“I’m sorry, Isabella,” Art says. “I promise I’ll call you if I hear anything. Anything at all.”
“Okay.”
My voice is numb.
I don’t even know if he says goodbye.
The phone is still plastered against my ear long after the call ends. Until I fall back on the bed and stare up at the ceiling and think back on everything my father ever told me about the mysterious Javi.
The recluse who lives away from the rest of society. The child that he used to spend more time with than his own daughter.
I grew up hating him. Resenting him. Wondering what was so special about him that called my father away so often.
I asked him once if I could meet him. And I’d never seen my father so serious as when he looked at me and shook his head.
Never, Isabella. You must never meet him.
He made it sound as though the boy was dangerous. As though he were a monster. But yet, he was always there with him.
Always.
The door to my room opens, and I curl into myself.
It’s Luke.
And he’s drunk.
That never bodes well for me.
He shuts the door behind him and comes to sit beside me on the bed, his fingers trailing over the naked skin of my ankle.
I pull away from him.
“What do you need, Luke?”
“Is that how you talk to me, baby?” he asks. “After everything I’ve done for you?”
Everything he’s done for me.
He claims to care for me, but it’s not the way I want or need. He’s supposed to be my guiding light as an artist, but lately, it feels like he’s driving me further and further into the darkness.
I’m locked into a contract I can’t get out of, and he exploits that at every possible opportunity.
“You’ve had too much to drink, Luke,” I tell him. “I think you should go to bed.”
“I think you don’t tell me what to do,” he says.
The room is quiet, and my body is rigid. I hate when he’s like this. I hate him more with every passing day.
“I care about you, Isa.” He reaches out to touch me again. “I just want what’s best for you. Let me comfort you. Let me be there for you.”
He wants to comfort me alright.
With his cock.
I shrug him off again, and he gets pissed. He grabs my arm and squeezes.
“Don’t be a tease.”