Mr Billionaire's Plaything

ne's

t confession. I blink, disoriented. My sheets are tangled, and the ache

gna

in my chest

time. 7:30

throw myself into motion, stumbling into the bathroom, scrubbing my face harder

not

t

it's real. Unlike this surreal haze clinging to me since the

b the first outfit my hand touches in the closet - a fitted black top, worn

nt door, but somet

tr

e. Covered with foil

a note to kno

m

after I locked her out of my room.

returning it like it's some symbolic peace offering I'm not

er brows furrowed in that way they get when she's trying n

rushing past them with

s me to her car, her s

both inside the BMW. "You an

t exactly end on a warm and

she sayi

ng imp

len

y, Pamela

holding in a thousand questions, probably trying to decide whether it's too soon

power-walk through the stone archways, passing a couple making ou

ce, I thin

ecture hall, my

away. I

fine now - stable, normal, functioning - and I know exactly what he'

tting in my bedroom, clutching my stomach like it m

t. Not if I

-to-back lectures and my head is pounding again. Pamela leads t

ony last night, did you?"

N

d... off. Cold. Like

wa

ll him why

sick. Which

before getting

'Sorry, I'm pregnant with a stranger

"No. Just... wanted to be sure. He was wat

oubt

're not going

nothing

he's thinking. That Tony's a decent guy. T

not the

even a

only bind me to more

t Cameron?" she asks

st tig

damn

" I

, starts the engine. "Let's get y

- she knows when to push and when to simply drive. Her BMW hums alo

hite House. Whatever secrets Pamela keeps about her family, she guards them fiercely.

who didn't even g

in park and turns to me. "If you need any

"Than

Sel

ea

. She... she told

. "She told you

horrible

ame is a constant companion now - whis

rrow," she says, a

away, then turn to

My mom should be at work. But as soon

Butter.

o

ding me I haven't eaten

step into the livin

len

oice comes fr

's

ow how to exist in this house with her right now - no

ridiculous ev

apron I haven't seen since my fifteenth birthday. The one she wore when she made t

the walls I built up

my eyes before

e, arms open, and I

I shouldn't have hit you. I

ing. Because I am. And for on

I sob. "I didn't even know, I swear. I fe

says, pulling me tighter

could bel

s, I feel the shado

his is just

d, cradling a mug of ginger tea. My mom insist

w, watching the sky d

one b

. Ag

nore

t access to t

anym

o sleep. I want to forget. But sleep doesn't come easily

Try to remember h

tran

jaw. He smelled like ced

ain, would I ev

e remem

anything to

ch

I curl into myself, clutching

tens to pull me under -

To

wn Nu

No name. Ju

to talk

he screen, h

I read

to tal