Safe space

Adea

The sound of my shoes clacked against the floor with each step. I walked through the packhouse with Ethan by my side. I’d grown up here and not once had it felt like home, but it was all I had, and all I had known. I hadn’t thought of my mother in a few years but now as I forcibly walked toward a fate I didn’t want, I thought of her.

Would she have let my father go this far?

Would she have stopped him?

Or would she have just stood there and told me to do as I’m told?

All of the guests had been assigned a room for the duration of their stay. When Ethan offered me his hand as I popped my head out of the carriage, I stated at his outstretched arm. I didn’t want to take it and I didn’t want to go any further with him. He asked me where my room was and it felt as if the world stopped moving.

My heart dropped into my stomach and unease bloomed in my chest. I didn’t have to ask why he was asking. Of course Ethan hadn’t been given a room. I knew immediately that he was sharing my ro