"I can't stay here," she told me. "I can't stay here with you."
Something cold and heavy filled my chest and sank down into my stomach. "You're not going anywhere."
She ignored me, grabbing the black stretchy pants from the night before out of the laundry basket at the back of the closet and slipping them on.
"Veda, did you hear what I said?"
Finding her running shoes, she shoved her feet into them, then walked past me out into the bedroom without looking at me. I followed her.
"Where is my phone?" she asked. But before I could answer her, she walked out of the room, turning right toward her parents’ room and leaving the door wide open.
"Goddammit, Veda!" I yelled after her. "You are NOT leaving here."
She disappeared into the guest room, shutting the door behind her.
I stood in the middle of the hall in my underwear, trying to decide if I wanted to barge in after her and carry her out over my shoulder and tie her to the fucking bed or wait until she came out on her own. Either way, she was going to end up in my bed tonight. Where she belonged.
But before I could decide, she came back out and walked right up to me, taking me off guard. "If it's alright, I'll make arrangements to take my parents somewhere else as soon as I can. Is it okay if they stay here until my mother can travel?"
"Veda..."
"Is it okay? Yes or no?"
"Yes, of course."
"Thank you," she told me. I thought she would try to leave then, but once again she surprised me. Setting her jaw, she lifted her chin, even as her eyes filled with fresh tears. "I can't stay here, Luca. You have to let me go."
I shook my head. "No." She was upset by what had happened. I understood that. And I should've waited until she wasn't in the room, but I'd let my anger guide me. "I don't have to do anything."
"You told me I was no longer your prisoner. Were you lying?"
I stared into her gray eyes and felt the ice in my chest harden with every passing second of this conversation. "No. I was not lying."
She looked down at her phone and pulled up her contacts, hitting the button that said, "Sammy." Then, her eyes on mine, she put it up to her ear. "Hey, it's me," she said when her friend answered. "Can you come get me at the marina where you dropped me off?" She paused, and I heard Sammy tell her she would. "Thank you. I'll be there in a few minutes, and I'll wait for you." Another pause. "Okay. See you soon."
"Veda, what are you doing?"
"I'm leaving, Luca. And I'm asking you to please let me."
My teeth began to ache, and I realized I was clenching my jaw. "You want to go to your friend's apartment?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because I can't be anywhere near you right now," she told me as her bottom lip trembled and tears slipped down her cheeks. But her voice was strong. Decisive.
I ran my hands through my hair, trying to suppress the scream of rage that was building inside of me. This wasn't happening. This wasn't fucking happening. "Just for tonight."
She spoke so quietly I barely heard her. "Not just for tonight."
"No," I told her. "NO."
"And it's not because of what happened tonight," she went on as if I hadn't spoken. "Not totally."
"I don't fucking understand, Veda."
She glanced down at my bare chest. "Do you want to go talk about this somewhere else?"