I wanted to evacuate the premises immediately.
I didn’t know how Zacharias was going to react to my story, and it made me regret ever spitting it out. I never thought I’d confess it to anyone. The only people who knew what went on in that household were my mother, my father and I. He made sure he only acted out his abuse behind closed doors.
I felt my stomach curdle as I remembered Zacharias was, quite literally, the first person I ever opened up to my upbringing about. It wasn’t something I was proud of and I wasn’t going to flaunt it. Even telling Zacharias brought a spurt of shame from the pit of my belly into my neck.
But yet it was...refreshing, talking to a stranger about it. I had carried this burden on my shoulder for my whole life, but half of the crushing weight was now bestow
