Page 49 of Innocent Bratva Virgin

I cleared my throat and then sat down on the couch. There was no immediate greeting, and we sat there in silence for roughly a million years, give or take.

“Well, I’ll admit that I’m surprised you came in. I was sure you’d just stand me up, and that would be that.”

I nodded, reaching into my pocket for my phone. As I flicked open the screen, I went to the few TalkBack responses that I’d saved in the program. I’d prepared them to use until I mustered the courage to do what I was really here for.

As I held it up, there was a flicker of surprise and then disappointment on Emory’s face as the TalkBack played the message for me.

“I thought about it. I wasn’t sure if I was welcome here anymore.”

The robot's voice didn’t offer tone. It couldn’t, and as the words were read off so flatly, I felt the desire to speak start to outweigh the nervous energy holding me back. I still felt so weird doing it and was so surprised by what I sounded like. Sure, I had to assume my voice would be deeper, considering I wasn’t a child anymore, but I’d never heard this voice.

It wasn’t familiar like the one I’d used in my head all these years.

Emory’s mouth opened like she was going to speak, but then she bit back on the urge, breathing deeply before she dropped her stare to her desk.

“I…I get why you might feel that way. But I’m a professional. I’m a therapist who’s promised to help those I can. So, I can certainly do that.”

I expected her to say as much, so I scrolled to the next preset message in TalkBack and let it play.

“You help people a lot. I’m sorry that you had to be the one who needed help this time.”

Emory sighed, cocking her head to the side as she bobbed her head in a slight nod.

“Yeah, I can’t say I enjoyed the experience very much. But I am grateful to have my normal life back.”

That one stung. And I had no one to blame for that but me. I knew what I would be asking of Emory if I tried to push things forward. That normalcy would be destroyed. There’d be no way to keep her completely isolated from my work.

Sure, she could still practice and help people, but she’d have to live at the house. She’d had to keep communication about her life vague with her friends and family. She’d have to lie.

I didn’t feel like I was worth all that.

Pulling up the last premade TalkBack response, I pressed play, silently wondering what I was going to do after this.

“I’m sorry, Emory. I didn’t intend on dragging you into all this.”

She offered a gentle smile, and I couldn’t tell if it was genuine or just a professional courtesy. She had a damn good poker face when she was in the safety of her own office.

“I know you didn’t. Life just…pulls us places sometimes. But I’m more concerned with where you’d like to see it takeyou. Do you still want to use that?” She gestured at the phone. “Or do you want to keep meeting and maybe work on speaking? Because I’m here for you if you do.”

And there it was.

Time stretched into a taffy-thin line that had no beginning or end. I felt the blood in my face, and my ears, and everything was too small, too constricting. Why did I think coming here would be a good idea? I was so damn fucked up, and I knew it. What was I doing dragging Emory more into my bullshit?

But then something happened that I wasn’t expecting. I looked into Emory’s eyes as I sat there on the couch, and all I wanted to do in the entire world was tell her the truth. I couldn’t stand a single second longer of keeping her out or lying to her.

Because she meant the damn world to me. I was…falling in love with her.

I got up from the couch and walked over to her desk, putting her ring on the smooth wood surface. A tiny gasp escaped her, and when she looked up at me I just smiled and nodded, my silent way of saying, “yeah I found it.”

Choosing not to speak that sentence was entirely because I had a much harder one I needed to say—and I needed to say it now. So, I turned and went back to the couch. As I sat across from her again, I looked up into Emory’s beautiful eyes and let the words that had been caught in my throat for years leave me at last.

“I saw my father kill my mother.”

Emory's expression dropped, and she gaped at me as I just blurted out the words and let them hang there. But I’d saidit. That was what I’d never told anyone, and with those words no longer holding back the dam, everything burst free.

“He was a piece of shit that beat her and, apparently, my brothers. Ivan just told me about everything that he and Abe had kept me from seeing, all the bruises and fights and destruction that they quickly swept away because I was the baby, and they needed to protect me. And it fucking worked.”

The room was dead quiet, and my stare fell to my hands, where I was fiddling with my phone.

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