Make him love me, but how?

Darkness. Not the stark inky scary blackness but a soft willowy shadow fell behind her closed lids. It felt safe and thought the pain still radiated in her body, somehow it felt distant, a little out of reach. It felt like the pain that had become part of her had somehow drifted outwards, still present but not with her.

“Savannah!” that peaceful lull of darkness and quiet was shattered by a chirpy exclamation of her name and she jerked upright, heart beating furiously against her ribcage like a trapped bird furiously flapping its wings in a bid to escape confinement.

The sleep was instantly cleared from her eyes and with a deftness gotten from months of practice, she shot to her feet, rolling up the bedcovers that were on the floor and shoving them under the bed before the door flew open. Reginald hadn’t been subtle in his warning that no one must find out that she didn’t sleep in the same bed as he.

“Little sister,” Celia murmured sardonically, lips twisting in a cynical smile. “We d