Chapter 20
I Won't Let You Down
I closed my bedroom door gently behind me. But instead of the quiet refuge I expected, the room felt smaller than ever, closing in around me, suffocating me with its memories and cramped walls.
And just like that, a truth rang clear in my chest: I don't want to stay here anymore.
Not in this tight room, I meant.
I needed space, real space, both in the world and inside myself.
Then I made my way to the kitchen.
Mother was slicing fruit in precise mechanical strokes. Father sat behind his newspaper, the rustle of the pages the only sound.
It was awkward, deeply so. Yet, they were behaving as if nothing had happened last night. As if my father hadn't called his daughter bad, as if my sister hadn't been slapped, as if I hadn't shattered the family's precious illusion. They were performing the roles of a calm, respectable family having a quiet morning, and the sheer audacity of the pretense was staggering.
But I wouldn't pretend.
