Kind of, yes.

Emily

I was lucky to have packed everything already. I didn't expect things to go this badly this quickly, especially after dad already knew I'd be meeting James again tomorrow. But I guess he was drunk. Thinking back to what had happened, I began to cry. The quickly cooling tear stung, as it rolled over my face. When dad threw that bottle of beer, a splinter hit me in the face. My stomach grumbled. It was 9PM and I was hungry and on the run.

I had already texted his mom, but it was late for her, she was unsure if she could make it. I finally entered his parents' house and closed the door behind me. Safety. With a big sigh, I dropped my bag of clothes and everything useful. There was a sink in the kitchen, and I quickly cleaned the scratch, it had stopped bleeding already. Thank god. I noticed an oven tray with half a pizza on the stove. It seems as though Isabella had already been here, hallelujah. I was starving.

I grabbed my headphones from my bag and started to listen to some music. Anything to distract me from what I had seen and experienced. The pizza was decent, it kind of tasted bad. What did she do to the pizza? Thinking back, I remember Rory's mom's cakes having a similar taste. Wait, he was allergic to gluten, right? It's been a long time since high-school. But yeah I think this is gluten free dough. His mom probably picked whatever she could, I mean the pizza was done when I came, and still warm. Or maybe I was just very cold. Either way, I devoured it quickly without asking too many questions.

After finishing, I grabbed my bag and slowly went upstairs. All the rooms had closed doors, so I didn't know which one was which. The first door I entered was the bathroom, oops. Well there's always another door, so let's try that one. No, bummer, this seems to have been an office. Let's try the third door. Weird, the lights were on. Maybe his mom forgot them.

No she certainly didn't. As I opened the door, James sat on the bed, passionately making out with a woman I had never seen. She looked at me mortified, but I could also see a hint of pity in her eyes. James slowly turned around as I took off my headphones.

James: "Oh fuck, sorry Em, I forgot. Didn't expect you to need to be here this soon."

Emily: "I-It's okay, I'll get out of your hair. Don't worry."

James: "Em, where would you even go? It's okay, Christine and I will go somewhere else. I promised you this and I was irresponsible, sorry."

Emily: "I'm sure I can find something."

Christine: "Wait uhm, miss... If you need to stay the night somewhere..." This woman got out her wallet and gave me a business card. "I... had to stay there myself for quite some nights. I don't know who did this to you, but if I were you, I'd go there. No shitty ex-boyfriend ever found me there and the staff is super helpful. They're funded by the church but they aren't very judgmental. I don't know what happened to you but... go there, please, rather than running back home or elsewhere in this cold. They'll take care of you, they even have some nurses there."

Emily: "Sure, thank you."

James: "Em, I'm sorry. I'll keep this house clear until you no longer need it. I... forgot, I'm so sorry."

Emily: "It's okay. You're doing quite a lot for me already. I... hope I didn't disturb you two too much." Emily +7SP (+77SP)

As I exited the room with a new destination on my mind, I could hear the woman named Christine ask about me. I don't really care if he tells her, she seems nice. The address this Christine gave me was for a woman's shelter, about ten minutes away by train. It had gotten even colder, but after finally having eaten lunch and dinner, I had the energy to walk well again. I didn't have a ticket, but I guess nobody checks at this hour.

When I finally arrived at the place, I was met by two female security guards. They were enveloped in a lot of clothing, of course, but one could see that they were strong. They could beat me so easily. I had grown some muscles from my work, making furniture, helping carry stuff out of moving vans, and so much more. I could beat quite a lot of men if I wanted to, it always made me feel secure. And now I'm here, hoping they let me in. I put away the hood of the coat, exposing my face and they let me pass.

In the entry hall of this building, a nice lady greeted me: "Oh dear, you need to stay a night?" I simply nodded. "Alright, a nurse is going to take you to the examination room and after that a sister will come for emotional help. You don't need to talk to her if you don't want to or if you believe something else, but it helps most people." "Thanks", I **** myself to say, as I began to wait.

The nurse arrived rather quickly, we headed towards a different room. "You obviously experienced physical ****, could you show me everything? Also did you experience anything sexual?" "N-No, this was my father... He threw a bottle at me and a splinter scratched my face. He's very drunk and so I want to stay away for the night, mainly to prevent worse things." "Alright, I have a bandage for that." The nurse was pretty quick and I was led to a room with two bunk beds. After a few minutes, a woman entered. She didn't really look like a nun, but she still looked like she belonged to the church.

"Hello, my name is Floria and I work here. I'm here to inform you about everything and also in case you need someone to talk to."

"I'm Emily." We shook hands.

"So, you can choose any bed here. If there is any need, other women will come here and stay the night with you, but you'll be alone for now. The stay is free, though we welcome donations at the front desk. Do you want to talk about anything?"

"Not really." I laid down on the bed, as something fell out of my pocket. The church lady picked it up, it was the ring and the keys to James' second home. She stared at the key chain for a while, the one saying 'Goodman' in capital letters.

"Do you know James?"

"H-Huh? Yeah, we went to high school together. Do you know him?"

"I... used to live in one of his apartments. Are you sure you're safe?"

"Yeah, without him I wouldn't have made it here." Floria +3SP (+1SP)

"Would you mind telling me more?"

"I don't want to talk about it. What does he matter to you anyway if you moved out of a GRC home?"

"Well, he is also... kind of my colleague."

"Oh..." Kind of?

"So, could you please tell me more about how you ended up here?"

"Sure, I guess. James contacted me when he moved back here, he remembered my father owning a moving company, we had since expanded to do all sorts of handiwork. Eventually, he needed a new repair company for GRC's properties in this city and asked me and my father. That's when everything went wrong. My father had the bright idea of getting us to marry, for business reasons. We both didn't want to, but he threatened to disinherit me if I wasn't engaged by the end of the year. I still live with him, I only ever worked for the family business, I never even went to college, I don't have anywhere else to work at. And I enjoy it too..."

"And what then?"

"In my desperation, I called James and asked him. He seemed like the least worst option and my father probably wanted us two to get together anyway. He... gave me hope, I think there's no other way to put it. He convinced me to try and stall everything. He gave me the keys to the empty home of his parents and his mother's engagement ring as lifesavers, if I ever need them."

"And why didn't you use it, then?"

"I did... The problem was that when I was there, James was also there. Neither of us had expected that I'd need to flee that soon, and he probably decided to stay there for the night. I... walked in on him making out with someone, so I wanted to leave and leave them to it. James had already done a lot for me and I didn't want to ruin his date. But the woman that was with him recommended this place to me. She told me she had to stay here several times already, so I went here." Floria +10SP (+11SP)

"Do you know the name of that woman?"

"I think he called her Christine? Something like that, I didn't pay too much attention." She froze for a moment. "She's fine, don't worry. She seemed to enjoy herself and... quite frankly I think she wanted me to leave too, just so she and James could be alone again." Floria just sighed.

"Alright, sorry for the many questions. Christine is also a colleague and well... Given how often she needed to stay here, I'm worried about her."

"It's fine. I don't think James would hurt her. He isn't that kind of guy."

"Well, it's not his only relationship with people at his workplace, so I'm worried. Even if he doesn't hurt her physically, I don't want her to experience the heartbreak of being tossed aside."

"If... you know about this, wouldn't she know about it too? I think you can relax. I've known him since high school, and besides being more confident, he hasn't changed much."

"Still, I'm surprised he gave you the ring too..."

"Well, I don't think his mother really minded. I was surprised she still wore them after her ex husband did all these things. Maybe just a habit."

"Did... James demand anything from you? For the help, I mean."

"Not really. He wanted me to keep quiet about the fact that he's in a relationship with multiple women, but I guess his colleagues are already aware of it anyway. The company and also the articles seemed to have made him a more public figure and he seems to be afraid of being judged."

"That's it? Nothing sexual or anything?"

"No, he doesn't seem all that interested. In a weird way, hearing that he likes multiple women put me at ease. If we do have to get married because my dad might live that long, I can just tell him to have sex with someone else if he dares to try anything. And also..." I flex my muscles. "I'm not a weak woman. I could beat him up for sure. He's weak enough."

"Haha. Is everything okay with your father though?"

"W-Well... because of the contract with James, he held a Christmas party for our other employees, but excluded me until I was engaged. He... has awful views on women. He tries to act nice around me but I've heard him say repeatedly to mom that if he had a son, he'd get the company, no matter what. He told me recently that his sisters had three children at my age. Hearing him say all these things and demand that I marry..." I began to cry. "It hurt."

I continued: "I worked my ass off for the company, even on the weekends. That was largely what kept the company afloat before James came along. And even then, I was the reason James even considered us in the first place. In any normal business, I'd have gotten a pay raise or a promotion, not disinherited. I'm... mad. Mad that the last six and a half years of hard work meant nothing to him. That I'm nothing but a pawn in an economic and political power game. That he threatened me, hurt me, to the point of desperation. Right now, I'm dependent on the goodwill of James, but that's a million times better than my father. Sure, it would be better to be completely free, but James is protecting me, effectively. And he's not even asking for anything too much. He could have used this to negotiate a better contract with our company, he could have simply said yes when I first asked him and **** me to become his wife and all that that... entails. But no. He just asked to not talk about things publicly that would ruin him, as if I'd ever hurt a business partner and old friend like that."

"You trust him a lot."

"Well, I have to. And him in high school and now have never hurt me." Well, beyond rejecting my advances back then. "Are you hesitant?"

"What do you mean?"

"You... don't seem to have a lot of faith in him. Yet you keep asking me about why I do?"

"W-Well, it's just... I told you that he's dating multiple colleagues, right? He gets along with so many people but... I can't seem to trust him after what his father did."

"Don't you think that's a bit unreasonable? I mean, he took care to remove the cameras."

"It's not just about the cameras..."

"Oh right, his father also... Well, all I can tell you about that is that James never did anything like that from what I know. And he seems genuinely remorseful about what his father did, at least that's how it seems to me."

"I know he is, he apologized to me, but..."

"He apologized to you?"

"Uhm... I just can't seem to trust him. Sorry for asking so much, I was worried."

"If his father ever did anything to you, I'm sure you can talk to someone here about this. You have coworkers, right? In any case, it's okay if trusting someone is difficult. Nobody's forcing you to become best buddies with him."

"Yeah it just feels weird, I guess, to be the only one with rather lukewarm feelings about him. All of my coworkers seem to get along well with him and I just can't bring myself to accept him."

"Listen, it's okay. If you want to accept him because rationally you understand he's not a bad guy, then work for it, spend time with him, and let him prove your anxiety wrong. If you don't want to accept him, based on the emotional scars you've gotten, then give up already. Sorry for being blunt, but being torn between the two extremes doesn't help you at all. Give him a chance or close yourself off. Your choice."

"Th-Thanks, I guess. I'll think about it."

"Alright then, good night."

Tomorrow morning I'll just get up early and take a moving van. Dad will probably not remember much anyway.