Natalia:
The moment the door shut behind me, I let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.
My fingers curled into the fabric of my skirt as I walked briskly down the hall, willing my face to stay neutral, calm, unshaken.
Forcing it to remain as trained as a small smile formed on my lips, one that did not reach my eyes as the eye was always trained to be. As I always grew up looking perfect, flawless, walking around like I was some kind of porcelain doll.
But my chest…
My chest was tight.
His question still rang in my ears.
Why did your father marry you off?
I didn’t have an answer for him. Not one I’d ever be willing to say out loud.
Because I knew that he was well aware I was a girl. I was my father's disgrace. But he saw something in me that my father refused to say, t
