He’s known me all my life and knows this request is different to any other I’ve made for a break. Tonight, I really need it.
“I promise I’ll be careful, and I won’t be long.”
“Okay. Isabella, please don’t do anything foolish. It won’t just be your head it will be mine. If anything happens to you, or you try to escape your father will kill me.”
That’s no exaggeration. I know it’s true.
“I promise.” I know the risk he takes every time he gives me freedom, so I would never do anything to put him in danger.
I’ll just go to town, to the little club I sometimes hang out at on Mainstreet. Then I’ll come right back.
“Okay, be safe, take the phone and you call me if there’s any trouble. Just press the alarm and I’ll find you.”
I give him a hug and he holds me. This man has been more of a father to me than my own. Always tending to my wounds. Inside and out.
Trust is what makes us who we are.
It gives me the small mercy of freedom.
As I leave the house, I savor the feel of having a break and getting the chance to breathe. I savor just being by myself and I resist the urge to drive away and never look back.