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❝Are we better off alone. . .❞
It's a dream, Marina thought as the image on her phone started to blur—a nightmare, she corrected. "It's probably just photoshopped..." Paige said, there was no mistaking the doubt in her voice.
Rightfully so, she knew the truth. That was her home. He took the pictures in the bedroom they shared... the room where their daughter would crawl into bed with them when she was afraid. Bile stirred inside of her at the realization. "I have to go," She choked out, before taking her little girl's hand and rushing away ignoring Paige's protest.
Sanctuary. It was the word that echoed in her mind as she tried to ignore the looks of their co-workers. Some full of sympathy, others looking triumphant—this sick amusement dancing in their eyes at her misery. "Where are we going?" Davy asked suddenly to her frantic mom.
"I-I-" Marina stopped abruptly, her head turning left and then right. "I don't know..." She finally admitted, double-checking each hallway. Her fingers yanked their way through her hair anxiously, not sure what to do.
Her heart pounded in its cage fiercely, there was only one place she could think of and it was the very last place she wanted to be right now. Seth's locker room. No, she realized as more phones around her buzzed with the news, out in the open is the last place I want to be.
Her strides became longer with each step, if it wouldn't make her look so weak she would have run to safety. "Rina," someone called out for her.
"Not now." She snapped back not even bothering to turn around. She didn't have time for the pity or half-hearted "it probably isn't even true." She didn't want to hear that he's an asshole or she deserves better. It was no one's goddamn business but she knew until someone else screwed up royally this was going to be the talk of the business for at least a few weeks. A thought she couldn't bear.
+ + +
The door slammed behind them, Marina's hands stayed against the wood holding it shut as if an imaginary crowd would force it open to get to her. It helped her feel in control of something, even if she knew it was irrational deep down. "What's wrong, Mommy?"
Marina's forehead rested against the door, with each breath she could feel all the strength inside herself seeping away. Her head was heavy, vision blurred, her heart strained. "Nothing, baby . . ." Her voice is cracked into chips of ice. The words melted on her tongue.
Her eyes closed and the tears finally started to fall. "Do you want me to get Daddy?"
"No," she said too quickly, spinning around to meet Davy's worried gaze. "I'm okay." She sniffled, wiping away the tears. She tried to give a reassuring smile but it felt wrong on her face. Foreign. And she wondered if that feeling would ever go away.
