She’s a British mafia princess who is ’married’ to both of the twins, and the two men are obsessed with her. Must be nice.
“You’ll find someone,” Hallie whispers, squeezing my shoulder.
“I don’t need to. I’m good,” I tell her, my smile tight.
Am I fine? Kind of. Do I trust men? Absolutely not.
“Lily, can I borrow you?” Roxy asks, probably about something gallery-related.
I nod and follow her aside.
“Oh my god, I love that necklace.”
Instinctively, I grip it. It grounds me. “Thanks. My dad gave it to me.”
She pouts. “So you don’t know where he got it?”
I shake my head. “No. Sorry.”
“Can you ask?”
I freeze. “No.”
Conversation over. I speak to my father as little as possible. He let me go when I begged him to let me stay. And what happened? Exactly what I feared. I wasn’t safe here, not really.
My skin crawls. The tightness wraps around my throat. Harder. Harder.
Breathe, Lily. You aren’t dying.
My vision blurs. I open my mouth, but nothing comes out. So I run. I push past bodies, ignoring shocked faces, until I reach my office.
I lock the door and feel my lungs burn.
My hands grip the desk as tears spill.
“Shit.” I fumble for my purse, find my custom aftershave, close my eyes, and spray. I inhale deeply.
Slowly, the nightmare eases. My body stops shaking. My mind crawls back into safety.
I sip water from my bottle on my desk.
“You’ve got this. He can’t hurt you anymore,” I whisper.
Mentioning my parents always breaks something inside me.
I pull out my phone and stare at the text my father sent earlier.
DAD: Good luck tonight, solnyshko. Love you. Dad.
My finger hovers over the call button. No. He made it clear that his life is in Russia. His work matters more than I ever did.
Inside, I’m still that scared little girl aching for someone to hold me and promise me I’ll be okay.
All I have is the memory of strong arms that held me when I was at my weakest. With a steadying breath, I wipe my tears, reapply lip gloss, and fix my mask.
