Page 27 of Owned By Two

And an idea popped into the front of my mind.

There was one way I could relieve my stress…

I got up from my chair and wandered over to a shelf.

I picked up one of the items — an old dial-up phone with large numbers on the circular front.

“You said all this stuff is mine?” I said.

Uhti nodded. “Yes. Or soon will be once the paperback is completed.”

I pursed my lips and swept my arm across the shelf.

The phone struck the floor with a heavythunkand made a shrillting!noise that didn’t die for another ten seconds.

The corner of Uhti’s lips quirked into a smile. “Not such a fan of collecting human heirlooms then, I take it?”

I shrugged. “I’m anti anything my father considered important.”

Uhti nodded and motioned to the other shelves.

I seized the next item — some kind of vase with warped edges like a frozen waterfall — and smashed it on the floor.

I moved from one shelf to another, tossing one item after another, not caring or even noticing what they were before I hurled them.

Uhti didn’t help me with my wanton destruction — I suspected he had too much respect for his former employer — but he did hand me items that he carefully chose from the shelves.

“Why these things?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I always hated them.”

I did him the honor of hurling them at the walls, floor, and ceiling.

By the time we were done, half the items lay in broken pieces on the floor… and we had an audience in the form of the servants I had seen earlier.

“Would you like for us to… tidy up the mess?” one asked.

Uhti looked at me and raised his eyebrows.

“Um… Yes,” I said. “Please. And I’m sorry… for all the mess.”

“No apology required, madam,” the servant said, clicking his fingers and issuing orders.

Uhti led me out of the room. “Feel better?” he asked.

I looked back at the mess, at the collection I had destroyed, and was surprised at the emptiness in my gut. “Actually, no.”

He smiled down at me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Then let’s find something a little more… productive to take your mind off things.”

He turned me around and led me down the hallway.

There was only one way to free myself of my father in this place… and I doubted even Uhti would allow me to torch it.

12

UHTI

SeeingLizzy in the flesh was like meeting someone who ordinarily inhabited my dreams.

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