Cyril
“You didn’t have to defend me like that. I know it was hard for you to stand up to your father, so. . .thank you.”
Her voice lingered in the corridor, very soft and almost soothing to my ears, almost daring me to acknowledge the sincerity in it. I didn’t even turn my head to acknowledge her when I talked. If I looked at her, she might see too much.
“There is no reason for you to thank me.
” I said, each word deliberately showing dismissal. “He was just being a stubborn man. I didn’t do it for you.”
I can feel the bitterness of my word sit heavy on my tongue, and I hate the taste of it. Dismissing her was the only way to keep the walls I have spent years building intact. Because if I admitted. . .even to myself. . .that I had stepped between my father’s venom and her trembling de
