“Well, you did,” I scream, because I want him to bleed, feel something, not just speak in clichés. He didn’t want to hurt me? How fucking pathetic.

I watch, almost frozen, as he turns and walks away, and my heart suddenly pounds in my temples. He’s leaving me.

“Stay in your room, Raven.” His voice is gravelly and strong, and the knife that has been hovering around my chest finally slices it open and penetrates.

“This is not real. I can’t be that much of an idiot.” Sinking back into the chair, I look around, but everything is blurry through my tears.

“No.” I stand. “You’re lying,” I whisper, angrily wiping away my tears. The time for crying is over. I need to fight.

I can’t lose him. I have to stop him. This can’t be how it ends. I run to my door and swing it open, instantly hearing crappy music coming from his room. Goose bumps start on my neck and travel down my arms as I move closer.

“No.” I choke on my words, because he told me to stay away, and for a split second I hesitate. Am I ready to face his truths?

“Jett, baby, finally. I was beginning to wonder if you got lost.” My mother’s voice makes me gag, but I continue, knowing that I should stop.

Stop, Raven.

Why won’t I stop? This is going to hurt me, but it’s as if I’m gone, on autopilot, placing one foot in front of another until I reach for the wall to steady me.

The door is open. The lights are on, and I take one more step…

That’s when I see it all. I see him for who he truly is.

This is when I should leave, or scream, but I don’t. I just stare at my mother in some red lingerie, licking the nipple of a blond woman sitting naked in a chair.

Frozen.

I stand, watching him untuck his shirt, demanding they move. And then he sits, and my world that has never been perfect, but was at least bearable, crumbles.

No, my world explodes. And not because of the hands reaching to unzip his slacks, or my mother reaching to touch the other woman’s cunt.

No, all that is mere background drama in a horrific play. What makes me stop breathing is him.

His blue eyes are laser-focused on me. This is what will haunt me.

He wants me to see him. He wants to hurt me in the most vicious, primal way.

He wants us to be done.

Like a key fitting into a lock and clicking open, I feel my head snap, almost like the flash of a camera lens, as I back away.

He is a monster.

And I’m done.

Him, my mother, my life, in one click. It’s over.