I feel Julia stiffen at the word ours, but she doesn’t try to get out of our embrace. She just leans in to us, her head on my chest and her back pressed to Kai, as if she needs both of us to stay upright.
I don’t know how long we stay there, but eventually her trembling slows, and her breathing steadies. I feel her fingers curl into my hoodie.
“Do you want to tell us everything?” I ask quietly.
She hesitates, but finally nods.
Kai and I guide her to the couch, one on each side of her.
Her hands twist together in her lap, a nervous habit I noticed.
“My father wasn’t always a monster,” she begins softly. “But power changed him. And when I tried to push back.. He made sure I never did again.”
My blood runs cold.
“Julia,” I whisper, “what did he do to you?”
She looks up, her beautiful, broken, brave face, and finally lets the truth spill.
Chapter 11
Julia
The words sit in my throat like broken glass. But Mikey is looking at me like the truth won't scare him away. And Kai… Kai looks ready to kill a man for breathing wrong near me.
So I inhale and let it out.
“Like I said… My father wasn’t always like this.” My fingers tremble in my lap as I twist the edges of my hoodie. “He used to be strict, yeah, but not cruel or violent. Not the man everyone fears now.”
Mikey shifts closer to me, so our knees are touching, and honestly, it helps steady me.
“When my mom died, something snapped in him. He lost whatever humanity he had left.” I let a small, humorless laugh escape me. “And he decided he needed to tighten his grip on everything. The casinos, the city, and me.”
Kai moves his hand to my thigh and gently squeezes and nods at me. “Keep going, we are right here with you,” he murmurs.
I swallow and nod.
“When I was twelve, he started sending his men to ‘correct’ me. To make sure I didn’t embarrass him.” My voice cracks. “The man at the bar tonight, Reyes, dragged me out of a family meeting by my hair because I didn't say ‘yes, sir’ fast enough.”
I can hear Mikey grinding his molars.
“That was the first time,” I whisper. “After that… any mistake was an excuse for Reyes. Sitting wrong, talking wrong, laughing.” My throat tightens. “Trying to leave the house without an escort.”
Kai inhales sharply. “He hit you.”
“Sometimes.” I shrug, “Sometimes he would force himself on me. Said it ‘taught discipline’, sometimes he would let other people do it.”
A tear slid down my cheek before I could stop it.
“I tried running away once when I was sixteen.” I laugh softly, but even to my own ears it sounds hollow. “I didn’t even make it two blocks. He had men watching every exit of the property.”
Kai mutters something violent under his breath, but lets me continue.
“When I turned eighteen, my father loosened the leash. A little. Let me move into my own apartment on the condition that I still answer to him and Reyes. Still checked in. I still went to events and dinner, and still acted like his perfect little daughter.”
My voice breaks. “But every time I disobeyed, even in the smallest way… something bad happened. A threat, a warning, a broken window. Anything to remind me that I still belonged to him, and he would send Reyes to punish me.”
Mikey’s hand finds mine without hesitation.
