Page 97 of Keep Me

I clench my fists, and keep my response slow and calm. “I can assure you my wife is not doing anything to hurt you.”

“No, but she does it to spite me.”

Sylvie glares at her mother, a dead-faced expression covering her features. “How is me living my life and being happy to spite you?”

“Because you won’t let me help you. It’s as if you don’t want to be successful.”

“Is that really so important to you?” Sylvie argues.

“It’s important to everyone, Sylvie.”

My jaw clenches again. I glance sideways at my wife, watching the spark grow closer and closer to the end of the fuse.

I wonder if it’s for me that she holds it back. Is it for my sake that she refuses to really let these people know how she feels about them? The Sylvie I know doesn’t hold back. She lets her fire burn without care for who is in the path of her flame. But now…she’s keeping it all in. And I don’t like it.

When the room grows silent, it’s Yuri who attempts to carry on a casual conversation. “What have you been writing, sweetie?”

Sylvie smacks down her cup. “Can we just drop it? Forget I said anything about the writing.”

The man barely reacts to her outburst. But I notice the way her mother watches her. I can see the criticism perched on her lips, ready to take flight, and I stare at that woman, willing her to keep her ugly mouth shut and to think twice about saying anything critical of my wife.

Naturally, she doesn’t heed my warning.

“You always were so volatile,” she mutters. “Here we are, at your home to meet your new husband that you haven’t told us anything about or introduced us to before today, and you really can’t manage to have a decent conversation with us, can you, Sylvie? We didn’t raise you like this.”

“You didn’t raise me at all,” Sylvie snaps.

“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ll never truly know how much your father and I sacrificed for you.”

“Did you sacrifice birthdays? Christmases? Did your mother askyouto pose naked for strangers when you were sixteen?” she shrieks in frustration.

My head snaps up to level an angry gaze at the two of them.

“That was for an art class, Sylvie. Please, be reasonable,” the mouse of a man whines.

Sylvie ignores him. “And you didn’t come here to visit me and my husband. You werein the areaand stopped by. The reason you don’t know anything about him is because you don’t call me. You don’t ask. You don’t…care. You show up and talk about the fuckingrugwhen you haven’t spoken to your daughter in almost a year.”

Her voice trails, and I hear the quaver in it that shatters my chest into splinters on the ground. I’m seconds away from throwing these two pieces of worthless flesh out of my house.

I stare at Sylvie’s father, mentally begging him to do something. To stand up for his fucking daughter, but he doesn’t. He stays silent.

For one second too long.

Sylvie sniffles through the silence as her mother stares contemplatively at her. Then, the woman shakes her head as she softly mutters, “Ever since the day you tore your own portrait to shreds, I knew you’d never be happy unless you were the center of our universe. Poor little Sylvie, always so desperate for everyone’s attention. What an entitled little bitch you’ve turned out to be.”

The small round wooden table between us suddenly flies across the room, taking the tea tray, pot, and cups with it. There’s a scream of fear and a few curse words to be heard as I launch out of my chair and point an angry finger at the two sitting across from me.

“Get thefuckout of my house!” I bellow so loudly the art on the walls trembles from the noise.

“What on earth is wrong with you?” the woman shrieks.

“You,” I shout, reaching forward to take her by the collar and yank her out of her chair. “You…arenotwelcome in our home anymore.” With that, I drag her toward the door.

Somewhere behind me I hear the man nervously stutter, “Get your ha—hands off my wife.”

As we reach the front door, I nearly throw the woman toward the exit. She stares at me with horror before glancing at her daughter.

“This is the kind of man you’ve married? Someone who resorts to violence and outbursts?”

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