❝ 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞. ❞
When Ricardo Esposito bursts through a door and finds a girl handcuffed on the floor, he decides to take her in and give her something she never had.
A fam...
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I never decorated my room.
Before I started school, Ricardo told me that I could decorate it the way I wanted, but after much deliberation, I decided against it.
I concluded that decorating it would be a sign of attachment and vulnerability, whereas keeping it the way it was would be neutral and simple.
After Ricardo asked me about my opinion on adoption, I just bid him goodnight and left without giving him an answer, which was the simple way to deal with the situation.
And now I was sitting in front of the person I ran away from the last time, my therapist, hoping that maybe after our session, I'd understand why I did that stupidity.
I was thankful that she didn't bring up what happened last time, and I was also grateful that Ricardo cut the sessions to 45 minutes for me.
In this session, she asked me a lot about Henry and the relationship between us.
"Are you familiar with Stockholm syndrome?" she asked after I finished telling her about Henry.
I shook my head. "What's that?"
"Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response of hostage or abuse victims," she started. "It occurs when those victims start to bond with their captors or abusers and start to have positive feelings or sympathize with them."
I knew what she was implying.
"I don't think I have it," I muttered. "I mean, I do hate him."
"You hate him for what he did to you, but I'm not sure if you hate him."
Maybe she had a point. I hated Henry for what he did and the fact that he knowingly chose to do what he did to me, but a part of me always wondered what drove him to become that kind of person.
I knew nothing about his childhood, neither if he had a family, and since no one is born evil, I wondered what was behind it.
But she didn't need to know that, which is why I just shrugged my shoulders.
"And judging by the way you talk about him, he is not just in your mind; he is also in your heart."
This statement of hers caught me off guard. It took a lot of self-control for me not to become defensive.
I looked at the clock and saw that there was still fifteen minutes left, but it all started becoming too much for me, so I decided to leave.
"I have to go; I have an appointment," I lied and was thankful that she just said goodbye and didn't try to hold me back.
Ricardo kept his promise or threat that one of his men would always drive me back after each session.
When we arrived in front of the house, I saw Leandro getting into his car. I bid goodbye to Thomas, the driver, and got into Leandro's car before he could drive off.
