*Cat*
I didn’t sleep that night.
With the clock endlessly ticking the hours in my ear and how I felt both too cold and too hot, I shifted between Elio’s embrace and the edge of the bed in an attempt to get comfortable, but none of it worked.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Junior, his sadistic grin from my memories merging with the one I’d seen today. I kept imagining I was hearing a gunshot, with blood on my palms as my Mom bled out in front of me and his back as he ran like he hadn’t barged in to shatter my world.
It was maddening to know that he was now back and able to reach me anytime. But what bothered me the most was what would have happened if Emilia had been with me. If Junior had seen the family I had made, well, I kept remembering the promise he’d made back when I was trapped under his thumb.
