“It was because you were panicking. I was worried that you were going to hurt yourself. I didn’t mean to do it. I just didn’t want you to hurt yourself. You need to understand that,” Daddy says. “I didn’t want to ever have to give you a shot, but the medicine as a suppository or a liquid wouldn’t have worked as fast. We really didn’t want to give it to you.”
I shake my head and curl up into a ball. How could he do something like that to me when he knows how much I’m afraid of needles? How could he be so careless?
“Leah, your Daddy is right. I was here both times. He said back then that he would only give you an injection in case of an emergency. Earlier today, it was an emergency. We didn’t want you to hurt yourself, and you would have if you kept it up. So we had to take the chance and give it to you,” Yamal explains. “Don’t be mad at him. I was the one who suggested the injection, not your Daddy. He didn’t want to when we were on the phone with each other. He wanted to give you the pill, but I told him that if you were panicking too much, it wouldn’t be safe to give it to you. That you could hurt yourself even more.”
I place my hands over my ears to block out their conversation. I don’t want to hear their excuses about what they thought was right. They know how terrified I am of needles, yet they still gave me a shot.
“We’ll leave you alone for a little bit,” Yamal says, his voice sounding so distant.
“We’ll just be in the other room. Lie here and get some rest. Don’t try to do anything since the medicine is still in your system. I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” Daddy gently says.
Tears run down my face and onto the bed as Daddy and Yamal leave the room. How am I ever going to trust them again? How could they have done something like this to me? Do they not know that they just broke the trust between us? There are consequences to that.
I grab the blanket on the bed and place it over my naked body, curling up in it to keep myself warm. Now I need to leave no matter what. I need to get out of here and away from Daddy and Yamal.
But how?
How am I going to get away from them when they are in the next room? They’re between me and the door. I still have the medicine in my body, and I know I won’t be crawling fast enough to get away from them. There is no other way out of the apartment.
“Do you think she’ll ever forgive me?” I hear Daddy ask.
“She will, she just needs some time to process the events of today. But don’t stop caring for her. Show her that you really do care about her. That you would do anything to keep her safe. She will come around eventually,” Yamal explains. “It’s going to be rough in the beginning, but it’s going to work out. Don’t give up on her. Show her that you are willing to fight for her.”
I scoff and bury my face into the blanket, taking a deep breath as I inhale Daddy’s scent. He wants to fight for me, but he gave me a shot. I don’t call that fighting for me or for what’s best for me. I call that doing something he wants, so he doesn’t have to deal with me.
I take another deep breath of his scent, and my body relaxes. Why does his scent make me react so much? Why am I always so calm around him?
I pull the blanket away from my face. There is no time for me to think about him. I need to focus on how to get away. I need a game plan to trick them into getting me out of the apartment so I can get onto a ship and get back to the space station.
I need to warn everyone there not to go to Venkoria. That they should stay at the space station and live happily there for the rest of their lives, even if the space station was slowly dying. Everything would be so much easier if I had just stayed.
But Daddy and Yamal’s words fill my head. Their worries about me not eating and slowly losing weight. I hadn’t even realized that I was underweight on the space station. If I had stayed there for the rest of my life, would I have died young?
No time to think about that.
But I can’t help but think about it. If I go back to the space station, am I going to end up like how I was before?
“I just want her to be happy and healthy, but I keep making mistakes,” Daddy says to Yamal. “I don’t know how to get her on my side and want to be with me at all times. I just don’t understand.”
“Everyone goes through this when they get their girl. Don’t think too hard about it. Everything will work out if you continue to fight for her and show her that you are meant to be together. I promise you. You need to not give up on her,” Yamal replies. “Be there for her, even if she doesn’t want you around. Show her you care about her and that you want to be with her. Show her what her life will be like if she stays with her. Show her who you are.”
Tears pool in my eyes as Yamal speaks. Will Daddy actually do it, or will he just pretend in front of the doctor?
But Daddy has never been that way. He has always taken care of me and made sure that I have everything I need. So why am I doubting him now?
Because he had Yamal stick me with a needle. He told me he would never allow me to get a shot again, yet here I am.
He didn’t want to,my subconscious tells me.He just wanted to make sure you were okay and that you didn’t harm yourself.
I close my eyes tightly as more tears form. I need to stop thinking about him. I need to keep my mind off him and stay mad so that when the opportunity comes for me to leave, I won’t have second thoughts.
But I’m already having second thoughts.
I grip onto the blanket and cover my face, trying to muffle the cries.
“Shit,” Daddy mutters, his voice sounding so far away right now.
I just want him to come here and tell me that everything is going to be okay and hold me against him. I just want him to comfort me.
