Read Online Bent Not Broken (A Cedar Creek #1) by Julia Goda - Free Book Online Page B

date, he made me feel so special. He took me to a fancy restaurant and I felt like a princess. I had never been to a place like that, and he thought it was cute I didn’t know what half the items on the menu were. Kyle came from money, so he had grown up having the best of the best. I was naïve. Naïve and romantic. I thought that him showering me with gifts, calling me cute names, and taking me to galleries and plays, introducing me to new things, meant that he cared about me, that he loved me. I fell head over heels for him. I had no experience at all when it came to relationships and this seemed right. He seemed like a real gentleman, like the knight in shining armor I had dreamed of all my life. That’s why I didn’t heed the warnings from my friends when Kyle took up all my time, and they thought he was being too possessive, too demanding. I thought they were jealous of what I had, so I spent less and less time with them.
    “I didn't know exactly when it happened or how he did it. It was so subtle that I didn’t feel the change at the time. But looking back now it seems obvious. He wanted to spend every free minute with me, know where I was at all times. He texted me constantly, checking up on me, made decisions for me, which courses I should take, where I should apply for a job, what to wear. Again, I thought this just meant that he cared about me and was worried about me, that it was his way of making sure I was all right, of taking care of me.
    “I was in my senior year and by then, we had moved in together. Kyle had graduated and started a job at a big oil and gas company. I had been partnered up with Simon, a guy from my creative writing class, for an assignment, and we had gone to a coffee shop after class to discuss our project. Kyle kept texting and calling me, demanding to know where I was and whom I was with. I texted him back, telling him where I was and that I was working on a project with one of my classmates. I didn’t answer his calls, because I didn’t want to be rude to Simon. I ended up turning my phone off, because I was getting annoyed and embarrassed by my phone ringing every two minutes. So Simon and I were working away, brainstorming about our project and got to talking. He was a funny guy and made me laugh. I was giggling to myself about one of his funny stories when I saw Kyle storming into the coffee shop, his eyes trained on me. I stopped giggling and felt a sense of dread come over me. He seemed mad as hell. When he reached us he grabbed my hand and pulled me up to him roughly. I was shocked. He had never been rough with me before. Simon tried to interfere and told Kyle to calm down and ease up, but Kyle just glared at him and told him that I was his and nobody told him how to treat what was his. He pulled me behind him and dragged me to his car. I was humiliated and a little scared. I had never seen him act that way. He knew that I was loyal to him and would never stray, so I didn’t understand why he was so mad at me. The drive back to our apartment was quiet and tense. I tried to talk to him a few times, but he just ignored me.
    “As soon as we got to the apartment he let loose. He shouted at me, called me a slut and a whore who was going behind his back, meeting and fucking other guys. He threw things and scared the shit out of me. I had no idea what he was talking about and told him so. Told him that I would never go behind his back, that all I wanted was him, that he had misunderstood the situation. But he called me a liar and backhanded me. Hard. So hard that my head flew against the wall I was standing in front of and one of his rings cut my cheek. I was shocked. And devastated. I had escaped the hell of my childhood, only to end up in the same place four years later. My whole world was crumbling around me. But I had promised myself when I left my parents’ house that I would never endure anything like that again. That I would not be like my mother and accept being abused by