Page 53 of Delicate Escape

“I used to work for a nonprofit. The Literacy Project. I loved it, helping people fall in love with reading and gain the skills they needed to get good jobs.”

It fit. Thea was a helper. Whether it was kittens without homes, a little girl who couldn’t decide what cupcake flavor she wanted, or an elderly woman who needed a friend. And when she let me in last night, I’d seen the books piled high everywhere. Everything from a book on growing mushrooms to gothic thrillers and more romances than I could count.

“That’s where I met Brendan.” Thea’s knuckles bleached white as she gripped her legs. “He was coming in to read a children’s book to some of our kids. He was so charming and kind. When he asked me out to coffee afterward, I was shocked but flattered.”

My gut churned, knowing this story didn’t continue down a happy road.

“I should’ve heard alarm bells with how fast he moved. Coffee turned into him taking me to dinner, then showing up with breakfastat my apartment the next day. He wanted all my time. He’d even joke about being annoyed that I had to work, but I thought it was sweet.”

Thea swallowed hard. “It wasn’t long before we were spending every night together. If I wanted to go out with Nikki and our other girlfriends, he’d pout. She saw it before I did. Saw how it would go bad.”

“And how did it go bad?” I hardly recognized my voice when I spoke, it was so devoid of emotion.

“I guess I’d call it paranoia. But some part of me still wonders if I caused it.”

“What kind of paranoia?”

Thea rolled her lips, pressing them together hard. “He got really fixated on my past.”

My skin started to prickle, and a sick feeling took root somewhere deep. “Your past how?”

“The guys I’d dated, anyone I had the slightest bit of intimacy with.” She scoffed. “It wasn’t like there were many to speak of. I worked my way through college and grad school. I didn’t have a lot of time for dating and parties. But he wanted to know everything.”

I was quiet for a moment as I listened. Playing the numbers game with a partner was dicey on a good day, but this sounded like more.

Thea took a deep breath. “He started pushing to know details. He wanted me to make a list. Every person I’d ever kissed. Anyone who’d seen other parts of my body. How many guys I’d had oral sex with. How many I’d slept with.”

She rocked her knees back and forth as if trying to soothe herself. “I thought if I just told him, he’d know I had nothing to hide. But it wasn’t enough.”

My fingers wrapped around the sides of the chaise as I struggled to keep my breathing even.

“He wanted to know where. Who. He wanted a full list of names.Details.Wanted a promise that I wouldn’t speak to any of those people ever again.”

I bit the inside of my cheek hard. “No one has the right to that information, Thea. Not a single fucking soul.”

Her eyes collided with mine. “I don’t know. He said he needed to know what could come back on him because so many eyes were on him. And then he said if I didn’t tell him, I was trying to hide things. Manipulate him. But once I did…”

“He what?”

Thea’s body shuddered, and it took everything in me not to pull her back into my arms. “He started drinking more heavily. Taking pills. He’d wake me up in the middle of the night, screaming at me. Demanding to know where I’d done what with whom. He looked up photos of an ex’s house and started pointing out rooms. Asking if I’d fucked him here or there.”

“Thea,” I croaked.

Tears slid down her cheeks, but she made no move to wipe them away. I wasn’t sure she even realized she was crying again. “He started demanding to know where I was at all times. If I went to the gym, he’d call before and after. Ask if any guys talked to me. If I wanted to go to Nikki’s, he’d ask why. What were we doing that he couldn’t go, too? Was I lying to him about us going out? What was I wearing?”

Her fingers dug harder into her legs. “And when he was on set, it was worse. I thought maybe distance would help. But I was so wrong. If I went to dinner with Nikki, he’d accuse me of not prioritizing our relationship because he might want to call during that time. He didn’t even want me to go to a fundraiser for the nonprofit I worked for.”

Every breath I took felt like it was covered in flames. The rage swirling deep inside me coiled like a snake, striking out at every new piece of information.

“So, I just slowly stopped. Everything. It was like I simply faded away. I went to work, came home, and braced for him to call. Sometimes, it was normal, so run-of-the-mill I wondered if I’d imagined everything else.”

Thea let out a shuddering breath. “But more, he’d call in the middle of the night. Screaming, raving mad. I stopped sleeping because even when he wasn’t waking me up, I was bracing for him to. And never, not once, did I consider just not picking up the phone.”

My gut twisted at how small her voice sounded.

“But the other calls were worse somehow. The ones where he was kind, praising. I soaked all that up.” Her tears came faster. “It’s so embarrassing. I lived for those crumbs.”

“Because he trained you to,” I said quietly.

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