LEY

s was serious, filled with unspoken words and a fee

but big enough for twenty. At dinner, my father, my m

. His black suit blended into the shadows, he sa

t me, it felt li

ected me to resist. I didn't. Not because I wanted to sit, but because

seat, my back stiff, my pa

alm...but I knew better. Tonight, the wrinkle in

not sitting at the head of the

till, like a porcelain doll that wou

for some spark of rebellion, some tiny shre

ing the light in a thousand tiny bits, dazz

ldness I didn't feel. "Does anyone else

ther's eyes widened like I'd just sworn in church. My fat

carved in stone, unreadable, until he finally sp

From the 1800

ry force, crumbs scattering across the

ice cracked like a whip,

mirk from escaping. Just a drop of r

one might regard a restless animal. Curio

old, Miss

soup." I pushed the bowl away with puff

. My father's jaw tic

th infuriating calm, eyes locked on me the whol

back into the bowl. "Maybe he

d low, a growl under his

e me fire. "Why? I didn't choos

cked the sile

nothing else in the room existed but me. I held his stare, my skin burnin

words sliced through

you want,

een halfway into some pretentious monolog

ips parting like she wanted to i

blood rushing in my ea

on the pristine tablecloth. His movemen

g closer was enough to remind you he could. He lifted his gl

rriage. What

before I could chok

under the table, helping me deal with my father's angry stare. "But si

y father's face turned a furious shade of red. My mother's ha

Sant

Dangerous. A guarante

enough to crawl into my bones, "I expect din