Fury Unleashed
I fled across the country to escape my mother’s cruelty. I thought distance would finally make me free. I was wrong. In a new city, I’ve found friends who make me laugh....
I fled across the country to escape my mother’s cruelty. I thought distance would finally make me free. I was wrong. In a new city, I’ve found friends who make me laugh when I’ve forgotten how. They invite me in, ask what I want, and somehow notice when I say “I’m fine” without meaning it. I want to believe I belong with them. Some days, I almost do. Then there are the men I can’t quite figure out. One makes me feel safe enough to speak my mind, even when he doesn’t like what I have to say. Another watches the exits before he sits down. One can pull a laugh out of me when my hands are still shaking. And the quietest of them all has a way of appearing whenever I think I’m alone. I don’t know what any of them want from me. I’m not even sure what I want. But someone else seems to have decided I belong to him, and every time I try to pull away, he finds another way back into my life. I’ve spent years apologizing to keep the peace, ignoring my instincts, and shrinking whenever someone raised their voice. Now the people around me are asking me to choose for myself, while the one person who refuses to hear “no” is making that choice more dangerous by the day. I came here to leave my past behind. To keep the life I’m building, I may have to face it and unleash the fury I’ve been taught to hide.