Page 75 of Crowned in Sin
"I'll be right here," he says finally, quiet, rough. “But if I hear even the lightest hint that you’re in trouble, nothing in this world is stopping me from coming to you.”
"I know."
I give his hand one last squeeze and let it go slower than I want to.
Frank's already at the door, holding it open for me with the same practiced courtesy he used on the nurse ten minutes ago, like he's a gentleman, like this is nothing.
I walk toward him anyway.
Behind me, I hear Nico exhale, long and controlled, a man standing perfectly still because I asked him to and for no other reason on earth.
The door swings shut between us. It's just me and Frank in the hallway, my mother lying unconscious on the other side of a wall, and seven years of running collapsing down into this one short walk I can't take back.
Frank falls into step beside me, unhurried, hands in his pockets, like we're two people who happen to be heading the same direction and nothing more. Like there isn't a man on the other side of that door holding himself in place by sheer will because I asked him to.
"See," he says, low, almost fond. "This is all it takes. You just gotta be willing to listen."
I don't answer him. I keep walking, counting the tiles under my feet, and somewhere behind my ribs a voice that sounds exactly like the girl I was at seventeen is screaming at me to turn around and run.
I don't run.
I never got to, not really. Not when it mattered.
So I walk.
27
LYDIA
The overhead lightshum too loud, and my shoes squeak against the tile with every step.
Frank follows closely behind, and I can feel his eyes undressing me with every step.
“That room at the end of the hall.” He breaks the silence.
I keep walking.
Somewhere under my ribs a little girl is chanting the same three things she's chanted since she was fourteen years old. Be brave. Run if you can. Never let him get you alone in a room.
I'm about to break every rule she ever gave me.
She used to say it while she braided my hair before school, quiet enough that the walls wouldn't hear, something meant only for the two of us. She never explained why. She didn't have to. I learned the reason the same year she taught me the rule, and I've spent every year since trying not to think about it in daylight.
I'm walking straight toward the one thing she spent her whole life keeping me away from. She isn't awake to stop me, and there's nobody else who can.
My hand finds the door handle before my brain agrees to it. Cold metal. I push through.
Frank takes a seat in the vinyl chair by the window, crosses his ankle over his knee and smiles a smile that doesn’t ever reach his eyes.
"Lyddie." He says it soft. "Look at you. All grown up."
“Get to the fucking point.” My voice comes out steadier than I expect.
“Why don’t you sit down?” He nods at the other chair.
I don't.
He smiles like I've done something charming. "Suit yourself."
