NOAH
She was reframing my father's cruelty as something I was responsible for managing.
If I were smaller, if I were quieter, if I were more "serious," then he wouldn't have to be mean. It was the logic of a victim, and for the first time, I saw it with terrifying clarity.
I sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the ceiling. The call went quiet as she waited for my usual surrender.
But this time the taste of surrender to anyone but Cassian... felt so... bitter.
"Are you done, Mom?" I asked. My voice was flat. Level.
"I beg your pardon?"
I sucked in a deep breath and exhaled quietly but slowly.
Then I spoke again, letting the heavy words roll of my tongue like paper.
"Until my father admits he was wrong about me," I said, the words coming out of my mouth before I could second-guess them, "I won't be coming back."
The silence on the other end was absolute. It was the kind of silence that followed a gunshot.
