Page 44 of A Father's Insistence

“I was so scared. He told me what would happen to me would be worse if I didn’t do it. Then he started threatening your life. I’m scared of him, Theo. He’s a monster, and I don’t know how to get out from under his shadow. Even now if he walked into this room, I'd fall to my knees and let him do to me what he wants. I don’t know how to say no.”

Theo places his head in his hands. When he looks back up at me, I can see tears in his eyes.

“Don’t you see. You’ve already saved yourself. You did get away from him. You came here. That was you beating his rule. His spell on you is broken.”

He comes back to me and kisses my lips passionately and then places his hand over my heart.

“This is what gave you the strength to beat him. Love…our love. You are free, Joanna. You’ve just got to start believing it yourself. There is no more silence in the world. Even if it’s quiet, you’ll hear the sound of the beating of your heart entwined with mine.”

“I’m free.” The concept is alien to me. I test it on my lips and like it. “I can be your wife?”

He nods.

“Yes, but only after you learn to be yourself.”

“I thought you’d hate me.”

“Never.” Theo pulls me into his arms, and we settle back against the bed. My eyelids grow heavy with the exhaustion of telling him everything. Theo continues, “No, the person I hate is my father. He’s gotten away with too much for too long now. As soon as we find out where he is, we’re putting a stop to this. His reign of terror is over. It’s about time he learned the correct way to treat a woman.”

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