chapter 3

Addie giggled and smacked her brother’s arm. He

straightened and pulled on the door handle, but it was still

locked.

“Come on,” he said.

Making a face of annoyance at him, she hit the unlock

button and rolled the window up. Jax opened the door and

held out his arm for her to take.

“The only reason I’m going inside today is for you.”

He squeezed her hand.

“I know. Come on. Let’s go torture mom.”

Dinner had been precisely what Addison had expected.

Her mother criticized her hair, outfit, weight, shoes, and the

fact that she hadn’t been out on a date in years. Addie was

pretty sure that if her mother could see her underwear, she

would have found something negative to say about those as

well.

Her father talked about nothing but business with the

both of them because that was all he ever seemed to be

interested in. Money and business. Oh, and sports. At least

he never criticized Addie for her career choice, and when

she had opened up her own little clothing boutique, he had

been an excellent resource for her. He always wanted to

know how her boutique was doing and constantly asked

when she would expand and open another store.

Addie had no desire to open another store. One was

enough, she made plenty of money to live in Seattle

comfortably, and she didn’t have to work around the clock.

Not that she really had a social life. Her social circle was

small, and she was past the partying phase. Partying had

never really been her thing anyway. She always preferred to

stay in on the weekends, put on cute pajamas, and watch

whatever was the latest Disney movie available on Netflix

while snuggling one of her stuffies.

Which was probably one of the reasons that she was still

single. She had needs that most men wouldn’t be willing to

fulfill. The only man that she had trusted to share her deepest, darkest secrets with had ended up being an

abusive monster who’d almost killed her. How could she

trust someone again after going through that?

Not that her mother would ever understand. Even though

Addie’s ex was in prison for assaulting her and putting her in

the hospital for nearly a week, her mother often made

comments about feeling sorry for him having to be in jail for

so long for an “accident”. Yeah, like ripping out chunks of

her hair and hitting her repeatedly in the face until she

passed out was “just an accident”.

Pushing all thoughts of her mother and Alex out of her

mind, Addie walked into her small house and let out a deep

breath. Her home was her safe place. Even though she

didn’t own it and it was tiny, she lived alone and didn’t have

to answer to anyone except her enormous cat, Tux, who

ignored her completely except when he was hungry.

Tux was at the door waiting for her when she walked in.

As soon as he saw her, he began meowing and flopping

down onto the floor - his way of telling her that he was

hungry, and she needed to hurry up and feed him before he

withered away. Rolling her eyes, Addie bent down and gave

him a few pets before making her way into the kitchen.

She filled his bowl with kibble, gave him some scratches

behind his ears, then left him to eat and went into her

bedroom. After the evening that she had with her mother,

Addie needed some comfort, and that comfort would come

in the form of regressing into the safety of Little Space.

Digging through her dresser, she found the pajamas that

she wanted and began to undress. Pulling the oversized

nightshirt over her head, she smiled. It was old and thin, but

it was her favorite - light pink with a unicorn sitting on a

rainbow above the words Little Princess. It didn’t take much

for her to slip into Little Space. Especially at night. It was

when she felt the most snuggly and small.

Pulling back the blankets on her bed, Addie climbed

under the covers and pulled her stuffed elephant to her chest. Grabbing the remote, she navigated to Netflix and

found an animated movie to watch. It was one that she had

seen several times before, but she didn’t really plan to

watch it. It was just something to have on in the

background.

Turning on a movie at bedtime had become her nightly

routine after coming home from the hospital. It was the only

way she didn’t wake up to nightmares of her ex, Alex,

standing over her with an angry crazed expression as he

raised his fists to her.

Closing her eyes, Addie ran her hand over her stuffie’s

fur, letting the softness soothe her, and listened to the

movie until she drifted off to sleep.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***