Page 216 of Naughty Nelle

CHAPTER 17

At breakfast, I gather berries with Pinocchio. We speak only through our eyes. Something inside each of us has changed. We’re happier, freer, wiser. I’m not even filled with dread when I report to my session with Shrink.

“So, Jane, let’s pick up where we left off yesterday,” Shrink says as she whizzes into her office.

Her entry takes me by surprise. Reclining on the chaise, I’ve been lost in thought about my night with Pinocchio. That’s something she’s never going to know about, though a part of me wants to tell her everything.

She zooms in close to me. “I reread your story. It ends rather abruptly. And there’s quite a big gap in time. The little girl stops dancing, then she’s all grown up and marries a king. What happened in between?”

My chest tightens. Reliving my past is no easier today. “My mother went out with a lot of men.”

“What kind of men?”

“Creeps. All of them. Even the rich ones.”

“What made them creeps?”

“They drank. Cursed. And stunk.” I scrunch my nose, still smelling the stench they left behind. A combination of stale beer, sweat, and semen.

“Did they ever—”

I cut her off. I know where she’s going. “No! My mother didn’t want me around. She kept me locked in a closet.”

“Was she jealous of you? Like how you were jealous of Snow White.”

I shudder. I never thought about my mother being jealous of me. Maybe it’s true. Like mother like daughter?

Hovering close to me at eye level, Shrink looks at me with intimidating intensity.

“Jane, I’m going to ask you a question, and I don’t want you to interrupt. Did any of your mother’s suitors ever touch you?”

The blood inside me rushes to my head. I feel like I’m going to implode. I can no longer keep it in.

“Snow White’s father came into my bed!”

If Shrink is shocked, she does not show it.

Tears flood my eyes as I relive the event that changed my life forever. “My mother had finally seduced a King. A widower with a young daughter. She was set to marry him.”

Shrink jumps in. “How did you feel about that?”

“I was excited about living in a big castle. And having a little sister. And now that my mother had gotten what she wanted, I was sure she would stop beating me—”

“And love you?”

Silence. How does she know?

“What happened?”

“We spent the night before the wedding at my castle. I mean, his.”

“You lured the King?”

Her hurtful question jolts me upright.

“No! Never! He was drunk and forced himself on me.”

My tears cannot blur the memory of his lustful assault. Hard. Harder. Heartless.

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