The Puppet Unstrung: Chloe's Freedom

. I had to erase Mark from my life, not just emotionally, but physically. I had to go back to the sterile, min

h turn. I went straight to the bedroom. On the nightstand, next to a photo of us smiling a lie, was a small, velvet box.

lace inside. It clinked against the glass. I then went to the closet and pulled out the designer dresses he'd bought me, each one a costu

amber liquid soaked into the fabric, the sharp smell mixing with his cologne. Then, I picked up the silver lett

. A beautiful, liberating mess. It was the rage I had swallowed for years, finally giv

e, or had been. My childhood home. The car I was driving was a gift fro

eeds choked the flowerbeds, and the paint on the porch was peeling. It looked abandoned, because it was. The "narr

n this very porch, her face etched with worry. "He's not go

w him, Mom. You just don't want me to be happy." The memory of the hurt in her eye

collapsed onto the dust-covered sofa, and the grief I had been holding back finally overwhelmed m

I pulled the sheets off the furniture, sending clouds of dust into the sunbeams. I scrubbed floors and polished wood, my han

tarnished silver locket. My mother's locket. The one she' d gi

hing, didn't you? I'm at The Oak Room. Com

new what that locket meant to me. He was ba

iked to hold court. As I pulled into the parking lot, I saw a familiar car pa

see Mark at a table with a group of his sycophantic friends, laughing loudly. And at the b

pathetic," he was saying to his friends, who were roaring with laughter. "I send one t

ting as before. I was awake now. I saw him for wh

ace, which had been tight with anger, contorted into a mask of pure disgust.

ipping with contempt. "After everythin

at you think

eats on you, he treats you like dirt, and you just k

dled into contempt. I wanted to scream, to tell him about the narrative, about the strings, abo

watching us with an amused smirk,

usion on his face. I walked straight to Mark's table, the noise of the bar f

word. I just he

teady. It didn't waver. For the first time