Page 22 of Daddy's Little Survivor

It was stupid logic, but it eased her mind a little.

Closing her eyes, she took in several deep breaths to try and calm herself down.

"Sit up and open your eyes. I'll feed you," Michael said.

Monroe stopped breathing for a second. Why would he want to feed her? Was he going to force feed her the food that had drugs in it? After all, he was a doctor, and probably had supplies he could use.

She continued to keep her eyes closed as she leaned her head against the counter. He couldn't force her to eat food. Maybe she could sneak down into the kitchen later and have a snack. He couldn't have laced everything in the house with drugs. When would he have had time to do that? How would he remember what he had laced with drugs and what he hadn't?

"Monroe, you really need to eat. Open your eyes and sit up and I'll feed you the rest of your food," he said.

He sounded so genuine, it tugged at her heart. She didn't want to disappoint him, but she also didn't want to be drugged.

"Come on, sit up," he commanded.

Monroe slowly opened her eyes and sat up straight. Pushing the place away from her, she looked down at the food with apprehension. She didn't think she could stomach eating any more of it. She already was feeling tired, and didn't know if that was from the food or from everything that had happened.

"I promise the food doesn't have anything in it. If you want, I can eat some to show you," Michael said.

Her eyes snapped to his and she could see he was sincere. If he was willing to eat some of her food, that meant it wasn't drugged, right? She had no clue, but it seemed like a logical answer to her.

"Come on," he encouraged her. "It tastes delicious. I am biased since I made them, but I've had other people tell me they really like my eggs."

She had to agree with him. The little taste she’d had was delicious and she hadn’t fully appreciated it because she was paranoid at the time.

Monroe opened her mouth and waited for him to place the fork in. She wasn't as relaxed, but she wasn't as paranoid as she was before. She slowly chewed them before swallowing and she could agree, they were great. Soft and smooth, but fully cooked.

"Good?" He had a knowing smile on his face.

She hesitantly nodded her head. Her stomach grumbled a little, making her bow her head as her cheeks grew red. How embarrassing.

"Let's feed the monster inside your stomach," Michael said as he chuckled.

Looking back up, her mouth dropped open when she saw him starting to do a little plane movement with the fork toward her mouth. Something inside her broke as tears welled up in her eyes. She shouldn't be crying over this. Although she didn't understand why, she couldn't help the tears that filled her eyes.

Michael placed the food in her mouth, and she closed her eyes. She needed to stop crying but couldn't find it within herself to stop. No one had ever done anything like this for her before, not even when she was little and refused to eat. The foster parents had told her if she didn't eat she could starve. They weren't going to take the time to do little airplane movements or train movements with the utensil to make her eat.

"Open up," Michael encouraged her.

Jerking back, she opened her eyes and shook her head. Tears blurred her vision, and she could barely make out Michael in front of her. She couldn't deal with this anymore. She needed to get away from him.

"It's okay," he whispered. "I bet a lot is going through your mind right now. How about you continue to close your eyes and think, and I'll continue to feed you and tell you when you need to open your mouth."

She didn't want to, but the way he spoke, so soft and caring, made her close her eyes and open her mouth. The whole time he fed her, she kept pushing back all her emotions as she tried not to cry.

Her whole life, she had believed all men were the same. Her opinion had briefly changed when she had met Jared, but changed back after she’d lived with him for several years. All men were nice if they wanted something in return. They didn't care about the person they were using; they only wanted to use them then throw them out.

Monroe couldn't figure out what Michael could want in return for all his niceness. He had to want something. She just couldn't figure out what since he didn't know her and what she could offer him. She wanted to believe he was different, but she didn't want to be in the same situation as before.

The way Michael was acting around her seemed genuine and it was confusing her. It was different from what Jared had done. Were there really men out there that didn't want anything in return and she had just never met one?

She didn't know what to believe right now and it scared her. Part of her wished she had never stopped on his street so she didn't have all these thoughts and feelings, but another part of her was grateful. Even though she was scared and didn’t fully trust him, he had put her at ease a couple of times and helped pull her out of several panic attacks. No one had been able to do that since, well, forever.

“All done,” Michael said, again pulling her from her thoughts.

Monroe slowly opened her eyes and made eye contact with him. He had a small smile on his face which confused her. Why was he smiling? Did she have something on her face and he thought it was funny?

She reached up and wiped her hand across her face, but nothing was there. Why was he smiling?

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