EMBER’S POV
The question catches me off guard, hitting somewhere soft and unprotected.
“Every day,” I hear myself say, and my voice sounds strange, distant, like it’s coming from somewhere outside my body. “Every single day, I thought about leaving. About packing a bag and disappearing in the middle of the night. About starting over somewhere he couldn’t find me.”
“And yet you stayed.” Harrison tilts his head, studying me like I’m a specimen under glass. “For eight years, you stayed. Why?”
Because I was scared.
Because I had nowhere to go.
Because he convinced me I deserved it.
Because every time I tried to leave, I’d stop dead by the door.
Because my own mother blamed me.
Because my own father was too drunk to answer the phone.
Because everyone I was supposed to be able to trust
