Page 136 of Stuck with my Boss Daddies

Still, it could be real.

That was the problem.

The thought clawed at my insides, sharp and relentless, my breath coming faster, my chest aching beneath the weight of my own fear. The town blurred behind me, fading into the night, but I didn’t know where I was going… only that I had to keep moving. Keep running.

Then, up ahead, a flickering neon motel sign buzzed faintly, its sickly shine dancing over the cracked pavement. The place was nothing special. Just another stop on the way to nowhere.

Just another place to disappear.

My fingers curled around the crumpled bills in my pocket, my pulse a frantic drumbeat in my ears.

Run. Stay. Run. Stay.

A war raged inside me, but my feet moved before I made the choice.

The motel room smelled like stale air and something vaguely rotten beneath the overpowering bite of industrial cleaner. The walls were thin, and somewhere nearby, a TV murmured with low, crackling static.

The bedspread was stiff beneath my fingertips as I stumbled forward, my knees nearly buckling. I didn’t care. None of it mattered.

Because I wasn’t supposed to be here.

My breath hitched, and I pressed a shaking hand to my chest, my lungs seizing, squeezing so tight I thought I might choke on the pressure.

Too fast. Too sharp. Not enough.

The walls shifted, warping around me, pressing in until the room was too small, too tight, too wrong. The motel lamp cast dim, flickering light, its shadows stretching long and twisted, curling like ghosts in the corners.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

That was a mistake.

Because then, I saw it all.

The flashing red and blue lights outside my childhood home.

The wreckage of my parents’ car… crumpled metal, shattered glass.

The social worker’s too-kind voice, her hands folded over mine, telling me that nothing would ever be the same again.

Then Owain’s face.

That cold, cutting smile he had given me when I tried to leave.

The way his fingers had sunk into my wrist, bruising, punishing.

No one else will want you, Sadie. You know that, don’t you?

His voice slithered through my mind, slick as oil, dripping with something that had once felt like love but had always been control.

No one stays.

No one stays.

No one stays.

A choked sob wrenched free from my throat, raw and aching. My knees buckled, the last bit of strength draining from my body as I collapsed onto the bed.

I curled in on myself, my arms wrapping tight around my trembling frame, my fingers digging in as if I could physically hold myself together… keep the cracks from spreading, keep from completely shattering.

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