Daddy’s hellcat rumbled, and though I couldn’t hear it, I could see the way it purred as it idled at the curb. My eyes caught sight of a set of keys soaring through the air, and I watched him catch them with one hand and a scowl. The other man laughed, and then he—
What. The. Fuck?
The pain that lanced through my chest was unbridled and unmatched. I’d felt like I’d been stabbed, and I gasped as my heart bled into my stomach. Heat swam to the base of my skin, and for a moment, I couldn’t fucking see.
Rage blinded me.
He wasmyDaddy.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
I swept my computer keyboard off my desk and threw my fist at the man who dared to touch my daddy—who dared to put their fingers all over the jaw that belonged tome.
All the breath expelled from my lungs, and I tugged at the strands of my hair. A crack split my monitor in half but still I watched him—I watched himuse those same fingers to slip a piece of paper into my Daddy’s jacket pocket, and I waited for Daddy to shove that piece of paper down his throat until he choked on it.
He did nothing.
He.
Did.
Nothing.
My skin was tight,too tight,and I didn’t like the way it twisted against my bones…
…squeezing
…and squeezing
…and squeezing.
The hands of jealousy latched themselves around my narrow neck, stamping bruises of envy across my pale skin as it choked me from the inside out. Each gasp was a fight, and the harder I fought, the worse it felt.
Blood stained my fingertips as I tore at the smooth skin protecting my heart.Ohmygodit hurt, and even as I clawed at it with sharp, unexplored desperation, the pressure wouldn’t subside.
I hate this.
I hate this.
I hate this.
I wondered if this is what Thea meant when she said she didn’t want me to hurt on the inside. I wondered if she’d ever felt this before, and if she had, how she stopped herself from running a knife down her middle so the pain would have a hole to escape through.
My monitor sat crooked on my desktop. There was a fracture in the glass where my knuckles made contact, and that one minor splinter had created a spider-web of damage that crawled across the entire screen.
I didn’t care.
The keyboard I swept off the desk now sat beside my feet. There were a few letters missing, and the space bar had broken in half. The lights were still working though, and the blue hue that danced across my body acted as a spotlight against my bloodied skin and the misery that festered beneath.
My perimeter alarm went off, but I barely heard it over the pulsing in my ears. The rhythm matched the one inside my chest, and it quickened the longer I stood here—blood drying on my skin, alarm blaring.
My head was heavy as it rolled across my shoulders, and I threw my gaze toward my monitor to look for whoever was approaching my building. I only found darkness, and buried beneath that was my own haggard reflection. The cracks across my screen were now cracks against my skin.
I liked it.