Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
“No, let me go!” My head whipped back and forth as I tried to break free. “You can’t do this to me. You can’t. Leave me alone.”
They couldn’t do this to me.
They couldn’t.
Not again.
I thrashed, but there was nothing I could do with the weight of him nailing me to the ground.
He panted through his exertion, his eyes angry, wide, and pleading. “We’re only trying to help you. One day, you’ll understand. You will. I promise.”
“No,” I cried, succumbing to sobs when I knew there was no chance I could get away.
Because he was wrong.
They were the ones who would never understand.
They were the ones who would never truly see.
Chapter Seven
Aria
I’d never been one for Tilt-A-Whirls. The way your head spun and your thoughts came in jumbled heaves. The way your stomach rose to your throat and sickness sloshed in your ears. Adrenaline thundering in your veins as everything whirled in quick, succinct flashes.
Maybe it felt too close to falling through the darkness. The jarring of emotions as I sped through the nothingness on my way to reach Faydor below.
The feeling of weightlessness and volatility.
Like I might split apart and cease to exist.
I’d never felt it as severely as when my father ripped open the door to the adolescent mental facility. There were four chairs on either side of the narrow waiting room and a counter with a sliding-glass window on the wall directly in front of us. Doors on each side of it led deeper into the bowels of the facility.
It wasn’t foreign.
I’d been here two times before.
But this?
Everything about it felt different. The way fear clotted my spirit and defiance writhed in my bones.
“You can’t do this,” I whimpered as he dragged me through the admissions entrance.
My mother trailed behind, her tears incessant, as endless as mine.
“I warned you I was finished the last time, Aria.” His voice was low and controlled but tinged with frustration. “We’ve spent years doing everything for you. You’re destroying your mother. You’re destroying yourself. You’re destroying this family. I’m not going to sit idle and watch it happen any longer.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
Two orderlies stepped out from the door on the right side, and my throat bobbed as I swallowed and tried to rein in the chaos.
I wasn’t going to win any points if I appeared to be unhinged.
“I called earlier,” my father said. “I spoke with someone about my daughter, Aria Rialta.”
“Yes, of course. Right this way.” One swiped a card and the door buzzed. He held it open, and I was ushered into a room that was a larger waiting area than the one in front. Three small offices that served as intake rooms ran along the right wall, and there were three miniature holding rooms to the left.
I was led into the first holding room. The only thing inside were two plastic chairs, the walls bare and stark white.
“Sit, and don’t make me chase you again,” my father warned as if I were a small child.
He seemed completely blind.
Hardened.
And I wondered what had been fed into his mind. If he’d become cruel or if his intentions were pure.
I prayed for the latter.
Trying to keep it together, to reel in my tears, I sank onto a plastic chair. Still, I rocked as my parents were taken into one of the intake rooms and began to fill out the information with the help of a woman who sat on the opposite side of the desk.
Their hushed voices coiled through the suffocating air as she asked them questions.
Name and date of birth and a quick confirmation of past history.
But it was what my father pleaded to her that had me close to spiraling. “She turns eighteen in three days.” He issued it like a secret, as if he didn’t think I would hear. As if what he was implying wouldn’t pierce me like a knife. “We have to do something before it’s too late. We can’t just let her go.”
The woman reached across the desk and set her hand over his. Her mouth tipped up in a soft smile of reassurance. “Please don’t worry, Mr. and Mrs. Rialta. If Aria needs the help, we are going to get it for her, no matter her age. We can get a transfer to the adult unit if necessary. Her care is our greatest concern. You can rest assured in that.”
Panic split me in two.
A white-hot blade.
“No.” It wheezed from between my lips. “No. You can’t do this. I’m not a child. Let me go.”
I didn’t even realize I was on my feet and standing at the doorway. “Mom, you have to see. Look at me. Please, look at me!” Desperation bled into the words.
“Aria,” she begged when she turned around. Red splotches covered her cheeks and nose, her pain so great it nearly dropped me to my knees. “This is because I do see you.”