Unhinge by Calia Read

Author:Calia Read [Read, Calia]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780553394795
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2016-01-10T16:00:00+00:00

November 2015

There’s a stain on the ceiling.

It breaks up the fine-fissured surface and makes me recount the perforated black dots spread across it. I’ve lain here for an hour, trying to focus my attention on anything but the fear building inside me.

Who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I?

I hate the person I’m seeing in my memories. It is excruciating, to look back at them. I compare it to being strapped down to a table while your skin is peeled back slowly. You sit there in pain, screaming for it to stop, and it never does. I want to reach through time and shake my past self. I want to tell her all the things she should be doing differently. But I can’t.

I rub my eyes and take a deep breath.

This room is sterile and screams of loneliness. The sheets are stiff against my skin and the mattress creaks every time I move. The pillow is lumpy. My neck has a crick in it from a restless night of sleep. How did I ever allow this place to become my home?

Evelyn cries loudly and for the first time, I don’t reach for my daughter. I let her lie in her bassinet.

Horrible mother. That’s what I’m turning into. Yet even as I acknowledge the truth, I still don’t try to amend my wrong. I let her lie there.

My heart feels frozen. Young Victoria, her pain feels so fresh. So raw. I push up my shirt and glance at my ribs, expecting to see bruises in shades of plum and blue. There’s nothing. My fingers graze my skin and drift to the left until I find the exact spot where he hit me. I press down into my skin until I feel bone.

Nothing.

But it happened. Oh, it did happen.

“Have a good day, Victoria?”

Quickly I sit up in bed. Standing on the opposite side of the room is Wes, leaning against the wall and staring at me curiously. I’m still reeling from today’s session. The last person I want to see is him.

“How did you get in here?”

“I’ve been here the whole time. You didn’t hear me come in.”

He’s lying. He’s lying and both of us know it. His words make me jump out of my bed. I tug at my hair and at the very last second stop myself from crying out in frustration. “You haven’t been here the whole time.” I start to pace, always counting to twenty-five. “I would’ve seen you.”

“Technically, that’s not true. There are so many things you haven’t noticed.”

I pause mid-step. Finally, something we can agree on. “You’re right. I really haven’t seen things for what they are.”

Wes narrows his eyes. He takes a step forward. My first instinct is to take a step back, but I see past Victoria, flinching and cowering. Hiding in fear. I refuse to repeat the past. If he hurts me, I’ll scream and one of the nurses will show up.

“I’m remembering things, Wes.”

Wes stares right at me. He cocks his head to the side and gives me a blank look.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.