Page 76 of Twisted Violet

He lifts his shoe and looks at the bottom before narrowing his eyes at me. “What is this?”

“I don’t know.” I breathe.

He cranes his leathery neck to look up at the ceiling.

Do it. I beg myself. Slash his throat now, before he realizes what’s happening.

I scream at my body to move.

To do something.

To do anything.

But I’m completely frozen in fear, and my muscles are painfully locked into place.

“It’s glass.” He says, clenching his jaw as he lowers his gaze to look at me.

Cogs turn in his head, and he quickly shifts his focus to the hand I’m hiding behind my back. “What do you have there?”

I swallow the lump in my throat and shake my head. “Nothing.”

“Show it to me.” He demands through gritted teeth. “Now.”

I should refuse.

I should attack and fight like hell to get out of here.

If I were anything like my older sister, Stevie, I would.

But I’m not brave like her.

I never have been.

And angering him will only make things worse for me.

I jerk my trembling arm forward and pry my hand open, exposing the 4-inch shard of glass.

He lunges towards me in a fury, rips it from my hand and throws it hard against the floor, shattering it into a million pieces.

I stare at the fragments, too stunned to move, as he starts to pace.

“I can’t believe you thought about betraying me like this.” He says, squeezing his eyes shut as he clenches his fists. “You were going to hurt me?” He sneers. “After everything I’ve done for you?”

His rage is palpable, suffocating me as I curl in on myself to stop my body from shaking.

His hand shoots out, gripping my jaw in a bruising hold as he forces me to meet his gaze.

The scent of his pungent cologne assaults my senses as he leans in close. “You are mine.” He hisses, his words a menacing promise. “And you always will be. Now, be a good girl and lie down.”

My stomach twists at his words.

No. “I said, lie down!” He snaps, furiously unbuttoning his dress shirt to expose his bloated belly.

I choke back the bile crawling up my throat and numbly press myself flat against the filthy mattress.

After a few tense moments of fighting the tremorsvibrating through my bones, the mattress dips, and he settles his weight on top of me.

I know what comes next, so I detach myself from my body and allow my mind to float off as I stare up at the broken skylight.