Page 17 of Rage & Paradise
“It’s fine. We’ll be okay.” I tap Coca on the shoulder, trying to soothe her. She regards me one last time before walking out of the room and closing the door behind her, leaving Oro and me alone.
The second the door opened, the air in the room thickened with animosity. The moment Coca stepped out, the warmth she carried with her disappeared right along with her.
Oro fills the room with silence sharp enough to cut. If I thought one dance was enough to get Oro to let bygones be bygones, I was sorely mistaken. In fact, I’m starting to think I might have made things worse.
Oro takes a step into my space, but I don’t back away. If he sees that he can scare me, he’ll hold that over me. At least that’s been my experience with other men.
“You wanted to talk to me?” I ask when he doesn’t say anything for a few seconds.
“I want answers.”
My stomach clenches again. Answers. I promised myself that I would never tell him the truth of what was happening behind his back in the house he was so desperate to call home. I promised that I would never put that on him.
But if he wants answers, I’m not seeing a way out of telling him.
“Answers?” I echo.
“You move well, work the room well, like you’ve done this type of work before.” He leaves the statement open-ended, waiting for me to fill in the blanks.
“I have,” I admit.
“So that only leads me to question what your real motives are for coming here looking for work. There are dozens of places that will hire you to strip.”
“I’m not a stripper,” I snap back at him.
“You just said you had experience doing this kind of work.”
“I do. That doesn’t make me a stripper. My skill set comes with what you asked for. Selling the dream. Making fantasies come to life. I’m good at that.”
Oro squints at me, clearly more confused than before. I’m praying he doesn’t try to dig deeper into this. He doesn’t need to know how or where I got my experience.
“Whatever. I don’t give a damn how you got these so-called skills. I want to know what it is you think is so fucking hard about your life that this is your so-called last chance.” He chuckles humorlessly. “What, don’t tell me you’re not Daddy Dearest’s little princess anymore?”
The stranglehold around my heart squeezes even tighter. It feels like I can’t breathe.
“My father is dead.”The words taste bitter, like rust on my tongue.
“Do you think I should say I’m sorry?”
I glare at him. Who the fuck says something like that? “No. I don’t care what you say. I’m just letting you know I can’t be Daddy’s little princess since he’s dead. I don’t have any family. I told you that already.”
He leans forward, his mouth close to my ear. “You could’ve had family. We could have been family, but that wasn’t good enough for you. Instead, you chose to screw that dream up didn't you?”
I move back, struggling to take in a deep breath. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t want to be part of my family.”
“You’re right, I don’t. What I want is for you to go back where you came from.”
I push my hands through my hair, tugging on the strands hard. “I can’t. What don’t you understand? I fucking can’t, Oro!”
“Why the hell not?!”
“Because if I go back, I’ll wind up just like… I don’t know anyone here. My whole life was my father, his business, his orders. When he died, I was alone. I thought I found a friend. She’s not. I can’t go back.”
The tears that I thought I was doing such a good job of holding back spill from the corners of my eyes.
Just when I realized I had the chance to start my life over, to live for myself, I met Sina. She was charming, intelligent, well-off, generous. She let me confide in her, made me believe she was my true friend.
She’s my father reincarnated. A devil with a different face.
