I lift my chin and somehow manage to speak even though I can’t stop trembling under his cold gaze. “Because it’s my life. You had me thinking I’d start making my own choices, and now it’s all changed again.”
He stands again, breakfast forgotten. “You were the one who wanted things to go back to the way they were before, right? You wanted somebody else to make your choices for you and all that, remember?” The gruffness of his voice slices right through me. “Well, you’ve got what you wanted.”
I wince before I can help it and the darkness in his gaze lessens, becoming softer. He’s said and done a lot of terrible things to me. He’s hurt me deeper than most people ever have, which is saying something, but that was low. He took something I confessed in private and used it against me.
“Listen.” He looks almost sorry, but I’m not stupid. I don’t think he’s capable of true remorse. “How am I supposed to let you go off on your own now when I know there are people out there who might want revenge for killing Nathaniel? I can’t keep an eye on you and manage a school at the same time. Tell me you understand that you’d be safer at Corium?”
No. I don’t. “Nic said it already. They could do all kinds of things to me there without actually killing me.” Not to mention the way Aspen murdered Nash in the dorms. She’s still there. Living like a queen, treated like her shit doesn’t stink.
“But the chances of that happening are much slimmer than if you were in an apartment of your own. I’m sorry, but this is for the best.” He marches out of the room before I can reply, but it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t know what to say, and it would only be a waste of breath anyway. He has his mind made up.
It doesn’t seem right that I’m not completely upset about the change in plans. I wasn’t looking forward to living on my own, not only because I don’t know much about navigating my own life. It was his idea to send me away in the first place. Not mine.
Now, there’s a reason to still be around him. That was what hurt the most. Knowing he didn’t want me around. Having to look forward to the rest of my lonely life without him. It’s not right. I know it isn’t.
But that doesn’t change how I feel. I don’t have to be alone, and I know he won’t let anything happen to me at school.
Ironically, it might be the safest place in the world.`