Page 65 of Haze of Obedience

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"Do I? If they don't manage you, then you get held back. Someone else might be more worthy of my spot. But we'll never know."

"Zoe—"

"It doesn't matter. What I thought was important..." I take a deep breath. "...before I fired my manager and became their property..." I close my eyes and try to stop the emotions from overpowering me.

He sternly says, "Who hurt you?"

I shake my head too choked up to speak.

"Zoe, I need to know."

"Too many to count."

"Names. Give me names."

"What does it matter?"

"I need to know," he repeats.

"You don't."

"I do. Tell me."

"Why? So you can have a visual of me with them?"

"What? No!"

"I don't want you to know."

"Why?"

I wipe my face. "It's not who I ever wanted to be with."

He strokes my cheek. "Give me names, Zoe."

"Please drop this. There's too many. You won't even know most of them."

"Was Santiago one of them?"

"No. He tortures in other ways."

"What did he do to you?"

"Why can't you drop this?"

"Because I can't."

We go round and round, and I finally give up trying to hide.

"Who are they?" he asks again.

"Men you probably never heard of and then ones you have."

"Who would I know?"

I inhale deeply. "The President of the United States. The Prime Minister of the U.K. Jonas Torres, just to name the top three, I despise the most."

He freezes and says nothing.

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